Rise of Fintech – Making Finance Easier, Faster & Accessible

Table of Contents

What is Fintech?
Payments
Insurance (Insuretech)
Lending
Investments
Modern-Day Investments
Conclusion

The Financial Technology space, or FinTech as we know it, is not just about swiping a card or making UPI payments. It is more about digital-led innovative solutions that create tremendous value for consumers.

This transformation is observed every day with the rise of fintech companies that have disrupted traditional channels in unprecedented ways.

From ordering your morning coffee to sending money to the other end of the world, tech-enabled innovative finance products have become accessible, affordable, and user-friendly.

In this article, we will explore how Fintech is revolutionizing the investment industry and is forever changing the way the audience will view financial and investment channels.

But first, What is Fintech?

Any product or solution that leverages finance and technology and takes a digital-first innovative approach to customer value creation is a “fintech” solution.

Here’s a fun fact: Although the buzzword has been there for the past several years, the first “fintech” solution is not 5, 10, or even 50 years old.

The first proof of fintech dates to 1871 when the first electronic fund transfer happened at Western Union Telegraph Company (now known as Western Union).

From then till today, we have come a long way!

While there are hundreds of products in the fintech industry, most of the solutions primarily fall under 4 key categories:

Payments
Insurance (Insuretech)
Lending
Investments

Let us briefly look at each one of them

Payments

Assuming that everyone in the year 2023 is familiar with UPI, credit/debit cards, online shopping, and payment gateways, fintech deserves to be acknowledged for introducing new opportunities to make payments faster, more secure, and more convenient.

What seems like a simple-swift 5-second financial transaction, is in the backend a synergy of finance, technology, and the web, processing faster execution of payments.

Another commendable fintech innovation is UPI. UPI has become intricately intertwined in our lives that one can’t shy away from labelling it as a necessity. Grocery delivery apps, metro cards, digital meal cards, cab wallets, and online wallets are just a few examples of fintech that we rely on every day.

With 74 billion transactions made on UPI in the year 2022 alone, this payment mode is a game-changer that will enable Indians in the remotest corner to make easy online payments and go cashless.

Insurance (Insuretech)

A decade ago, buying insurance required an individual to visit an old bureaucratic building, and spare an hour or more discussing with an agent of the insurance company. Options were limited and the paperwork was tedious.

Today, with the advent of digitization, data mining, & customer-centric solutions, everything is now much easier for the end consumers from application to approval to claims and settlement all done via an easy-to-use mobile app. Also, data analysis using machine learning (AI/ML) techniques has enabled the innovation of product choices based on customer needs and affordability. With much scope for insurance penetration in India, the Insuretech industry will see the peak of opportunities and innovation in the coming years.

Lending

80% of Indians earn less than Rs 25,000 per month, indicating a significant need for financial support to fulfil their aspirations and turn their future dreams into a reality. Traditional banks and financial institutions focussed on the salaried and affluent population and largely ignored the non-salaried broader market in the absence of innovative solutions.

New-age fintech companies today use technology, machine learning, data analytics, IoT, artificial intelligence, and more to track the spending habits of a person. Based on the data points, these lending companies have developed specialized credit rating mechanisms to underwrite and make credit accessible to a larger customer base. These companies structure products, credit limits, tenors, and pricing to customer creditworthiness and end usage purposes. Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) is one of the solutions used by customers to purchase products today for which they will make payments in instalments in the future.

Investments

Imagine standing at Dalal Street and competing for your voice against a hundred others to buy a share of your favourite company. Or imagine not being able to track or change your investments all by yourself in real-time with stock market volatility.

The panic, the anxiety, and the uncertainty from not being able to access your investments would either discourage you from investing or would welcome scarring losses!

With at least 70 strong asset classes and thousands of by-products, the stock market and the capital market would never have been a source of income for a lot of businesses and customers if not for the innovation and digitization in this space.

The evolution of fintech has built a strong structure around trade exchanges, foreign and domestic investments, alternative investment avenues, and dematerialized account transactions. These tech-enabled arrangements have made T+2, same day and real-time settlements in the capital markets which would otherwise take many days in the previous decade.

Modern-Day Investments

Technology has enabled & supported growth in a wide array of modern-day alternative investment products. Assets like Crypto, hedge funds, art, P2P, derivatives, and private equity are called alternative investments.

Within this category, there are alternative fixed-income products such as unlisted corporate debt, venture debt, asset leasing, and invoice discounting that offer predictability, have short tenors, non-market linked competitive returns, and carry no volatility. These products were once traditionally available to limited customers but are now made accessible to all by new-age fintech companies through innovation in digital technology, products, and processes.

Today, experts recommend investing a minimum of 15%-20% in alternative fixed-income investments to enjoy diversified risks and competitive yields.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Fintech has contributed significantly to an individual’s and nation’s wealth building. As the internet evolves and fintech evolves with it simultaneously, it will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in providing the masses with faster, cheaper, and more efficient financial services solutions. All we can do is embrace the fintech revolution and experience its capabilities in the years to come.

References