Fintech, or financial technology. For as long as I can remember, the term has referred to the technology, provided by companies large and small, that enables credit unions and other financial organizations to do what they do. That's probably also your definition. If so, here comes a curveball.

We need look no further than Wikipedia, that bastion of sometimes ill-informed consensus-think. If you look up fintech on Wikipedia, you'll find this bold and perhaps puzzling definition: "A line of business based on using software to provide financial services. Financial technology companies are generally startups founded with the purpose of disrupting incumbent financial systems and corporations that rely less on software."

Let that sink in for a minute. Fintech, as the world understands it today, is no longer your technology; it's your competition. You may believe that the financial disruption you've been reading about is still open to debate, but it's not. Disruption is upon us and the consumer masses are already aware of the phenomenon – so much so that they've defined it clearly in the internet's version of the Bible.