Financial Technology (FinTech) is changing how consumers pay and manage finances.

Financial technology (Fintech) is used to describe new technology that seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services. ... Fintech now includes different sectors and industries such as education, retail banking, fundraising and nonprofit, and investment management to name a few. – Techslang.com

Have you heard the term “FinTech?” Perhaps yes, perhaps no, but chances are you have either knowingly or inadvertently used a FinTech platform to pay a bill, apply for credit, purchase a stock or bank online. Those of us who go back a while (in other words us “old folks”) can remember a time when ATM’s represented new technology and recall (not fondly) when you needed to coordinate your financial needs to banking hours, lest you be left high and dry with no cash on the weekend. Yes, cash was a real necessity back when credit cards and debit cards were not normally used for small purchases like a cup of coffee or a drink at a bar. Cash, – even small amounts could save a weekend from a complete disaster.

These days, however, things could not be more different. Life seems virtually cashless. Groceries, retail stores and gas stations have been routinely accepting credit card payments for decades. Even those businesses where small transactions seem to make card payments impractical or costly due to transaction fees (like laundromats, parking meters, and buses and convenience stores) are now willing to take non cash payments. Nerdwallet’s compiled statistics suggest that card purchases are increasing by 10% every year, while cash transactions have decreased both in volume and average purchase amount.

About this moment, those readers who have gotten this far are asking themselves, “Yes but what does this have to do with Mystery Shopping?” Yes, mystery shopping is still routinely used in the banking industry. Mystery Shoppers typically evaluate banks based on operational standards that relate back to customer service, sales, and efficiency to name a few. But this too is slowly drying up as branch banks invite online banking to conduct business or ATM’s to withdraw cash.

For the last 15 years, Service Performance Group has been a go-to source for established and startup FinTech companies who need access to consumer accounts, whether to create and test API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow those fancy apps to provide you the immediate gratification of an on line purchase, apply for a loan, or take the angst out of a last minute payment. And, SPG has also helped FinTechs fine tune the user-focused side of websites and phone apps through our involvement in heuristic analyses. By broadening our focus and doing our utmost to be future-focused, we at SPG are trying to match our vetted base of independent contractors with Fin-Tech firms whose assignments are off the beaten path vis-à-vis traditional mystery shopping but, could just lead to the next big thing.

https://www.fundera.com/resources/cash-vs-credit-card-spending-statistics