Looking Back at Money20/20

It took 18 months for me to get on a plane again, get back to meeting with friends and colleagues in person, and to talk payments all day with people just as interested as I am. I had the pleasure of experiencing all of these firsts at the greatest FinTech show on Earth, Money20/20. The location for Money20/20 paralleled my feelings for finally traveling. Much like the experience of the tired travelers lost and wandering in a desert on television shows, Las Vegas is a mirage, rising out of the sand with   towering hotels and casinos. This year’s Money20/20 beckoned us FinTech geeks to meet once again, and oh boy, did we ever! From Sunday’s opening sessions, to being asked to leave the show floor on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., we gathered and geeked out!

The show was very different this year, and in an amazingly good way. Smaller than the previous iterations for obvious reasons, the show's design and flow made it feel both intimate and intensely alive and sprawling simultaneously. Unlike previous years, the show's main stages were all in the exhibit hall, making it easier to drop into sessions while still keeping a full meeting schedule. The folks that came this year truly wanted to be there, and represented the “doer” class of talent in our industry. Conversations got technical, but that meant relationships and partnerships were getting deeper in every booth on the floor as well as in the appropriately named “Connections Lounge”.

After 18 months of only virtual conferences, it was great to have a full immersive experience and finally get a good pulse on what the big trends are in our industry right now. I can tell you just by looking at the sheer volume of attending companies focused on the fraud ecosystem, fraud is leading the pack on the hot industry topic list.

Trend 1 – The Fraud Ecosystem - Whether it was an AI and machine learning focused company or a company uber laser focused on risk scoring a single data field, or trying to validate a digital identity—the topic of fraud was never far. Entire rows of vendors were dedicated to the space, each looking at a different piece of the fraud puzzle. A truly successful fraud strategy requires a layered approach, and the future of the space is going to rely on the ideas and products we saw this week.

Trend 2 – Small Business Banking - Another welcomed shift in focus on the payment space was a more broad focus on the small business payment needs and B2B payments. Long the forgotten client segment sandwiched between corporate banking and retail banking, the small business space is ready to get the full transformation treatment. The FinTech focus on this was evident all week from the session topics to the vendors on the floor.

Trend 3 – Digital Currencies and Crypto – I think the shift away from being “Bitcoin” centric or focused has been welcome, generally addressing how we get better access from the traditional payments and banking space to the crypto space. While not the hot topic it was a few years ago, the more focused approach on bridging the existing gap was welcome.

Trend 4 – Partnerships -  I had called on this trend a few years ago. Maybe it was the design of this event, and the attendees themselves, but the discussions of who is working with whom seemed to be everywhere. From payments, to fraud prevention, to the aforementioned crypto space, the partnership discussions were all over. As the problems we are trying to solve become increasingly complex, this trend is going to become even more important. The saying “it takes a village” couldn’t be more true.

Trend 5 – In-Person Events are Back! – The final trend is maybe the most obvious, in-person events are back and this week didn’t disappoint. The energy was palpable all week and everyone just seemed genuinely happy to have face to face interaction. It was a welcome change to the endless Zoom/Webex/Teams meetings of the past 18 months. Now to finally see the people that are changing the financial services space and designing what that ecosystem is going to look like for the next generation of products and services. 

 For a forecast of 2022 trends, watch the webinar playback, Top Payment Trends to Watch in 2022. 

Today’s legacy and siloed banking technology infrastructure limit financial institutions’ ability to rapidly innovate. It’s time to look at money movement in a new way. Alacriti’s Orbipay Unified Money Movement Services does just that. Whether it’s real-time payments, digital disbursements, or bill pay, our cloud-based platform enables banks and credit unions to quickly and seamlessly deliver modern digital payments and money movement experiences. To speak to an Alacriti payments expert, please call us at (908) 791-2916 or email info@alacriti.com.