The Fintech landscape of the 21st century

Predicting what the future of financial companies will look like in the short term is not an easy task, but it is one that should be undertaken, if we are to make sense of the 21st century. The problem with making any predictions is that the stability of the world, in terms of providing a good place for a Fintech company to work in, has been shaken up. The areas of the world that were traditionally financial centers are quickly losing their ability to provide the required stability, and new areas are starting to take advantage. What is more, the problem of new technologies coming in left and right causes any of the predictions we make to be wrong more often than not, simply because it is so hard to anticipate things. Still, let us take the current situation and the current trends and apply some reasoning to see what the results might be. 

Migrating out of London, Hong Kong, New York

These are the three cities that in many ways have managed to define the financial industry of the past century, with Hong Kong being the latest addition. They contain some of the largest markets in the world and have been centers for financial activity and financial asset management and trading companies for many years. As a result, they have also managed to become popular spots for Fintech companies to apply their technology and start gathering consumer bases to then go on and offer their services to the rest of the world. But, things have been changing, as of late. One of the main catalysts for change has been a change in attitude and the change in the level of security these companies are able to provide to their companies and citizens. London is going through a tough breakup, Hong Kong is in a state of turmoil and New York City seems to be enjoying a temporary status quo which is in danger of being changed, quite a bit. 

Each country is going through a political situation that does not seem to result in any benefit to the local Fintech companies. London is quickly becoming the origin of an exodus by many companies, looking for a new financial center to start operating in. With the UK looking to leave Brexit, the change in the ability of London companies to have access European markets is quickly causing it to lose popularity among companies. Fintech companies want the ability to offer their services, legally, to as many people as possible. If London is unable to provide this service, many companies intend to leave and never look back. 

Hong Kong has been in a state of constant protests, airport blockades and mainland Chinese meddling for months now. With Beijing putting more pressure on Hong Kong and attempting to slowly assimilate the city into its world, it is quickly becoming a battleground. A battleground that many companies are quickly seeing as detrimental to their continued health, and to their ability to continue as growing companies. Fintech companies, especially young ones, are quickly migrating out of the area into new places, looking to retain their freedom and profit margins for as long as they can. 

The most complex of the three cities is New York. Currently, the markets located in New York don’t seem to be facing much trouble in terms of their operation. But, the people who have been working these markets have managed to gather a lot of animosity from the average consumer. Many of them feel cheated a lot of the time, and this sentiment is being quickly picked up by the politicians. These politicians are looking to limit the amount of ability that the Fintech companies have in New York City, and this is causing certain anxieties for the local financial companies. The Fintech companies especially are feeling the pressure of the popular sentiment against them, and are starting to look for alternative areas to work from. But, where would these companies be moving to? 

Where to go

The problem for the international Fintech companies looking for new places to go persists. Where does a company that concentrates most of its efforts in providing cutting edge financial services move? The area has to have already set up infrastructure capable of working with the needs of the Fintech companies, and has to have an educated local population capable of working with complex Fintech problems. There are several places that seem to be popular destinations for such companies. 

Netherlands

Netherlands seems to be becoming a favourite destination for many companies from the UK. While a full on migration has yet to happen, there is already a trend arising, which shows that more and more companies are seeing Amsterdam as the location of their choice. A number of small companies have moved to the city in order to continue offering their services to European customers, and it seems that larger scale companies are planning on doing the very same thing. There have already been a number of companies that have decided to start planning on moving their offices to the Netherlands, as a way to continue offering their services internationally, uninterrupted. The city has a solid infrastructure, is a popular destination, has a large population and is capable of offering the office space many of the companies would need to continue their operations uninterrupted. 

Australia

Australia is one of the most attractive countries for any international Fintech company that is looking  to continue their work on international markets, uninterrupted by Chinese influence. Australian markets are already highly correlated with the Chinese markets, and moving to them would prove to be easier for certain Hong Kong Fintech companies than moving to any other part of the world. Sydney would benefit greatly from an influx of high skill jobs offers that would come with such Fintech companies, while the international markets would quickly incorporate the larger Australian markets without any kind of issue arising in the process. 

Canada

There are not that many places for US companies to move to, without having much trouble in the process, besides Canada. The country is just as developed as the US, has large cities with a great, highly skilled human capital and lots of office space to work with. This is why certain companies have started considering moving to Canada as a potential last resort. The problem is, the Canadian laws in terms of trading on the markets are not much more lax than what would be implemented by left leaning politicians in the US, which is proving to be a problem to the process. After all, what is the point of moving from one country to the other, if the obstacles the company is going to be facing are just going to be the same? This is why the New York companies are still waiting for any potentially dangerous changes in the near future.

It seems that the world is quickly changing where the financial centers of the world are going to be in the near future. While some changes are more likely to happen than others, the Fintech centers of the world have yet to be determined. The old guard, the traditional centers are quickly changing from why they were historically so attractive. This is causing the world to start looking different and our own expectations of where the main Fintech advancements come from to change as well.