Fintech: The Key to Better Manage Your Money & Transactions

By: Firas Kanaan, Regional Sales Manager

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” – Pablo Picasso’s timeless advice still rings true today. If you want to be the next person to make history with the latest game-changing invention, you must first know the rules by heart… but don’t stop there. The most world-renowned innovators had the courage to bend those rules to create something truly magnificent and equally indispensable, making the world marvel at their creations.

Financial Technology, often known as Fintech, was marked as the one true art that revolutionized the financial industry – the pillar of the market. It completely transformed the way we manage money and transactions and has made financial management easier and faster by using modern technology. In simple words, Fintech works through a decentralized digital ledger system that is used to record transactions, giving all its users a sense of needed security and transparency.

Technology provides the foundation for innovation and creativity, just like an empty canvas to an artist. We have witnessed the rise of emerging technology and groundbreaking digital solutions that are shaping our future. Fintech led to the creation of accessible and affordable financial services such as peer-to-peer lending platforms, robo-advisory services, and digital currencies.

At its core, Fintech refers to the application of technology to financial services. It’s about the use of modern and dependable technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, cloud computing, internet of things (IoT), and robotic process automation (RPA), to improve and streamline financial services.

Fintech Rapid Growth Post-COVID

The pandemic opened our eyes to technology and the importance of utilizing it in our day-to-day lives. For instance, banks around the world have become more than willing to invest in Communication Channels as well as reliable digital banking. One of the leading banks in Jordan paints a fitting example of a successful transformation after it adopted new approaches through an advanced mobile application that enables opening accounts and performing transactions among other activities, all done online.

Technology Strategies Middle East (TSME) witnessed first-hand the influence of COVID-19 on technology and digital transformation. One of its renowned clients in Saudi Arabia utilized Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and by the end, it was valued at 350k transactions using the bot. This accomplishment is the first to be achieved within the Middle East using RPA bots.

Furthermore, API Management solution has undoubtedly and internationally been identified as one of the most sought-after solutions out there. Case in point, one of the leading owners of domestic micro and retail digital payment systems in the region deployed APIs and successfully achieved 10 million transactions monthly thanks to the innovative API solution. This is marked as one of the top accomplishments in Fintech history within the region.

According to bank reports from the big 4, COVID-19 is a major change factor for all banking sectors specifically in profitability, customer engagement, costs, and risks. The pandemic has encouraged technology and people to work hand in hand through digital channels in numerous conditions, such as creating communication channels between banks and customers.

Fintech solutions are rising to prominence minute by minute and are being used by globally distinguished empires. Take LVMH for example, the largest luxury conglomerate enhanced its luxurious experience through digitization. The brand was able to effectively address sustainable consumption after the pandemic and has become more transparent after deploying blockchain technology, until its CEO and Chair Bernard Arnault went on last year to become the richest person in the world with a net worth of $216.8 billion. Blockchain technology is part of Fintech, it builds a reliable underlying software system that is virtually hard to tamper with, thus ensuring a trustworthy way to store and exchange data.

10 Year Challenge – What Changed in Fintech

Fintech has experienced significant transformation over the last decade alone. At the moment, it stands among the most prominent and sought after forms of advancement, primarily thanks to the continuous progress of technology, shifting customer expectations, and evolving regulatory frameworks.

In ten years, five major factors have entirely changed in the Fintech industry:

1. The Rise of Mobile Payments: Cash and checks dominated payment transactions until only a few years ago. Following the rise of the digital era, emerging technology, digitization, and automation, everyone can now make payments in one click using their smartphones thanks to the introduction of mobile payment technology. This type of transaction is not only considered fast and efficient, but also more secure and safer for consumers.

2. Broadened Competitive Landscape: The Fintech industry was overshadowed by only a handful of players in the market most of which concentrated in the United States and Europe. Over the last ten years however, the competitive landscape became larger to introduce new players from all over the world, including Asia, Africa, and Latin America to provide innovative financial products and services.

3. Emphasis on Financial Inclusion: Not only has the competitive landscape broadened in the last decade, but the reach for consumers has also significantly increased. Financial services have become increasingly more inclusive and accessible to people that in the past were left with no credit history or access to traditional banking services or had limited options for obtaining credit or even managing their finances.

4. Acceleration in Online Lending Rate: Online lending platforms have made it possible for consumers to obtain funding minus collateral or a lengthy application process. This improvement comes after ten years of only having banks and traditional financial institutions as the source of lending.

5. Expansion of Cryptocurrency: The Fintech industry was just beginning to gain traction ten years ago; it was not well-established as it is now. That’s why even though cryptocurrency did exist before, it was relatively unknown before the Fintech breakthrough in this advanced digital age.

Fintech & The Future of Sales

The development of Fintech is rapidly changing the landscape of sales in many ways and is expected to result in more changes. We can already see a big transformation in the way companies interact with customers and the way consumers make purchases. Thanks to digital transformation, innovative business models, and financial technologies, new opportunities are on the horizon for businesses to ensure faster, more convenient, and more personalized services.

As the Fintech industry keeps on progressing and reaching new heights, it is clear that it will have a big impact on the future of sales to help it become more efficient, customer focused, and data-driven while also empowering businesses to improve their sales processes. Fintech is greatly supporting companies through granting them capabilities to have access to powerful data and analytics that allow better understanding of customers’ needs and preferences. This, subsequently, gives them a broader perspective and insights to better tailor their products and services for customers.

The growing adoption of Fintech solutions allows companies to stay up to date with the competitive marketplace. Thus, projecting a very positive future for the sales process as well as helping companies identify new revenue streams and enhance the overall customer experience.

Conclusion

Fintech has transformed and is continuing to transform the financial world and the way we think about financial services. This is a dynamic and fast-paced industry that keeps on growing and seeing a bigger appeal from all over the world. Fintech solutions, as seen clearly in this blog, are playing a key role in our daily lives, providing a fresh perspective on growth and where this digital world is taking us. The canvas is not empty, yet it is far from complete… there is more creativity to come.

About the Author:

Firas Kanaan is a highly accomplished and results-driven Regional Sales Manager at Technology Strategies Middle East (TSME), with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. He builds and manages high-performing sales teams that consistently exceed revenue targets. Firas has been successfully managing different projects in the Levant and Gulf regions like Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait. His passion for consultancy grew stronger while being responsible for the performance improvement consulting practice and his managerial expertise was remarkably developed throughout the years. Firas faced many challenges and showed excellent dedication, he excelled at improving engagement techniques, business analysis, consultancy, and opening the line of communication with clients and partners.