Resources

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

This week marks the kickoff of the Technology Association of Georgia’s fifth annual Fintech South Innovation Challenge. The winner will walk away with a non-dilutive $50,000 cash prize – if there’s a bigger award being offered in any similar US competition, we’re unaware of it. Perhaps more importantly, the winner – as well as other standout participants – will benefit from significant exposure to key players across the spectrum of Georgia’s thriving fintech ecosystem and admission into the prestigious fintech catalyst ‘Accelerate’ program at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).

By Ali Raza, Blue Leviathan

By Rachel Halper, Porter Keadle Moore

The Technology Association of Georgia’s (TAG’s) 2019 Fintech Innovation Challenge is in full stride. The month-long competition showcases some of Georgia’s newest companies and innovators in the FinTech space, offering the resources and opportunity to grow these startups into larger businesses.

By Don Campbell, RightCourse

In today’s financial services organizations, 90 percent of the data stored is never accessed. That’s a lot of data gone missing that could offer unique insight into how to improve operational performance and generate new revenues.

Many financial services organizations do not possess the foundational technologies needed to analyze data properly. Here is a short list of weaknesses that plague many organizations:

• Core computing infrastructure
• Network and data security
• Management commitment to be data centric
• Qualified data scientists
• Corporate-wide analytical software

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

It’s notoriously difficult to find a consensus definition for FinTech. Broadly speaking, however, it involves the application of technology to address financial services challenges.

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

If you’re one of the 1,500 professionals who attended FinTech South at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta last week, like me you’re probably still absorbing the wealth of insights delivered across an action-packed 24 hours.

Leafing through my notebook, here are some of my favorite nuggets captured on Tuesday. Bear in mind this list reflects only items I heard personally- with four content tracks I was able to attend only a sliver of the breakout sessions. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments field below.

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

(spoiler: read to the bottom for a discount code)

We’re nearing the end of a busy conference season, but a unique and quite special late May event remains on the docket- especially for those in the Atlanta area. I attended (and spoke at) my first HOPE Global Forum last spring, and it delivered the most remarkable blend of content, star power and inspiration I have ever experienced. The 2019 edition, May 29-31 in downtown Atlanta, is poised to up the ante on all three dimensions.

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

They say big events happen in threes. If that’s the case, are we due for a breather?

Global Payments’ $21.5 billion acquisition of TSYS announced last week marked the payments space’s third major consolidation in the in the first half of 2019. In January Fiserv upended the status quo with its similarly sized acquisition of First Data. FIS followed suit in March with an even larger transaction, absorbing Worldpay. All three deals are subject to regulatory approval, and are targeting closure later this calendar year.

By Tommy Marshall, Georgia Fintech Academy

Everyone I have spoken with this week is buzzing about Libra. My parents are in Dublin, Ireland on a college-sponsored trip and I received a text from my Mom on Wednesday asking what I thought about Libra! Clearly there’s hope for payments experts like me that our families may yet figure out what we do for a living.

If you are just coming up to speed on the news – like the rest of us, since details remain fairly scarce – here are a few basics.

By Henry Yu, ChinaPlus Capital Ltd.

Nearly every FinTech conversation eventually reaches a sidebar on China’s role in the ecosystem, given the prominence of unicorns like Alipay and Tencent. Most of the focus to date has been on the prospect of these players entering the US market, but the FinTech space in China itself is huge- over $31 trillion annually for credit cards and other third party payment processing. US and European companies have not yet tapped into China’s domestic electronic payment market.

By Chuck Meyers, Ondot Systems

TAG’s Fintech Society recently hosted a Lunch & Learn event featuring a panel titled “Financial Services in a Post-Amazon World,” focusing on the impact disruptors like Amazon have had on financial services and changed user expectations over the past 15 years.

By Don Campbell, RightCourse

According to Gartner Group, blockchain technology has entered the “Trough of Disillusionment.” Kind of sounds bad doesn’t it? Just as we’re getting our minds around how blockchain can be used for other business applications than cryptocurrency, the technology hits the trough.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle defines the Trough of Disillusionment as the point at which “interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.”

By Ali Raza, Blue Leviathan

FinTech Atlanta’s fifth “Run it by the Buyers” event focused on a particularly hot topic – Financial Inclusion and Wellness. As befitting such a top-of-mind issue, the session drew an even larger working group than usual to the offices of Atlantic Capital Bank in Buckhead.

By Alan A. Varghese

By Sean Banks, TTV Capital

When you look at the investment growth statistics of the fintech markets across the globe, one thing really stands out – funding is plentiful.

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

The spring and fall months tend to be the most active for industry conferences, and 2020 is no exception. Players in a FinTech scene as vibrant as Atlanta’s shouldn’t have to get on a plane- or wait out the seasons- to network or engage in thought leadership, though. A quick scan of the local calendar proves that’s indeed the case.

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

By Glen Sarvady, 154 Advisors

Each week TAG FinTech Steering Committee member Ali Raza compiles a list of newsworthy events impacting the payments ecosystem. He has graciously agreed to allow us to report his thoughts going forward. Enjoy!

Each week TAG FinTech Steering Committee member Ali Raza compiles a list of newsworthy events impacting the payments ecosystem. He has graciously agreed to allow us to report his thoughts going forward. Enjoy!

Each week TAG FinTech Steering Committee member Ali Raza compiles a list of newsworthy events impacting the payments ecosystem. He has graciously agreed to allow us to report his thoughts going forward. Enjoy!

Each week TAG FinTech Steering Committee member Ali Raza compiles a list of newsworthy events impacting the payments ecosystem. He has graciously agreed to allow us to report his thoughts going forward. Enjoy!

Each week TAG FinTech Steering Committee member Ali Raza compiles a list of newsworthy events impacting the payments ecosystem. He has graciously agreed to allow us to report his thoughts going forward. Enjoy!