Vafa Vahid is a partner at New Bridge Consulting Group.

How should 2019 be known?

The new year will be known as “The Year of Increasing Middle- and Back-Office Efficiency Through Innovation.” It will not be through traditional headcount/expense reduction methods that are centered on cost arbitrage— traditional brute force methods.

What is the next major watershed for the industry?

It will be the spread of GDPR-like privacy rules to the US.

What was the most important lesson learned in 2018?

Speculative bubbles always pop from the Tulips bulb bubble in Amsterdam in the year 1637 to cryptocurrencies in 2018.

Which hot topics should be left in 2018?

That would be blockchain immediately gaining widespread adoption

Will 2019 will be the ’Year of Institutional Crypto?”
It will not be due to a lack of market structure, regulation liquidity, and demand.

Will fintech spending rise, plateau, or trail off this year?

Fintech investment will continue to rise in 2019 due to billions of investor dollars sitting on the sidelines. However, the investments will skew towards more mature fintechs

What will be the skill sets most in demand in 2019?

Highly skilled technologists will continue to be in demand, and we anticipate a return to high demand for general management skills to complement the subject matter experts in senior positions.