Finance is the driving force of all the industries across numerous domains. But Finance sector does rely on the effective use of IT technologies to deliver efficiently and accurately to industries that they cater to. Not only that Finance is seen as one of the industries which is most vulnerable to disruption by software because financial services, much like publishing, are made of information rather than concrete goods. Intermediaries like commercial banks, investment banks, stockbrokers, mutual funds, and stock exchanges form the fabric of modern finance. Fintech is a portmanteau of the terms “finance” and “technology” and refers to any business that uses technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes. Fintech delivers financial services through technology. Its an emerging industry that uses technology to improve financial activities. Use of smartphones, cryptocurrency, security products, etc are examples of technology used by Fintech. And by every decade we see newer additions to this list.
Fintech is one domain where in there is a whole lot of innovation coming up so that customers are delivered products in the most secure manner and with increasing ease of use. It is also called “a low-cost, sophisticated alternative to traditional wealth managers”. In fact as per a survey financial technology increased more than 2,200% from $930 million in 2008 to more than $22 billion in 2015. A recent report suggests that the total credit demand in India is projected to be worth $1.41 Tn by FY 2022. As fundings reach new heights for Fintech, fintech deals break records like never before.
AI, Bigdata, RPA, Bloackchain are all the frontier technologies which form a core part of new-age Fintech offerings. AI is used to predict stock market changes, customer spending patterns which in turn helps in serving them better, Bigdata in turn is used to analyse customer spending habits, RPA ia an AI technology that focuses on automating certain repetitive tasks, and Blockchain (even though it is just getting started to be sued in Fintech) offers decentralization such that customers do not need to trust third parties to execute transactions. Fintech technologies act to supplement and enhance existing financial services.
The challenges faced by Fintech today range from data security to DDoS attacks. Regulatory and compliance laws is yet another factor hindering the growth of Fintech startups. Long fund-raising cycles, missed out targets, and increasing losses are some very common issues faced by Fintech lending companies. Only Fintechs with a robust foundational software and an experienced team can stay the test of time. It has a low penetration in rural and remote locations because internet is inaccessible in these regions. So even though the resources are there to consume their products due to insufficient infrastructure to support their products they are unable to penetrate into a possibly huge region.