What Do We Talk About When We Talk About FinovateFall?
What themes will dominate conversations at FinovateFall next month?
Through the lens of our demoing companies, we took a look at what we can expect to see on stage at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. It was little surprise to see themes like AI consistently appearing throughout the demo offerings. But it was interesting to see how many demoing companies will show technologies dealing with issues like fraud and security, as well as compliance and even collections.
Another interesting aspect of FinovateFall is the number of demoing companies that will be showing technologies that are especially useful for credit unions. At last count, some 75% of companies demoing at FinovateFall next month have indicated that their solution works for this group.
It is a challenging time for credit unions. Despite outpacing banks in terms of both loans and deposits last year (according to McKinsey & Company), credit unions face a range of challenges from digital transformation and the shifting regulatory landscape to increased competition for customers and the threat of cybercrime. It will be interesting to see the ways our demoing companies show they are ready to help credit unions respond to these challenges.
That's my opening thought for this week. I'm David Penn. Thanks for joining us for another edition of Finovate Weekly!
Weekly News
Exploring Innovations in Wealthtech and Wealth Management
Speaking of our demoing companies, we wanted to tip our hat to those that are innovating in the wealthtech space. As we've mentioned, wealthtech is a new area of focus for Finovate and we're looking forward to showcasing our talented lineup of speakers and power panels to discuss many of the top issues in this industry.
We are also fortunate to have six different companies that, in the own ways, will be demoing solutions for wealth managers, financial advisors, RIAs, and other wealth management professionals. Read more about these innovators in our latest look at the FinovateFall demo lineup.
Pause Button: Moving Through the Milky Way at a Million Miles Per Hour
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Maybe I'm still buzzing from having recently completed the science fiction novel Three Body Problem (and the Netflix series based on it), but the news of a newly-discovered hypervelocity object - a low-mass star or brown dwarf hurtling through the Milky Way at a million miles an hour - was more than enough to get my attention this week.
What makes the discovery of this latest object interesting is that while more than 12 "hypervelocity stars" have been detected to date, most are at least the size of our sun, if not bigger. This most recent phenomenon, dubbed poetically as "CWISE J1249+3621" by astronomers, is a mere 8% of our sun's mass.
In general, the study of these objects holds interest because they were formed before the Milky Way, which helps explain their erratic orbits. However the relatively small size of CWISE J1249+3621 has some observers speculating about different origins for the million mile-per-hour object. These range from being ejected from the orbit of white dwarf or a star gone supernova. Another conjecture suggests the involvement of black holes, which could have split off a sizable chunk of mass from a star cluster.
Check out NASA's coverage of the discovery from a group of citizen scientists working on NASA's Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project.
Finovate Podcast: Fintech Sandboxes and Community Banks
The conversation continues with Finovate VP Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast!
First up, Greg Palmer sits down with Jeff Trammell, Chief Operating Officer for Merchants and Marine Bank, on the challenges of cannabis banking and community banks.
Then, Greg Palmer and Kelly Fryer , Executive Director of Fintech Sandbox, talk about the role the Fintech Sandbox plays in the fintech startup community and the importance of making data available to early-stage fintechs.