The Year in Digital Wealth (Part 1)
As we round off the year, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
- This week and next, we shall recap 2023 from a broad perspective.
- There were a few singular stories that stood out.
- The Goldman Sachs/Apple collaboration is over.
- A few critical events occurred. They changed things.
- FedNow is operational across America.
- And we also highlighted a few regulars.
It’s your week in Digital Wealth!
The One-Off Spectacular Stories
Some of the solutions in the year had an impact that was so profound that they left ripples. Here are a few of them.
One of the favorite FinTech firms for accounting and marketing software revealed that the SME-focused version of QuickBooks, the popular accounting solution, was now in the cloud.
Intuit launched the subscription-free version of QuickBooks Money.
A partnership between Amazon and Shfit4 enables checkout-free shopping during games and other events.
“Just Walk Out” (by Amazon) and “VenueNext” (by Shift4) power this experience.
Rocket, the all-American mortgage lender, made things easy for anyone who wants to own a home with the launch of its Rocket Visa Signature Card.
A collaboration with Rocket Homes, its sister company, was unveiled (BUY+).
Goldman Sachs/Apple
Apple and Goldman Sachs made every effort to maintain their collaboration.
Both parties said they were ending their partnership.
The duo collaborated in 2019 to create the Apple Card and a savings account product. Things hit a snag with deposit issues early on in the summer.
Things should finally end in the next twelve to fifteen months.
Apple also launched Apple Pay Later, its “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) solution in spring.
BNY Mellon
Powered by xBK, an internal trading group within the BNY Mellon ecosystem, the investment giant debuted its trade solution.
The Top Guns Did Their Thing
You know, there are always a few big players who always make a splash no matter what. A few of them made the year exciting.
Here they are.
Federal Reserve/FedNow
The American Central Bank unveiled plans to create a real-time payment system.
Everything worked out with the FedNow launch, though there were a few hiccups here and there. Banks are still integrating into the project, but so far so good.
Additionally, there are no announcements about CBDC integrations in the FedNow ecosystem. But, there were some experiments, and the jury is still out on the issue.
The Fed also created a crypto supervisory group following several bank failures.
BlackRock was all over the place with several innovations and solutions.
From going live on the J.P. Morgan Tokenized Collateral Network (TCN) to its ETF applications and investment cloud comments (by Larry Fink), the finance giant may be doing things according to a hidden playbook (authored by Aladdin, maybe).
We should anticipate a change from its customarily cautious and covert approach in the coming year.
From expanding its Request for Quote service (RFQe) to new FX pricing tools, 2023 has been an “it” year for Bloomberg.
Its three-way partnership with Tradeweb and MarketAxess went south.
Multiyear plans for a bond data solution are over.
ICE had so many solutions and partnerships.
Of notable mention is the launch of its U.S. dollar (USD) SOFR Spread-Adjusted ICE Swap Rate® by ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) Ltd.
Deployments of its benchmark rate started in July.
New Frontiers sums up the year for PayPal.
From expanding small business-focused tools to integrating PayPal Pay Later, its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) solution, and the Microsoft store, the e-commerce giant has been busy getting collaborations.
The introduction of the PayPal stablecoin, the PYUSD, came as a shock.
Everyone had hardly recovered from that when the payment giant revealed other crypto integrations.
We are going to see more surprises from PayPal next year.
Key Players Throughout the Year
Our collection of regulars who kept doing their thing is a shortlist, but these players were hard to ignore.
Plaid’s flexible focus and multiple partnerships between FinTech, payments, open banking, and InsurTech redefined the embedded finance industry.
More impressive is its open API access that enables innovation and outside-the-box products.
Guidewire, the premier InsurTech, transformed the P&C industry with as many partnerships, integrations, and solutions as possible.
The InsurTech enabled seamless claims payments via ClaimsPay (by OneInc).
Where would the industry be but for the “everything data” partner (Oracle)?
The FinTech space this year has had more than its fair share of innovations, with “Oracle Cloud Services” being a strategic part of the ensemble.
Oracle also improved its “Oracle Banking Cloud Services” ecosystem with new features and partnered with MasterCard and others.
The Winner of the Year is:
Everyone.
Every solution introduced in 2023 improved the wealth
experience.
The rise of AI-driven processes is also another factor that will fuel liftoff next year.
We also expect to see the rise of open banking and further integrations at unprecedented levels.
