A shared financial future

Alongside digitalization, Peer-to-Peer ("P2P") and sharing initiatives present some of the most formidable challenges facing existing business models today. Although not a new phenomenon in itself, P2P reflects a growing public interest in returning to a more decentralized economy, one where it is easier for people to connect, communicate, and trade. Airbnb and Uber are among the P2P platforms that have gained significant international recognition, but sharing initiatives are now reaching beyond the travel, hospitality, and goods sectors and into financial services. While these initiatives may still be relatively small, they are leaving traditional players asking a very important question: can our financial future be shared?

Our publication on the future of P2P financial services weighs in the challenges of these initiatives—less transparency and commoditization in which to differentiate, a higher risk to users—against the long-term benefit of implementing value-adding strategies in the early stages of financial P2P’s development.

Win win

In this study, we profile the likely outcome of a two-tiered landscape. This opens up the opportunity for a win-win for both clients and traditional players, where new entrants complement traditional players rather than disrupt them and traditional players develop their own P2P solutions anchored in their existing offers. Our financial future can be shared, and in this publication we show how long-term strategic advantages can be secured through creating added-value for the client and developing integrated solutions.