Last week Proplend attended and spoke at the 21st Annual Fund Forum International in Monaco. 1,300 delegates, institutional asset managers and service providers spent 3 days networking and discussing the outlook for the funds industry. There was a very strong ‘fin-tech’ bias to the overall event which included a dedicated stage specifically catering to fintech issues and solutions. Around 30 fintech companies were involved in presentations or demonstrations, each of which drew very strong interest from the more traditional asset manager community.
Topics ranged from crowdfunding and peer to peer lending, and how institutional investors could access and engage with this rapidly growing marketplace, to how fintech is revolutionising the way funds interact with their customers.
The overriding take home was disruption. Even though the fund industry is in relative good health, these are the times when the traditional players are least likely to expect the smaller, more nimble early disrupters to pose a real risk. The industry needs to decide whether to innovate and embrace these opportunities or risk being left behind.
Whilst in previous years there seemed to have been lots of “talk around fintech,” this year the results were being seen and fintech companies were acknowledged for having built sustainable business models around it.
To view CEO Brian Bartaby’s interview during the conference please click HERE
To view the highlights from the conference click HERE
