India is with no doubt one of the nations where fintech is thriving. With this article Tanul Mishra, contributor at Entrepreneur, revisits what happened in 2021 and shares predictions about the future of fintech - that looks extremely bright.

2021 has been an important year for cryptocurrencies. In this article published on CNBC, James Ledbetter talks about his predictions for 2022, taking into account what El Salvador did, the highly probable expansion of cryptos in secondary markets, Ethereum’s competitors, the competition among big tech companies, governments’ decisions and volatility.

The regulation of cannabis in the US doesn’t mean that it ceased to be a high-risk business: Abaca chief executive, Dan Roda, talks about how fintech firms can solve the unbanked condition of firms involved in the cannabis industry.

Emily Chang - host of Bloomberg Technology - meets Sam Bankman-Fried: the CEO of FTX, the popular trading platform, talks about what to expect for the crypto market in 2022, with a focus on regulation.

Alex Lazarow, Senior Contributor at Forbes, writes about the top fintech predictions for 2022 but from a different point of view: these predictions are the results of readers' opinions. We always analyze fintech taking into account the points of view of experts and CEOs, but how do people perceive the fintech industry?

Fintech Insider’s hosts, Benjamin Ensor and Deepa Anikhindi, discuss fintech news with Wiza Jalakasi (Chipper Cash) and Abba Newbery (Habito): from the accusations against Anne Boden to the impressive mortgages offered by Habito, the four experts are ready to share their opinions with us.

Ron Shevlin reflects on the digital transformation in banking. What many banks are doing is using new tools for an old industry, without really dealing with new technologies available, without really meeting the needs of their customers. Where will this attitude lead them?

Alex Johnson and Jason Mikula discuss fintech topics and make predictions about what 2022 has in store for us. The focus of this episode of Fintech Takes is on new payment methods and institutions - especially for what concerns BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later).

BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) is the hottest topic now, and this requires a careful analysis: the Sifted team discusses the topic with Anthony Drury (Zip), Olga Shikhantsova (Speedinvest) and Sandrine Zhang Ferron (Vinterior), coming up with six interesting insights.

The pandemic also affected people’s financial confidence: according to Finfit, the fintech firm focused on financial wellness, only 19% of Americans feel confident in their financial abilities. But Finfit has 4 useful suggestions to boost your financial confidence.

The panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph took place on January 21st: experts think that DeFi will disrupt traditional CeFi systems, but it needs to be more easy-to-use and a little more regulated.

Fintech Insider hosts, Gwera Kiwana and Ross Gallagher, are joined by Lotanna Ezeike (XPO) and Kyla Scanlon to discuss how fintech and banking services are related to the so-called “creator economy”, an economy that consists of those who influence other people and create according to their passions.

Jason Wenk discusses the main problems of fintech founders: even if their main goal is solving people’s financial issues, their intentions may be destroyed by the difficulties of the market. How can they handle challenges?

Ron Shevlin provides another excellent point on one of today’s hot topics: BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later). Will this system really kill credit cards, or is it just another overstated prediction?

Elad Natanson, contributor at Forbes and expert of mobile and app economy, shares some interesting insights on what will be the mobile trends in 2022 - and fintech and AI will play a big role.

The BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) system, today’s hot topic, can be one of the best moves for fintech. This system actually increases the number of sales for merchants and of purchases for people, but it’s important to avoid huge debts!

Fidelity, a well known asset management and financial services company, released a report where they explain why Bitcoin should be considered as a unique asset: mainly a “monetary good”, it can’t be improved by other cryptos according to the report.

Dan Novalis, CEO of 2Novas, give advice on how small banks can counter the power of fintech firms and large banks thanks to specific marketing strategies.

Thanks to data shared by Citi Global Insights, we know that fintech companies have received around $18 billion in funding since the beginning of 2022. Axios reported the data and shared some considerations: fintech funding is trending and amazing deals have been reached in almost 2 months. Is fintech tracing the path towards a new record?

Benjamin Ensor and Tim Heard are joined by two special guests: Brad Goodall, CEO of Banked, and Julie Koch Fahler, co-founder of Agreena. They will discuss some of the most important fintech news: Series A funding rounds for fintech companies, BNPL and sustainable finance-related news.

Matt Williamson, vice president of Global Financial Services at Mobiquity, joins the Fintech Chatter to discuss how the fintech firm is providing leading digital products to create a more inclusive economy and frictionless customer experiences.

Denada Ramnishta shares a particular point of view related to fintech. As the GM and Head of Corporate Strategy at Lendio, she highlights one particular aspect of the fintech system, made more evident by the pandemic: to succeed, companies should prioritise collaboration - not competition.

Penny Lee, CEO of the Financial Technology Association, discussed why the Fed should support fintech firms as it does with traditional banks - this will benefit customers and the entire country, allowing for lower fees and frictionless financial activity.

Lucinda Shen writes about the impact the conflict is having on the fintech space - especially because many CEOs, founders, investors and crypto executives are either Ukrainian or Russian. Many fintech firms are trying to respect sanctions and others are taking sides, but where will all this lead?

