Is The Financial Services Industry Ripe For Disruption?

With reports in American Banker this week that Amazon is rumored to be exploring the potential acquisition of Capital One, an innovator in financial services marketing, is it too far-fetched to ask whether the financial services industry may be on the cusp of the next wave of disruption? As unheard of as this notion might have seemed a few years ago, financial services firms are facing important questions about their future, driven by disruptive technologies, ranging from big data to artificial intelligence and machine learning to fintech solutions and blockchain. The prospect of disruptive change looms large in the minds of senior financial services industry executives who participated in a recent survey focused on Big Data Business Impact: Achieving Business Results Through Innovation And Disruption, which was conducted by strategy advisors NewVantage Partners and published in January. The survey comprised senior business and technology leaders, and was heavily represented by leading financial services firms, which accounted for 75.8% of the survey respondents. Financial services industry participants included industry giants such as AIG, American Express, Bank of America, Blackrock, Capital One, Charles Schwab, CitiGroup, Fidelity Investments, Freddie Mac, JP Morgan Chase, Lincoln Financial, MetLife, Morgan Stanley, State Street, and Wells Fargo among others. One of the most provocative findings of the survey is that a substantial percentage of the financial services industry executives that were surveyed – 40% -- were concerned that their firm and their industry was at risk of major disruption in the coming decade, with a segment of these executives expressing the viewpoint that "it's transform or die".