Top 3 trends 2021/22: Fintech

Running a digital product design agency in London means we interact with many fintech startups. Fintech is a big beastie, so big it’s now subcategorised into banking, lending, crypto, insurtech, regtech, cybersecurity and many more.

From the perspective of our little corner of the internet, here are the top 3 industry trends we’re seeing:

1. Buy now, pay later

In the last 12 months there’s been an explosion of ‘buy now, pay later’ products. These are short term lenders that allow you to break down the cost of purchases into instalments when checking out online. Klarna (the leading UK provider) recently released a physical card that will allow shoppers to delay their payments in physical stores too. Pretty handy if you need a faff free bridging loan!

So will we soon be paying for everything in instalments, or, are these just the next bite-sized pay day loans? A lot of that comes down to how hard they’ll be regulated in the next few years with UK and US regulators already taking an interest. Either they’ll prove they have a viable business model if the vast majority of customers pay on time, or, they’ll be denounced as exploitative and disappear like Wonga.com ☠️

2. More disruptor banks

Continuing on the theme Monzo started and with the momentum of open banking at their backs, new disruptor banks are still emerging! The newer kids on the block tend to be more niche however, with many B2C apps (like Frost, Tally, Nova) focusing on savings accounts and a wave of B2B cards focused on startups (like Brex, Jeeves). It will be interesting to see which ones survive as the available niches to disrupt shrink in size.

Many of the existing disruptor products focus on offering high savings returns, but with inflation rising rapidly (estimated to hit 7% this year) and interest rates set to follow, will more people be lured away from the low fixed returns of Monzo and run into the arms of the free to use trading apps (like Freetrade & eToro)?

3. The ‘super app’

Last year Revolut pushed a major update to their platform, vastly expanding the functionality of their single mobile app. This introduced the UK banking scene to super apps. Already popular in China with apps like WeChat and Alipay, super apps allow users to perform lots of tasks that were traditionally fulfilled by different apps all in the same place. In WeChat users can order food, a taxi, chat and buy clothes without leaving the app.

Revolut now offers holiday bookings, a commodities exchange, stock investment and insurance all on top of the basic account and savings features of a traditional banking app. It’s been designed in a way that makes the app feel like an OS for your money, with smaller apps silo’d within and a home screen that amalgamates your financial position. Additional services are provided by third parties which enables Revolut to offer these services without having to become insurance underwriters, travel agents or run their own crypto exchange.

Following on from Revolut’s success creating a financial behemoth of an app, others will be set to follow so watch out for more of these as the bigger disruptor banks evolve into their next, more powerful form.

Looking to future proof your fintech app?

Inktrap can help you design and build the products your customers deserve. So whether you’re looking to launch a new idea, increase retention rates or just refresh the look and feel schedule a call and we’ll show you how we can help.