Ushering in the New Marketplaces of Tomorrow

Ahead of the 13th annual Rosenblatt FinTech Summit, we sat down with Rosenblatt Securities’ Vikas Shah, managing director of FinTech Investment Banking, and Dushyant “D” Shahrawat, director of FinTech Investment Banking, to discuss how a wave of untraditional marketplaces is ushering in new investment opportunities and a transformational era for wealth management.

This year’s summit is focused on tomorrow’s marketplaces. Can you talk about what you mean by tomorrow’s marketplaces?

Shah: New marketplaces are emerging to trade a broad range of assets beyond traditional financial securities like equities, fixed income, FX, or commodities. We call these venues “Marketplaces of Tomorrow” because they are bringing newly digitized versions of traditional assets (real estate, collectible art) and new assets (cryptocurrencies, customer rewards, NFTs) to investors. 

Which of these emerging marketplace concepts interests you the most? 

Shahrawat: The concept of tokenizing and onboarding assets on a distributed ledger platform like blockchain promises to fundamentally disrupt how capital markets will operate in the future. It is not a stretch to imagine a day when all assets are issued, traded, cleared, settled and custodied right on these digital marketplaces, reducing the need for intermediaries. We expect this development to significantly disrupt the capital markets industry structure and its profit pools over the next 5-10 years.

What are some of the benefits of these markets-based business models that you’re seeing? 

Shah: Just like the equities market has been transformed with automation, competition and regulation to the benefit of investors, these new marketplaces that provide a centralized venue for buyers and sellers to trade new assets, will enhance price discovery, deepen liquidity, reduce friction, provide faster execution and transfer risk efficiently between buyers and sellers. 

How do you think these new marketplaces will play a role in our existing investment environment, and what evolution do you expect to see?

Shahrawat: These new marketplaces democratize investing by making new assets investable and tradable by not only institutional investors but also retail investors that were shut out of investing in some of these asset classes. We believe this will usher in a new era in wealth management.

What are you most looking forward to at the event? 

Shah: For 13 years, our FinTech Summit has brought together Fintech thought leaders to give us a glimpse into the future of finance and provide an opportunity for smart investors to do deals with amazing entrepreneurs. As always, this year, we are looking forward to hosting 16 CEOs that are solving critical problems for the financial industry. Our 650+ attendees include senior executives from a wide cross-section of the industry, including the largest banks, insurance companies, asset managers, broker-dealers, infrastructure providers like payment services companies and exchanges, as well as financial and strategic investors. 

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