2017 has descended upon us and early birds are already scouting for the next big thing. Investors are searching for opportunities and journalists are hunting for stories. Keeping merits and demerits of demonetization apart, 2016 can be seen as a watershed year. As demonetization took us by surprise during the second last month of 2016, large parts of India started adopting digital modes of payment in a big way. It forced many Indians who never even had a simple savings account to start using debit cards.
This also created huge ripples in the fintech sector. Apart from
the usual suspects such as digital wallets and payment gateways getting a
huge fillip almost overnight,
other areas that were galloping along suddenly seemed poised to achieve a
hockey stick growth.
Let us look at some of these upcoming trends which can both be
impacted as well as create impact in 2017:
Robo Advisory:
Did you know that there are 39 robo advisory firms in India? Although
none of these companies have a robot managing your financial portfolio, the
process of offering financial advice is getting automated. Larger financial
groups will also be getting into this sector. For instance, read about my
review of Edelweiss's GPS platform. By posing pertinent questions, it makes the
entire experience of investing easy and straightforward for a lay
investor.
Bitcoin and Blockchain:
Blockchain is nothing but a public ledger of all the boticoin
transactions that have been executed. When demonetization was annnounced it had
a huge impact on
fledgling bitcoin startups in India.I sure hope my friend hasn't sold off the
entire lot! :)
Peer to Peer Lending:
Need a loan or an investment? Neither Banks nor NBFCs nor even
your private money lender lending you any money? Shy to ask family or friends?
P2P lending is the answer.
P2P lending connects individuals who are interested in lending
directly to those who need the moolah. Presently this sector is highly risky
and unregulated. Interestingly RBI released a whitepaper on this nascent industry and proposed
to categorize P2P platforms as a type of NBFCs. There are around 30 P2P
platforms in the country including Lendbox, Lendenclub, Faircent and i2iFunding.
Electronic/Algorithmic Trading:
Accuracy, Speed, Reduction in costs and Elimination of 'Emotions'
are the four advantages of Algorithmic trading. Several traders get highly
emotional during trading hours and then rue their decisions. In the US, 90% of trading takes place through
algorithms. In India, this number is 2%.
Lack of clarity and consensus amongst market participants
including regulators about what exactly can be classified as algorithmic
trading is the biggest roadblock.
No comments:
Post a Comment