FINTECH

Since the past few years, I have been hearing news about Crypto/ BlockChain, Mobile wallet and Digital Payment transformation. I am writing this article to share how these have influenced the growth of Fintech. I strongly believe that being a Recruiter; one must have a basic understanding of the Industry(what they are in).

“India has the highest Fintech adoption rate and it also has the second-largest Fintech startup in the world”

So, what is Fintech?

Fintech or Financial Technology is an emerging industry, which uses technology to improve activities in financial institutions.

              Finance + Technology = Fintech

Any financial institution that adopts technology to provide a value-added service to the customer is known as Fintech. The use of smartphones for mobile banking, investment, borrowing services and cryptocurrency, payments etc., are all the result of Fintech.

Considering the various factors associated with Fintech, most of the financial institutions have started adopting an in-house technology team to streamline the business.

From a business standpoint, the primary reasons for adopting a technology team to provide financial services based on technology are as follows:

·      To provide seamless support to the customer

·      To strengthen & streamline the business

·      To reduce the downtime.

·      To ensure customer satisfaction etc.,

In the past few years, there has been a lot of growth and development in the Fintech space including blockchain technology, payments, investment, and Banking as a service.

I would say the best examples are startups, as a large number of startups are emerging in the field of Fintech. The reason for the growth of startups in this field is due to the fact that fintech sector provides the prominent solution in terms of fulfilling the needs of the business requirement and of its various dependencies ranging from Small or Medium-scale to Enterprise scale.

How many of them choosing a payment mode as “cash” while purchasing a product in online shopping or in a restaurant or booking tickets etc., It just few..

Considering the current COVID situation, people are using digital money as compared to cash payments out of fear that the virus may spread through cash. Thus, the importance and value of digital payments in the times of COVID has slightly increased.

One of the important aspects of Fintech is API, which plays a crucial role.

API stands for Application Programming Interface that allows two systems to interact with each other.

For instance, A user requests a service from third-party service providers(payment), that request sent using API, on the other hand, the third party receives the request and sends the requested information back using API.

Examples: Paypal, stripe, Adyen

Let us look at the evolution of Fintech:

1.     Barclays launched the world’s first ATM in 1967
2.     NASDAQ invented electronic trading and the IPO in 1971,
3.     Wellsfargo become the first bank to offer internet baking to customers,
4.     First online payment platform PayPal was founded in 1998,
5.     The first cryptocurrency Bitcoin was launched in 2009,
6.     Google launched its Google Wallet in 2011.

Technologies which accelerates the growth of Fintech :

• Cloud computing: To ease up your data storage etc.,
• Cybersecurity - to adhere to data security(PCI DSS) / Protect from cyber attack etc.,
•  Blockchain - To protect the identity etc.,
•  AI and Machine learning - chatbots etc.,
• Mobile applications

Some fintech startup companies :

• PhonePe: UPI based payment app
• Razorpay : Payment gateway etc.,
• PayU: Payment gateway
• Creditmantri: Credit score improvement platform and lending marketplace
• Bankbazar: Online financial products distribution platform
• Chargebee: Managed subscription billing service for SaaS
• eZetap: Ezetap device and mPos maker
• Kaledofin:  AI dirven goal-based savings platform
• YAP:API Platform for banking and payments
• Fampay: India’s first payment app for teenagers
• Nium(InstaReM) : International money transfer
• Godutchpay: Group payments app
• Wise: Banking and payment services
• Revolut : Digital bank

Wrapping up :

Fintech is the future of the digital economy. How Java programming is still popular among software developers, likewise Fintech industry is the glistening solution for the Financial Industry.

Pic courtesy: Google images