The Consumer Electronic Show, perhaps the largest technology convention on the globe, returned to Las Vegas on January 9-12, bringing together more than 4,000 exhibitors, including many companies producing banking and personal finance tools.
The convention, run by the Consumer Technology Association, was historically focused on gadgets and computing, but today myriad software companies present at the show, including a good number of fintechs.
“People are pumped for this. They’re pumped because it’s post-covid and they’re coming back,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association. “And the CEO level support from around the world has been amazing.”
The show is not open to the general public — it’s a business-to-business event often used for industry professionals to network and connect.
After combing through the fintech exhibitor section of the website (www.ces.tech), the slew of startups is noticeable, and while the major, well established companies all have a booth on the exhibition floor, these financial startups are largely searching to fill a fairly narrow niche. Below are companies that either offer technology for banks specifically or are the type bank customers may consider using when organizing their financial lives.
Argos Identity offers a service that swiftly and accurately verifies identities online using AI technology, through the recognition of identification documents and faces.
DeluPay is developing technology for online and in-store payments. The company boasts its platform offers easy payments, “blazingly fast transactions, uncompromising security and fair pricing.” DeluPay is a free payment app that charges expenses directly to your bank account at the end of the day or month, whichever is preferred. “Create an account in five minutes and you’re ready!”
Ghostpass Inc., is a self-distributed biometric authentication solution company that monitors and controls large amounts of biometric information by storing it individually on users’ smart devices, rather than storing it in bulk in the cloud (central server), eliminating privacy concerns. Authentication methods centered on cellphone apps rather than passwords, for sensitive things like bank transactions, is a rapidly expanding arena.
Koop is an insurance technology company “protecting the world from a new generation of risks.” It has created an Enterprise Risk Management Automation platform that consolidates insurance, compliance, and security in one place for technology risks.
Areix Analytics Limited is a new fintech company that develops simple and high-performance financial management services for both sophisticated and novice investors. The company purports to solve the particular challenge for banks that cannot access data due to its age or complexity. The company also provides consultation on implementing risk management practices.
12CM provides several cloud-based software platforms used to create O2O (online-to-offline) services such as loyalty, payment, and voucher systems. These services are authenticated by the Echoss Stamp, its proprietary technology that uses unique touch patterns for users to securely access their loyalty rewards on their smartphone.
Boxtation is a business payment development company. Based on extensive experience in the business domains, its competitive edge purports to be its ability to work easily with any core platform.
ACAT makes data interpretation products mainly for insurance purposes and designed to minimize the time and money spent on resolving disputes from, say, a car accident. They aim to provide fast and accurate analysis for better decision-making.
CES Takeaways
CES otherwise presented technology forecasts that would be of interest to bankers, both in terms of where tech investment is heading and how bank customers will be interacting with services and devices. Here are three takeaways:
The Year of the Megabundle: Smartphone app developers will increase their promotion of “service bundles” to draw more consumer interest. Megabundles have the potential to offer consumers discounted rates on their favorite services while also simplifying their payment process. These services include a slew of new forms of business and consumer payment systems, all which will be pinging banks account data.
Devices and Services Go Hand-in-Hand: People are looking for financial services in a digital package, CTA estimates that 25 percent of all consumer spending on technology was for various software and subscription services in 2019. Today in 2024, CTA projects the same services to be just under one-third of all consumer spending. In other words, if a bank doesn’t have a sophisticated app for smartphones, it’s missing out on a lot of opportunities to meet customers where they are.
Believe the AI Hype: Over 230 million smartphones and PCs shipping to the U.S. this year will tap the powers of generative AI through mobile apps, browsers and on-device software. AI is being deployed in mobility safety systems, fitness tracking apps on smartwatches and picture quality improvements on televisions. Banks need to take AI head-on as it is rapidly creeping into anything connected to the internet, like any wiz-bang app a bank is integrating with its services.