Anshul Anand is a senior vice president and head of business development at Thesys.

What do you view as the most important lesson of 2017?
This past year was the year that RegTech took center stage in capital markets as part of the broader FinTech dialogue of the past few years. With regulations such as the Consolidated Audit Trail and MiFID II going deeper and broader than ever before, the masses or Late Majority (as referenced in innovation circles) are finally embracing the transformation to new technology-driven ways of doing business. On the other end of the spectrum, we saw FinTech innovators and early adopters continue to push the envelope– be it InsurTech, maturing machine learning applications, payments and use cases of blockchain.

Why do you expect investments in fintech to rise, plateau, or trail off in 2018?
The rise of FinTech is going to continue and become even more visible over the coming years. There are three powerful accelerators for the adoption of FinTech, such as transparency (e.g. better regulation), efficiency (e.g. cost savings), and innovation (e.g. disruptive new business models). What makes these drivers even more potent is the dynamic, self-reinforcing, interaction between the three. For example, the need for efficiency often drives innovation, which in turn drives the need for transparency.

What changes do you expect to see in regards to FinTech in 2018?
The new year is going to be all about the “how”– how capital markets embraces FinTech. The first leg is making our way through the “process-driven, technology-assisted” phase. This is hard work– new tech innovations aren’t plug-and-play; they often need interpretation as massive organizations adjust old tech to new tech. Firms need to invest in redesigning their systems and business processes to enable the technology. The second phase, “technology-driven, process-assisted” is where we really see the return on investment– highly-flexible, open, technology solutions that can adapt to the changing markets and requirements. For example, firms first need to organize their internal data before they can unleash the power of the big data and machine learning technology ecosystem.

Firms that have the foresight to view the adoption of FinTech as an opportunity – and not as a band-aid for their most urgent short-term problem – that will lead the way in the years to come. As they pave the way and others follow, we’ll all see better markets through the adoption of technology!