Coming on the heels of the announcement of the launch of their payments partner program, multiple news outlets are pointing to Amazon as gearing up for a deeper Fintech push. The payments program helps by providing an Amazon-branded option for their growing legion of e-commerce partners. The following day, Amazon VP Patrick Gauthier told CNBC they were “beginning to look for acquisitions” in the Fintech space. They are looking for opportunities outside the virtual walls of Amazon. The push into providing greater integration with financial features clearly makes sense. Alibaba has been doing the same thing for some time now – and the company continues to incorporate new features while adding customers. In fact at the end of 2015, Amazon joined a consortium of Apple, Google and more to create “Financial Innovation Now” to advocate on behalf of their objectives inside the beltway of Washington, DC. A broader push to provide credit products to both seller and buyer should be just around the corner.
Amazon is in an excellent position to drive the evolution of internet finance. Traditional banking firms, along with their legions of developers and thousands of retail locations, are at growing risk of being simply left behind.