FINTECH BASICS - THE A B C D E F OF FINTECH

FinTech is a very vast and interesting domain, and with the introduction of new technologies every day it is taking huge leaps. The acceptability index of consumers giving confidence to startups to come up with the real disruptions.

Improving Financial services with the help of new-age technologies and regulations is FinTech. That defines the basic building blocks: The ABCDEF of FinTech

1. A - Artificial Intelligence
2. B - Blockchain
3. C- Cloud
4. D - Data Availability
5. E - Efficiency
6. F - Futuristic Vision

Before we discuss the ABCDEF of FinTech let us touch upon the Technological Innovation Timeline at a high level and the RTGS process.

Technological Innovation Timeline

 Technological Innovation 1

If we revisit the financial landscape there was a barter system and the common medium of exchange was gold nuggets and coins

 Technological Innovation 2

During the paper money times the introduction of CHECKS was again a Fintech breakthrough 

 Technological Innovation 3

ATMs and Cards that gave the direction of moving away from big banks set up and made life easy

Technological Innovation 4

Online banking that gave direction towards stay connected and banking from anywhere and internet supported by an infrastructure perspective

Technological Innovation 5

Wire transfer - we all are very familiar and are using it in day to day life

Technological Innovation 6

Banking through smart devices/ IoT - Mobile, Alexa, Siri, Eyewears, Watches, and more

Technological Innovation 7

Decentralized Payments - This is quite a complex subject and a must-know thing - Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Stable Coins, Central Bank Digital Currency

Technological Innovation 8

Embedded Finance - Banking for everyone, Uber is one of the best examples 

Let us understand the Real-Time Gross Settlement has helped the advancement of FinTech Innovation.

UNDERSTANDING RTGS

What is RTGS? to be precise, it gives communication for a transaction between the banks to happen in real-time and completes on a one-to-one basis. Not like a batch transaction such as the end of the day or the week process, for example, you may have experienced in the past (half a decade back) if you instate the payment transaction activity in the midday it will simply succeed the following day. The aforementioned is because the transactions are processed in the typical batch process.

The FinTech start-ups are capable enough and able to present new payment rules including implementation design, this also includes how Blockchain and API can be interfaced and interlaced with their RTGS systems. In different terms, RTGS serves as a significant foundation tier boosting the FinTech innovation mindset. 

During the 20th Century, we were digitizing the banking methods and molded it into a digital payment mode, moved towards mobile payments, including RTGS systems. This was the time of digital electronic payments' large acceptance by the consumers.

The 21st Century, the era of datafication, can be divided into three parts-

The first part is - applying data mining techniques on big data, using artificial intelligence to practice the digitized data to convert the normal payment exercise into a seamless experience.

The second part is - moving towards the development of an undividedly innovative payment stack by the application and adaptation of technology.

Whether the concept of disintermediation, eliminating the role of banks, and we have seen these processes in real life in the context of Alipay, including WeChat Pay, then Paypal and Amazon, Facebook with WhatsApp payments, and many more in the list. 

The third part is - it is an elaboration about the elimination of physical banks i.e. no offices, buildings that involve building technology stack in such a way -ID and V would be done using AI image processing and Biometrics in a very user-friendly way. It is not limited to Banking, Airbnb is a known example.

Coming back to the basic question - 

What is the magic that has made FinTech on the top in recent times?

The answer is -

~ Financial Institutions and Banks were happy with the traditional way of working and missed the train of Tech up-gradation with the new-age technology stack

~ TechFins like GAFA and TAB entered into the Banking and Payments domain

GAFA - Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon and

TAB - Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba

~ These companies are well versed in Cloud Services Private, Hybrid, and proven record of handling high volume, high-value customers across different geo-location

~ Their AI models already monetizing data, which was recently picked up by banks

~ Amazon has already pitched in with Amazon Go driven by IoT/ AI deep learning/ Cloud services that make life easy for customers and no hassle in PAYMENTS.

New technology, methods, processes, and the new form of money and payments have changed the traditional way of thinking like - AI-driven ID & V, Cryptocurrencies, and Blockchain, of course, we need regulations, and that will be there and could not stop the journey of Fintech. The reason is simple - FinTech is easing the life of people it has a vision of Financial Inclusion with a social cause behind it and the courage to disrupt.

Thanks for reading the article hope you enjoyed it, stay tuned for more interesting topics. 

Happy Learning.

References:

These are the reflections of my Fintech learnings from Hong Kong University, MIT, and University of Michigan courses and the creative thinking of connecting dots