Cleared for takeoff

For the last year and a half Deloitte worked with the World Economic Forum to conduct a large study (below) about the future of financial services. The purpose was to understand how disruptive innovations were reshaping the business of financial services as it exists today.

This report looks at how clusters of innovation are affecting business in five areas of financial services: primary accounts, payments, capital markets, investment management and insurance.

Then, taking what we know now and assuming certain conditions, we examine different ways those innovations could play out. What we discovered was that innovation is occurring in clusters. These clusters at first seemed pretty isolated, but then we noticed some commonalities. For one thing, the most visible innovations are platform based, data intensive and capital light. They also cross competitive lines.

Any one of the innovation clusters has major implications, not just for incumbents and their customers, but for the overall financial services ecosystem as well.

Through this work we have learned that disruption isn’t a single event. Innovation is deliberate and predictable. And when you view disruptive innovation this way—as a collection of seemingly disparate events that someday come together to create a before and an after—it opens lines of sight into a number of alternative futures.

A report from the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Deloitte

Rapidly advancing technologies, evolving customer expectations and a changing regulatory landscape are opening doors to disruptive innovation in financial services. From crypto-currencies to big data to peer-to-peer lending, fintech innovations have captured the attention and imagination of customers, investors and incumbents.

However, the nature and extent of the impact that these innovations will have on the financial services industry remains unclear. This document captures the results of a series of multi-stakeholder dialogues that explored the potential for these innovations to transform the financial ecosystem as well as the risks and opportunities that could emerge from changes in the way financial services are structured, delivered and consumed in the future in the future.

For more information, please visit the World Economic Forum's website.