Banking In 2020: How Will Fintech Revolutionize Banks And Investing?

The 2016 Benzinga Fintech Awards kicked off with a panel discussion about, what else, the future of banking and investing.

The digitization of the world will continue, although that doesn't mean everything can be left up to machines or algorithms. Asked what the biggest disruptors will be in the next 5-7 years, the panel answered: 1) Disintermediation, 2) bitcoin, 3) intelligent advice.

The panel consisted of Eli Broverman (Betterment COO), Jud Pyle (Head of Retail at Apex Clearing) and Barry Silbert (Founder and CEO at Digital Currency Group). The discussion was hosted by Carey Kolaja (Global Product Officer at Citi Fintech).

"Millennials trust Apple Inc. AAPL, Facebook Inc FB or Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN more than Citibank C," Silbert said. "Facebook could facilitate loans for investing. Fintech isn't an enabler or another destroyer of big banks. [But the] universal banking model has proven not to be effective. The disintermediation is basically being torn apart."

Pyle mentioned that millennials want to open an account, but yet, they have no credit history. Kolaja agreed that what we use to test someone's credit worthiness is really going to change over the next 5-10 years.

The case for user experience has become a very important issue in recent years. The panel said the big banks of the world don't have the kind of UX a fintech company can provide. In addition, Broverman noted that the JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM's of the world have the same type of data these fintech companies, but they don't know how to use it. This is why "intelligent advice" will be a big theme.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the day. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #BZAwards.