New consumer trends, technology and regulatory change are ushering retail finance into an area of intense competition where innovation is a must to retain existing customers and win new ones. How can bankers, insurers, wealth managers and credit firms respond to the challenge?

This briefing presents ten consumer trends that will affect retail finance in the coming 10 years. Each of these trends presents a new opportunity to create unprecedented customer value though new products and services.

In March 2005, former Egg executives launched Zopa, the first peer-to-peer exchange that brings private lenders and borrowers together without established financial middlemen. Zopa targets a segment of credit-worthy self-directed consumers it calls Freeformers.

A year ago, three entrepreneurs set out to establish Artists Pension Trusts (APTs) to enable visual artists to fund their retirement by contributing works of art to a trust.

APTs want to help artists to 1) prepare for their financial future without spending cash, 2) mutualize their risk within a regional community of their peers, and 3) promote themselves by contributing to an art collection managed by top art curators.

Reverse mortgages target the fastest growing consumer segment of the developed world: senior citizens. These products enable the 60-year old and older to use their home as collateral to borrow money and postpone repayment to when they leave their home or die – all in a safe, regulated setting.