Launching today, Finextra’s PREDICT 2024 channel will gather insights and ideas from the industry's top thought leaders, capturing how the financial services industry will tap into technology trends
in 2024 and these predictions will be shared with our 800,000 monthly readers.
From November 2023 to March 2024, Finextra will be hosting
video interviews recorded in-person and virtually with an esteemed collection of experts, promoted on our dedicated channel that also collates written op-eds that explore fintech hot takes for 2024, tagged by technology or topic.
To kick start our channel and the forecast for the year ahead, here are Finextra’s predictions for trending topics in 2024.
How to comply
Preparing for the continuing regulatory storm will be of utmost importance in 2024, as the constant threat of disruption resulting from emerging technologies, business model transformations, and ecosystem changes will force executives to make significant
and strategic choices to drive organisational success.
2023 saw Swift starting migration to the
ISO 20022 messaging standard for payments instructions and reporting messages between financial institutions, and this will continue until MT is decommissioned in November 2025. This was arguably one of the most discussed regulatory changes in 2023, but
beyond messaging, the European Union were expected to enable use of innovative regtech and
suptech technologies to promote data sharing between authorities by 2024.
In addition to this, clarity on how legislative frameworks surrounding
artificial intelligence (AI) applications apply to the financial services industry are needed, which is expected to come to a head at the end of 2024 when the
Basel Committee publishes a report on bank and supervisory implications of AI, machine learning and big data.
Financial organisations will also spend 2024 preparing for the
Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which is scheduled to be applied from 17th January 2025. Further to this, regulatory reviews to gain oversight over
crypto-assets, DLT, permissionless blockchains, CBDCs, stablecoins will be ongoing beyond 2025 and 2026. Of course, these are just a few of the regulations that will come to the fore in 2024 and others will be explored across our
PREDICT 2024 channel.
Collaboration at the core
Cloud is no longer a nice-to-have. Cloud is a must-have technology that is at the crux of operations across the financial services industry. Over the last few years, banks, fintech firms and technology providers have
established a holistic strategy, migrated to cloud, and optimised their omnichannel services. The foundation is now in place.
Gone are the days of resistance and hesitance to cloud: in order to succeed in 2024, every company handling core business-critical workloads across payments, clearing and settlement must utilise cloud. The future is clearly on placing impetus on
strategising with multiple cloud providers, system integrators and technology providers to offer the best experience to customers.
In 2024, we predict that migrating infrastructures to platforms where financial firms can align on speed, agility, and innovation will come to fruition, and cloud platforms will be optimised to empower brands to create intelligent, revenue-generating products.
However, the questions that banks will be asking themselves next year will be whether the future of financial services can be found in
distributed cloud, and what are the benefits of this model beyond minimising latency and enabling increased control?
Further, what are the advantages of utilising public cloud hybrid and multicloud services that run in a variety of locations? How can data be housed in a distributed system and comply with regulations like
GDPR or
PCI DSS card data standards? How can distributed cloud applications such as
edge computing, IoT, AI and ML be fully leveraged? In the event of disruption that impacts business continuity, how can moving, or migrating, workloads to other cloud providers, with a multi-cloud approach, help remedy immediate, and long standing, issues?
How can banks ensure that multi-cloud approaches are controlled and there is consensus between the financial institution, cloud provider, systems integrator, regulator, and the customer? Why can increased transferability, or migration, and interoperability,
provide increased resiliency and cost efficiency via portability? Solutions and opportunities will be provided at Finextra’s Financial Cloud Summit in March 2024, find out more
here.
Technologies on the horizon
AI dominates the
2024 Gartner Hype Cycle, and in addition to threat exposure management, sustainable technology, and cloud, these trends will factor into business and technology decisions over the next three years. Alongside this, Gartner predicts that by 2026,
generative AI will significantly alter 70% of the design and development effort for new web applications and mobile apps, and Finextra agrees. We have some big plans for coverage around this topic in 2024, watch this space.
However, 2022 research from the
World Economic Forum found that national governments have already invested over $25 billion into research into
quantum computing, with over $1 billion committed in venture capital deals in the preceding 12 months – tripling the previous three years combined. Recent updates have brought the potential of quantum computing to the fore in conversations spanning regulation
to security to privacy to
capital markets innovation and
ESG.
However, it isn’t just for the innovation it promises that quantum computing is making headlines. Rather, it is the threat of a cataclysmic ‘Q-Day’
where a quantum computer in the wrong hands may decipher or ‘crack’ our most secure data encryptions. Because of this, governments across the globe are focusing their attention on ensuring that systems across both the public and private sectors are ready and
protected should that day arise.
The impact of General Elections on fintech
In the same way that the
election in Nigeria was discussed at length among the fintech community, particularly because it was held against a backdrop of increasing extremist attacks on civilians, fuel scarcity, high inflation, worsening insecurity, and the banknote shortage, the
2024 General Elections in the United Kingdom and the United States are top of mind already.
For the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans were revealed at the recent
King’s Speech where King Charles summarised priorities for 2024. Data was a clear focus, and the
Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) bill is expected to open the door to new technologies, while also ensuring all types of personal data can be securely shared within a trustworthy ecosystem.
The current Government has seemingly prioritised the fintech sector with the establishment of a new
government-backed national hub for fintech in Leeds to boost growth and innovation in the UK; the
Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) helping firms to achieve global scale; and the UK Infrastructure Bank announcing its expansion. However, it remains to be seen what will change under a new Conservative Prime Minister, or indeed, a Labour
Government. The same can be applied to the US, and this will be explored in depth across the
Finextra PREDICT 2024 channel.
You can view Finextra’s PREDICT 2024 channel
here. We’re currently accepting content for this series, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch via content@finextra.com.