I attended my first fully virtual fintech conference two weeks ago. It was spread across two days and was split into two, four hour blocks with breakout sessions and 1:1 meetings. I wanted to pass a fact (or trend) that I took away from each day, as well as one from a founder I spoke to:
Day 1 on digital wallets: it’s expected that by 2024 there will be 220m digital wallets being used with an $800bn TAM. Quick snippet with chart here. This is likely to destroy a large piece of bank revenues.
Full clarity: I have Revolut, Apple’s digital wallet, and N26 on my phone to test them out. They do come in handy at times and is where the future will move towards. America is behind the adoption curve though.
Day 2 on personal savings: the market is looking to the other side of this virus. And consumer savings could go from their ~8% rate pre-covid to ~20% this summer to fall. The trend is already moving there (FRED Personal Savings Rate). That rate is now above 30%.
Conversation with a CEO in one of the virtual breakout rooms: with payday loans, the market has almost but dried up given the government stimulus packages. If someone was previously in a job earning minimum wage, they’re now on average earning $600 more per month creating a situation that it is financially better not to go back to work. There are many implications here that are left for a long blog post.
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