Page 40 - Banking Finance May 2019 N

ARTICLE

Y The first stable cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) was released - in response to their need. It is expected that the adoption
2009 of these technologies will have a disruptive effect on all
Y Google introduced Google Wallet-2011 aspects of financial world.
Y Digital media giant Apple launched Apple Pay- 2014, The fintech industry is also becoming more diversified, with
and many such new and innovative financial a wide variety of business models seen across geographies,
technologies are emerging each day. segments, and technologies. The scope of products and

services offered by fintechs is expanding rapidly. The shift
Expanding scope of Financial Technology brings fintechs away from a focus on frontline activities to a
(Fintech) Services broad engagement throughout the value chain, where once
fintech companies focused on payment applications, lending,
Once considered more of a back-end, data center processing and money transfers, the industries reach has extended into
platform, Financial Technology has in recent years come to more than 30 areas (exhibit).
be known as the basis for end-to-end processing of
transactions over the Internet. It has an impact on all levels
of the financial services industry including administration, Most Promising Forms of Fintech and
underwriting, management, compliance, risk management, their effects in Financial World:
accounting, asset management etc.
Some of the most promising forms of fintech and their
effects are described as under:
Adoption of financial technology can provide solutions that Y Mobile and web-based payment applications -
can better address customer needs by offering enhanced
The majority of developments in the areas of payments
accessibility, convenience and tailored products built around
are based on mobile technology (e.g. Apple Pay,
'consumer-centric' approach and understanding user needs Samsung Pay, and Android Pay etc.). There are also
and then building a continuously improving user experience
mobile payments built on new
payment infrastructure, such
as M-Pesa in Kenya and IMPS,
BHIM in India, which provide
payment services. There are
number of web-based and
mobile-based payment
applications that primarily
focus on the customer
experience and often aim to
better integrate payment
transactions within the
commerce value chain. With
the increase in mobile
penetration & strong internet
connectivity, payment system
going to take the major share
of payment business space.

Y Distributed ledgers
Technology/ Blockchain
Technology
Distributed ledger
technologies (DLT) provide

40 | 2019 | MAY | BANKING FINANCE