Fintech firms moving in 2018: The disruptive power of the fintech firms coupled with the opportunities they provide is compelling the large tech firms to invest in such ventures. The behemoths that are participating in the Fintech start-ups are:

• IBM
• HP
• DELL
• Microsoft
• Accenture

Globally, there are 1362 fintech companies located in 54 different countries. With a total funding of $25.8 billion, governments have also come forward to support the technological innovation in the financial sector. Some of the prominent initiatives by UK government are:

• Tax incentives to Fintech startups
• £ 860 million allocated for Cyber Security programme and another £ 250,000 for the development of Cyber Security technology.

Other counties that have incentivize the growth of Fintech startups in the form of incubators, funding and partnership are:

• United States
• Singapore
• Hong Kong
• Luxembourg

According to Forbes, the predictions about 2018 fintech trends are:

• One-off financial decisions such as: paying the bill, investment in various financial instruments and transferring funds will become fully automated. Thus, the tools such as autopays will play a great role in the automation process. Additionally, it is expected that we are going to witness a huge increase in the development of apps that will aid in the automation process of the one-off financial decisions
• As traditional banking systems has recognized the power of small financial innovators, we are going to observe some mergers and acquisition by the established banks.
• Valuation of the loans by the buyer of debt instruments was one of the major issue faced by the asset management and investing community. It could be this year that we are going to see better and effective models that use free cash flows to value mortgage and other credit disbursements. Such models can only be possible through involvement of technology
• New banking products that cater for the lower segment of the population.
• Innovation in validation technology for better identity verification in order to mitigate the risk of frauds.