Fintech Trends with Zaheer Merali (Consultant)| EP08

Fintech, APIs, automation, blockchain, regulatory change, and the rise of the solo advisor.

Summary:

During the 8th episode, Jason Pereira, interviews a colleague of his by the name of Zaheer Merali. Zaheer is an entrepreneur, investor, and consultant to several start-ups and has worked with many technology companies. Jason talks with Zaheer about the past and present evolution of financial planning solutions.

●      01:08 – Zaheer works primarily with venture funds and start-ups in the Fintech space and healthcare.
●      03:15 – He studied in school for seven years in the consulting space: strategy consulting across North American in multiple industries like renewable energy, healthcare, mining, media, insurance, and fast food.
●      03:40 – Zaheer worked for seven years at Scotia Bank with some time spent in wealth management.
●      05:29 – We have gone from one financial platform to tech stack and service stack solutions.
●      11:19 – Several new software stacks are built as a backend with an API to a frontend.
●      12:24 – Extreme growth in financial planning software is exploding.
●      17:50–  Blockchain is here to stay, offering new ways of working with back office systems. 
●      22:24 – There is value in honing in on one problem and developing it further.
●      23:45 – You can’t transfer money between banks in the United States and Canada on weekends is because the servers aren’t open—they keep bankers’ hours.
●      28:50 – The automation of workflows is leading to efficiency gains.
●      31:10 – What is our career path in financial planning?
●      35:08 – We are seeing compression on how much customers are willing to pay, what kind of fees can be charged, and what services need to be included.
3 Key Points:
1. Some popular financial planning software in the United States didn’t exist three years ago, some that two years ago had 2-3% market share, and today has close to 10% market share.
2. There is a ton of value in picking off one problem to work on and expanding that piece.
3. You can’t transfer money between banks in the United States and Canada on weekends is because the servers aren’t open.
Tweetable Quotes:
-    “Many of the new software stacks you’ll see are basically built as a backend with an API to a frontend.” – Zaheer Merali.
-    “We sometimes take the easy route of mistaking consistency of look and feel as an indication of quality.” – Zaheer Merali.
-    “Blockchain is here to stay.” – Zaheer Merali

Resources Mentioned:

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn

● Zaheer Merali – Zaheer Merali’s LinkedIn