Whether it's the advent of contactless payments or the growth of cryptocurrency, new technologies have emerged that aim to make financial services faster—and more equitable—for everyone. In the past year alone, there have been enormous changes that promise to transform financial technology for good. We sat down with Branch’s leadership team to get their thoughts on what we can expect from the year ahead, asking each of our leaders: What’s the biggest fintech trend you’re following in 2022?

New regulation

"There have been a number of government hearings on new financial technology throughout 2021, from the hearings on BNPL and cash flow fintech to evaluation of crypto. Those hearings will continue in 2022 and likely result in new regulation and guidance for fintech companies.” - Smitha Mortis, General Counsel
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Faster payments and digital wallets

“Industries are increasingly moving away from traditional, slow payment networks and turning to digital wallets to deliver payments in seconds rather than weeks or even months! Looking forward to how companies choose to implement faster payments and personalize digital wallets.”  - Mitch Coopet, Chief Technology Officer
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Consolidation

"There’s an influx of funding in fintech right now and a number of large players looking to diversify or complement their offerings by acquiring smaller companies that are focused on a specific niche or specialize. We’ve seen some of that in 2021 and that will accelerate in 2022.”  - Brian Whalen, Chief Financial Officer
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Partnering to acquire new customers

"As an increasing number of neobanks enter the space, you’ll see more fintechs enhance their distribution channels by working with more partners and making acquisitions to reach new users.”  - Atif Siddiqi, Founder & CEO
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Traditional institutions adopting features pioneered by digital banks and wallets

"Neobanks and fintechs have pioneered a range of features resonating with consumers—from removing overdraft fees to earlier paychecks. We’ll see more banks trying to play catch up in 2022 and add these features in order to compete.” - Andrew Johnson, Vice President of Revenue
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Streaming payments

"From TikTok monetization to new community bank networks, payments are moving to real-time, with new measurements of work and cadences for being paid emerging. The metric for work has typically been by the hour and paychecks issued every two weeks. But the world is shifting toward gig work and new types of work—whether it’s creating more opportunities for traditional employees to start their own businesses, new monetization opportunities in the creator economy, or traditional industries matching the work and payments flexibility of gig platforms.” - Ahmed Siddiqui, Chief Payments Officer