Insight, Advice, Exec Education

topaze.blue is a boutique advisory firm providing consulting and training

our core areas of expertise are fintech, crypto and regulations

The world of financial services is currently undergoing a slow-moving revolution, and, like with mobile communications and the Internet, the world in ten years will look unrecognisatble from what it looks today.

The key to success here is balance: financial services are heavily regulated and slow moving and fast-pacing companies can burn themselves out in the process. Also the current financial system developed over centuries, and the structures there are often there for good reasons.

Ultimately the revolution will only happen if we manage to marry the old with the new, otherwise we risk repeating the mistakes of the past and we are again where we started.

Stefan Loesch

Founder topaze.blue

opportunities in a changing world

digital identity

Identity and privacy is a major issue for today's consumers, and this trend will only increase. To address this there will the self-sovereign identity models, based on public key infrastructure, where people look after their own data. This is a major change for everone, but in particular in financial services where there is an opporunity to completely redesign global custody, with knock-on effect across the entire asset management world.

mobile first

The world is getting younger, and young people expect to be able to operate their lives from their phones. They are also used to virtually crossing national boundaries on a daily basis and they expect being able to get their goods and services from whereever they want. For companies this means cross border delivery of products and services. For financial services this means cross border payments and investments, lest they will be disintermediated by upstart players.

pan-national tribes

People today organise less along national identities, and more along the lines of pan-national tribes. As the Global Trends report, societies will become more transnational, also because of the refugee situation that creates diasporas all over the world that still maintain connections to their country of origin. This is key for financial services who will need to enable remittances and cross border investments even at a small scale.

social investments

There is a massive investment need for putting the world economy on a globally sustainable basis. There is also a social trend away from mega corporations who are often seen as untrustworthy toward smaller and more specialised players. This requires very different ways of raising financing, and there are massive opportunities for financial services players enabling this.