The increasing maturation of digital technologies coupled with the speed of evolution in regulation and consumer expectations implies that organizations in the financial sector are under pressure to provide best-in-class customer experiences, optimize costs, create new revenue streams and develop secure & compliant systems.

Failure to achieve this means new players (think start-ups and fintech firms which are developing robust digital solutions to transform customer experience across product lines) could capture up to 34 percent of incumbent banks’ revenues by 2022.

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Traditionally, the term financial services simply referred to industries such as credit cards, banking, insurance and accounting, but thanks to new digital innovations, the sector has now evolved to include new categories that fall under the umbrella term financial technology (fintech) such as digital payment apps, cryptocurrencies, mobile wallets, online lending platforms, decentralized exchanges, among others.

Read on to understand the three emerging digital technologies that are disrupting the financial services market and opening up multiple opportunities for financial services players and how PDX plans to make the most of these three.

1. Artificial Intelligence

Findings from Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019 report project AI will become the top category of workloads driving infrastructure by 2023; this means computational resources used in AI will experience a fivefold increase from 2018 levels.

Due to the explosive growth of structured & unstructured data, and the rise of cloud computing and machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) is enabling machines/software programs to emulate human performance or augments human resources.
The technology works by applying analytics and logic to interpret input and make decisions about it.

AI-based systems are already being used to automate processes spanning the life & pensions and banking industries, from mortgage lending to data collection, analysis and validation. As a result, this is improving the accuracy and speed of previously time-consuming manual tasks and changing the nature of customer interactions in the financial sector.

2. Quantum Computing

Google recently announced that it has achieved a major milestone in quantum computing, claiming, it has created a 53-bit quantum computer - named Sycamore - that takes less than 4 minutes to perform a calculation that would have otherwise taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer thousands of years to compute.

If this breakthrough has anything to teach us, it’s that quantum computing is maturing at a faster rate and will surely revolutionize the financial services sector.

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Unlike classical computers (which we use today and can only carry out operations in bits that take the value of either 1 or 0), quantum computing is about developing computing power based on the principles of quantum theory and uses quantum bits or qubits.

Quantum computing leverages the unique ability of subatomic particles that enables them to function in more than one state, that is, a 1 and a 0 at the same time. This, essentially, improves the way in which information is stored and processed by performing more efficient algorithms than possible in classical computing.

Quantum computing could drive innovations in financial services by enhancing encryption, improving cybersecurity, facilitating high-speed data collection & analysis, and transforming customer relationship management in retail banking.

For instance, at its core, the financial game involves dealing with the uncertainty in the future behaviour of an asset, and the prices and returns (profits and losses) it may experience as time goes by.

The actual return of a given financial asset may deviate from the expected value which the investor had originally banked on. That’s the whole concept of risk whose measure is influenced by the distribution of returns. Financial players have been looking for a way to understand the behaviour of an asset by linking it to market data and, thus accurately predict its future profitability.

We believe, thanks to a number of quantum formulae and algorithms such as the Monte Carlo methods, the Grover’s algorithm, the Harrow, Hassidim and Lloyd (HHL) algorithm, etc. which can be applied to financial problems and together with machine learning/deep learning, the financial services industry will be redefined a great deal.

3. Blockchain

Blockchain technology or rather blockchain banking is one of the most talked-about themes in the financial services industry today. Industry watchers, in fact, see it as a disrupting force in the world of finance. Data from a PwC global financial technology (fintech) survey indicates that a majority of respondents (56 percent) highly rate blockchain technology.

So, the million Dollar question is – how will blockchain technology change the financial services game?

Blockchain, the distributed ledger technology, will improve efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and security throughout the entire spectrum of financial services game. It will streamline and automate financial processes through the use of smart contracts.

A number of financial institutions are already deploying this technology in areas such as payments, know your customer (KYC), fraud reduction, loan processing, among others.

PDX: Leveraging the Best-in-Class Technologies

PDX, a globally compliant digital currency, is leveraging blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing/quantum cryptography which will ensure participants have access to better and secure financial services. This will substantially benefit and enhance the PDX corporate and token holder ecosystem.

The PDX’s team believes that both quantum computing and AI will be critical in the platform’s future, regarding how it harvests, manages, uses, manipulates, and uses data. Also, for designing new banking and payments products and services, and for managing PDX better when it has millions of users and the system is operating constantly and at scale.

All those users will generate a vast amount of data - personal data, spending habits, usage habits, etc. This data will help PDX’s banking platform, and will help make continual improvements to PDX’s technology platform. It could help with new product design, and the AI side could push the solution into new areas (think communications, healthcare, etc).

The correct applications of quantum computing and AI will mean that PDX could be sufficiently advanced in 10 years from now to be almost unrecognizable compared to today. These developments will give PDX a globally seamless, smooth operation and make true utility a reality.

Quantum computing will make the process of harvesting and analysis of data incredibly efficient. AI will learn from that data and make PDX a formidable cutting-edge competitor in ways unimaginable. PDX will also utilize quantum and AI in its energy business, primarily to model and analyse oil and gas reservoirs in order to optimize drilling and production, as well as to figure out ways to substantially increase hydrocarbon recovery rates over current levels, and extend both the recoverable reserves and the economic lives of its fields and wells. Quantum and AI will also be big contributors to PDX’s planned exchange operation and can be expected to help maintain a technological edge.

PDX offers all of the advantages of blockchain-enabled digital currencies while providing a verifiable asset base to protect its value, stability and security as a medium of exchange. Transactions will be recorded in a blockchain distributed ledger, and, as a result, these transactions will be trustless, censorship-resistant, permission less, and private. Unlike other forms of asset control or money transfer, once a transaction in PDX is confirmed by the blockchain network, it will become irreversible.

PDX will utilize the best available protocols for digital currencies and will help promote the ongoing change in the way global financial transactions occur by removing artificial barriers caused by legacy financial institutions, thereby enabling:

• True anonymous digital payments anywhere in the world.
• Very low transaction fees and fast processing times compared to traditional setups.
• Payments between anonymous parties, ensuring privacy.

PDX is committed to working with domestic and global governmental agencies, financial institutions, traders and users of commodities to develop protocols to help facilitate PDX’s adoption as a leading digital reserve currency.

The Key Takeaway

Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and blockchain are becoming central to financial technology solutions as companies look to new areas of financial services innovation.

That’s why we believe it’s only a matter of time before we see the financial services world reinvented as shared networks, tied directly to distributed ledgers, AI applications and Quantum cryptography and interacting on a wide scale with the financial assets held on them.

So, what do you really think? Is there more to these three technologies? Will they enable new ideas and capabilities in the financial sector? As always, we would love to hear from you.