BBVA Sees FinTech Future at Money20/20 Asia

BBVA saw the future of banking at last week’s Money20/20 Asia expo, and it isn’t banks.

Reporting on its representatives’ experience at the event, which saw “several thousands in attendance”, BBVA Digital and Innovation communications strategist Chris Semple notes that Air Asia, a budget air carrier, took the opportunity of Money20/20 Asia to announce its own banking arm, called Big Pay. The firm is aiming to leverage customer data from its air travel business to offer tailored banking services; and presumably that’s part of the game plan for Amazon and Facebook, too, which “are moving into the sector” as well.

It’s a trend that has already been underway for a couple of years, with tech firms like Apple and Samsung having gradually edged their way into the financial services sector with payment platforms that have evolved to incorporate features like peer-to-peer transfers. And it’s a trend that BBVA says it welcomes, with the firm looking to adapt to the rapidly changing – and digitizing – financial services landscape through partnerships with up-and-comers.

Of course, it isn’t primarily airlines that BBVA has in mind with this strategy. Instead, it’s looking mostly to the FinTech community. At Money20/20 Asia, the company rubbed shoulders with “everyone from biometric identity providers and AI chatbot businesses to personal investment businesses that use social media as a way to gauge your risk profile”, Semple says. The company has already embraced biometric authentication through support for Samsung Pass, and with this and other new technologies helping to drive the massive changes underway in the banking sector, BBVA is aiming to adapt quickly, and to find the best partners to help it in that process.

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March 20, 2018 – by Alex Perala