On the Fintech Revolution: Interpreting the Forces of Innovation, Disruption and Transformation in Financial Services

Firms in the financial services industry have been faced with the dramatic and relatively recent emergence of new technology innovations, and process disruptions. The industry as a whole, and many new fintech start-ups are looking for new pathways to successful business models, the creation of enhanced customer experience, and new approaches that result in services transformation. Industry and academic observers believe this to be more of a revolution than a set of less impactful changes, with financial services as a whole due for major improvements in efficiency, in customer centricity and informedness. The long-standing dominance of leading firms that are not able to figure out how to effectively hook up with the “Fintech Revolution” is at stake. This article presents a new fintech innovation mapping approach that enables the assessment of the extent to which there are changes and transformations in four key areas of the financial services industry. We discuss: (1) operations management in financial services, and the changes that are occurring there; (2) technology innovations that have begun to leverage the execution and stakeholder value associated with payments settlement, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies, and cross-border payment services; (3) multiple fintech innovations that have impacted lending and deposit services, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and the use of social media; (4) issues with respect to investments, financial markets, trading, risk management, robo-advisory and related services that are influenced by blockchain and fintech innovations.