Benjamin Ensor and Sim Rai are joined by Yann Ranchere (Anthemis), Clare Gambardella (Zopa) and Ali Niknam (Bunq) to discuss how the fintech community is responding to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Simon Taylor is joined by Nicole Perry (Strategy Director at 11:FS), Martin Haring (Temenos), Mary Agbesanwa (Seccl) and Josh Williams (Seattle Bank). They discuss the role of blockchain technology in the current financial system, the expansion of fintech firms in Africa and much more.

Telis Demos raises a question: what will happen when zero interest rates will end? This is the actual advantage of many neobanks, but the competition between new banks and traditional banks may not be such an easy game in the future.

Gwera Kiwana and Sam Rai are joined by Roger De’Ath (Truelayer) and Jimmy Fong (SEON) to discuss the most relevant developments in financial technology: the partnership between Klarna and eBay, HSBC that buys land in the metaverse, Revolut’s support to Ukrainian refugees, and much more.

Ron Shevlin shares his thoughts – and data – about the WSJ article, and uses some interesting topics to defend fintech and the future of fintech companies: the engagement factor, the experience factor, the portfolio and profit perspectives.

The fintechaverse enters the speculation mode that always follows acquisitions made by Apple: Ron Shevlin analyzes the acquisition of Credit Kudos. There might be several reasons for this investment – the launch of a new card, a new BNPL scheme, A2A payments, the acquisition of new technologies.

David M. Brear and Deepa Anikhindi are joined by Charles McManus (Clearbank), Eric Glyman (Ramp) and Eslam Darwish (Nclude) to discuss the latest fintech news.

Marcus Treacher (ClearBank) analyzes the disruptive changes brought by financial technology. The infrastructure of banks, if they want to survive, should adapt to new technologies, payment solutions, and the expectations of businesses and people.

David M. Brear and Sim Rai are joined by Alan Ainsworth (OBIE), Axel Bruzelius (ArK Kapital) and Shaun Port (Chase UK) to discuss the latest funding rounds, regulatory frameworks and innovation in the fintech space.

Interesting article about the reasons why the U.K. is so successful in fintech: from the importance of talent to the pivotal role of infrastructure, panelists led by Cristopher Woolard discuss the fundamental role of this country in financial technology.

Fintech companies are replacing traditional banks and payment methods in India: some of the reasons that led to this new system can be found in the high cost of the pieces of hardware needed to read traditional cards – hard to afford, especially for small businesses in emerging countries; the knowledge needed to manage these kinds of tools; the lack of viable options for smartphones.

The current economic landscape could be soon hit by some shocks that could lead to a widespread adoption of digital currencies – as well as to massive investments in crypto assets: that’s what Bank of America strategists predict, due to the increasing inflation and the slowing economy.

David M. Brear and Nicole Perry are joined by Dan Hardy (Crowdcube), Peter Renton (LendIt Fintech) and Prakash Pattni (IBM) to discuss the latest and more relevant fintech news – including the partnership between Qonto and Crowdcube.

Today’s economy is experiencing major changes: new business and economic models are needed, especially to fight security and data-related risks. For this reason, blockchain is the most useful infrastructure to financial technology.

“The world needs DeFi due to corruption”. Cointelegraph shares this article to highlight some simple assumptions: financial instruments have high costs due to a system made up of too many middlemen, while DeFi allow poeple to control their finances while reducing costs.

Gwera Kiwana and Kate Moody are joined by Misha Esipov (Nova Credit), Polly Jean Harrison (The Fintech Times) and Duke Ekezie-Joseph (Kippa) to discuss fintech news, especially Nova’s expansion into Europe and Apple’s plans to conquer the payments market.

Fintech firms in the mortgage market are allowing poeple – especially younger homebuyers – to get loans easier, but this might have downsides: the IMF analysis shows that while fintech companies offer more benefits compared to traditional financial institutions, regulators should keep an eye on their business models to avoid a new housing bubble.

Financial inclusion is one of the main goals of fintech: compared to traditional financial instittions, fintech companies manage to be more efficient, to better use data and to offer their clients different communication channels.

Benjamin Ensor and Nicole Perry are joined by Kate Drew (CCG Catalyst) and Bence Jendruszak (SEON) to discuss the most popular fintech news, from the effects of inflation to the new investments of some fintech companies.

Fabio Panetta, member of the European Central Bank, asked for new regulatory frameworks and taxes for what concerns the crypto space: Panetta compared cryptos to Ponzi schemes and said that they could represent a new bubble.

The types of services offered by banks still can’t compete with fintech companies. Even if banks started focusing more on digitalization, it’s also true that they usually offer only digital products related to the management of accounts, while users would like to have access to more complex services like loans online.

Benjamin Ensor and Gwera Kiwana are joined by Julia Ménayas (Helios) and Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly) to discuss the latest fintech news – like the jump of Stripe into the crypto space.

According to a Merchant Machine study, mobile wallets should have over 4 billion users by 2024. The pandemic contributed to the success of these wallets, for sure, but also enhanced security protocols and the popularity of smartphones are the reasons why mobile wallets become more and more popular.

