Michael Haney | Source | Head of Product Strategy at Galileo Financial Technologies

As we’ve seen digital transformation evolve year after year, the next wave of change will see the importance of exploring new banking needs. It will be about the ability to compose new and unique financial products and services for customers that were previously inaccessible or simply didn’t exist. The industry has solidified much of the core digitisation of banking, and so now, the focus will be on creating and delivering new types of products and services in real time and to any device through that digitisation. We have also seen that the concept of embedding banking into social media messaging apps, and even the Internet of Things (IoT), is suggesting an omnichannel approach. Embedded banking across a range of channels, not just mobile, will be important for large banks who want to be present throughout the entirety of their customers’ interactions. 'Humanising' banking will also be a priority for banks and fintechs moving forward. We have built scale and efficiency, but now how do we take the technology and rehumanise banking? Through the collection, analysis, and generation of actionable insights, with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) from data, we can start to bring back the human element that was once the backbone of in-person, traditional banking relationships. In 2023, financial services need to be ready to embrace change, be agile and to adapt in their pursuit of continuous innovation.

SoFi acquired Galileo (in 2020) and Technisys (in 2022) to create what is expected to be the only end-to-end vertically integrated financial technology platform. We are unifying both companies under the Galileo brand to simplify our messaging, value proposition and to avoid confusion in the marketplace.

What fintech trend is most troubling for you?

"Retail, or direct-to-consumer, central bank digital currencies (CBDC) have several potential benefits, such as reducing the number of unbanked citizens, easing government monetary and fiscal policy, simplifying the payments infrastructure, lowering financial crime and eliminating bank liquidity risk. However, retail CBDCs may erode consumer privacy, lower customer service quality and introduce a single point of failure — namely, the central bank's non-distributed digital ledger. The role of banks will shift away from transaction processing to savings, investments and related advisory services. The cost of funds for lending may also increase as the banks' deposit balances decrease."