Is credit still available only for old people? Is the success of a lending business is on how much data to assess rather than how much money to lend? What if today the real competition in our industry is in the HR departments? Which experts will no longer be needed? What functions will be fully automated by 2020?
Can we assess the reliability of a vehicle driver using psychometrics too? What if we all operated based on the assumption that we have all been hacked? How does all that crazy start-up heat affect the classic lending industry players? What do the banks have to say? Is "fintech" a mere commodity now?
Such and much more questions were raised at the Creditinfo Global Forum 2017 event that took place in Marrakech last month.
The Creditinfo Global Forum 2017, a bi-annual conference designed for lending industry leaders, was a multinational melting-pot full of fresh ideas, game-changing thoughts and innovations, big personalities and spicy opinions, all enriched thanks to the multiplicity of cultures and backgrounds. This global conference was the third international event by Creditinfo and the largest top-level industry reunion so far, with 250+ attendees, 50+ nationalities and more than 25 renowned speakers from all around the world, including IFC, the EU Court and BIIA.
Practical classic solutions and old good truths, as efficient as they are today, are being challenged by the numerous pop-alternatives and fintech innovations, which are now extremely abundant, attractive and appealing. But how easily applicable, secure, robust and sustainable though? If one thing is for sure, that AI, machine learning and Blockchain are the new kids on the block that are already rewriting some of the common practices in our industry.
This tango of alternatives and classics in credit risk management and fintech is a beautiful dance we will enjoy for a few more years to come, it seems. The alternatives challenging the status quo are striving to narrow the gap between consumer expectations and the ability of current business to meet them, so whoever will manage to close that gap will be able to move the whole party to a completely new dance floor. Interestingly, these challengers to defy, support or supplement the classic players can be quantified and the number is impressive: more than 35,000 fintech start-ups in the past five years. Such numbers do not show a trend anymore, they show a reality.
Coming back to the Global Forum, all participants shared know-how, experiences and ideas, discussing and innovating while working together towards the same exact goal: a higher and ever-increasing level of financial inclusion, which is undeniably one of the key drivers of a country's economic growth and definitely, to the benefit of the consumer.