Akshay Krishnaiah, founder of Line, points out that real inclusion could be hard, even for fintech. According to the CEO of the fintech company, this happens because many times, those who create fintech products don’t really know the difficulties faced by poor people. That’s why Line has a different approach.

As JP Morgan Chase reports, chatbots help them to save thousands of hours of work. But it’s also true that when it comes to financial decisions, people can find it hard to manage their accounts without human interaction and a human advisor.

Buy now, Pay later (BNPL) systems can be a powerful tool for those who want to buy without spending their whole budgets, but it can be extremely harmful for those who aren’t able to manage them properly: TikTokers often use them the wrong way, by “glamorizing” debt.

The prices of real estate in the metaverse are dropping – to about 15% now. But experts say that this is just a deep, and that the metaverse still represents one the main investments of big companies. Is it time to buy?

Kristalina Georgieva joins the list of those who call cryptocurrencies a pyramid scheme. The head of the IMF was referring to the collapse of stablecoins during the WEF meeting in Davos.

During the first investor day in 5 years, the executives of Block – the US-based company run by Jack Dorsey – outline the future of the company: not just a payments firm, but a company that has grown and expanded into different industries.

The collapse of Terra affected the whole crypto space: fear prevailed among investors, as well as distrust. Regulators are riding the wave, but in reality some CEXs used risk-management systems to protect their users.

Biz Carson analyzes the current market situation: fintech companies, after the peak reached in October 2021, are now shrinking in value – and this might make it harder for fintech startups to justify their high valuations.

The popular investor Tim Draper makes predictions about the future of Bitcoin and the role of women. As more retailers accept Bitcoin, women will play a major role in the future of the crypto project – since they control retail spending.

The competition in the BNPL market rises: after the announcement of Apple, which introduced its Apple Pay Later, the popular Buy Now, Pay Later firm Affirm fell 6%.

Josh Brown, CNBC contributor and financial advisor, says it clearly: there are too many fintechs that are publicly traded. The point is that maybe there won’t be enough opportunities for all of them – and maybe this is the reason why many fintech stocks are falling.

Crypto traders and investors are aware of the decline that hit the crypto market. Despite the hard market downturn, Jamie Dimon – JP Morgan CEO – says that this is just the beginning – especially for assets like Bitcoin, Ether and Cardano.

Chris Gabriel shares his opinions about the importance of understanding the nature of memes to understand the whole economy and any kind of structure in our society.

Julie Fredrickson raises a very interesting question: will DAOs drive a new innovation cycle? As the industrial revolution was the result of organized groups of people who worked towards the same economic goal, the next revolution could be led by this new form of organization with no leaders – Decentralized Autonomous Organization.

The pandemic changed our vision of work, and highly skilled professionals make no exception: many professionals are leaving companies like Facebook and Goldman Sachs to work for fintech startups. Higher pays, more flexible work and better opportunities are the main reasons behind this exodus.

Gazmend Selmani, renowned technology solutions architect, talks about the new solutions brought by fintech firms in the payment industry. These solutions not only favor those who have so far been a part of the unbanked people category, but also take into account environment-friendly solutions to alleviate major global issues. How can business owners stay competitive with fintech solutions?

Misha Osipov, founder of the fintech firm Nova Credit, addresses an interesting topic: fintech-focused migrations. The country chosen by fintech enthusiasts is the UK: despite Brexit, the government seems to want to get back to “pre-Covid immigration levels.” The UK is not only the place where entrepreneurs find new fintech companies but also the place where you can develop fintech-related skills.

David M. Brear and Kate Moody are joined by Andrea de Gottardo (Kroo) and Jessica Cath (Fintrail) to discuss some of the hottest fintech news – among which is the banking license of Kroo, the UK-based fintech firm, and the recent legal problems faced by Credit Suisse.

Today, any business that wants to be competitive needs to interact with fintech somehow, and that’s just the natural result of innovation.

Maybe not everyone will agree, but Daniel Lanyon brings some interesting arguments to prove that fintech wouldn’t be the same without the iPhone. An interesting point of view, mainly because it addresses Apple, a company that has become every day more a fintech company.

Mike Whitmire, CEO of the fintech company FloQast, analyzes the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on the job market. Inspired by the Benenden Health’s study, which assesses that around 63% of managers in the financial sector are considering quitting their jobs for burnout, Whitmire affirms that automation can lead workers to focus on less stressful, less repetitive, and more enriching tasks.

Jeremy Almond, CEO of the fintech company Paystand, injected a sense of optimism in crypto and fintech investors and businesses: despite these hard economic times, he said that we should be “optimistic about the world we are creating.”

The green economy is constantly developing: despite its concentration in specific countries – like the US and China, it’s expanding across different industries, always more resembling a new tech sector.

The Middle East is home to 85 million unbanked people. Fintech companies and their simplified and innovative payment solutions, allow everyone to be a part of today’s economy: systems like the BNPL not only make it possible for people to purchase goods and services they need, but also to build their credit history.