Of apps and algorithms: How tech newcomers are changing the landscape of Finance
Retail banking is still dominant in every developed country. But with the help of new Financial technology and the support of the authorities, disruptions are already brewing.
Here’s a prediction: future bank-robbers will not be after the gold or cash stored in the bank vaults. They’ll calculate that stealing servers with treasured data inside, might be their best bet in a data-driven world. Hackers going to be the new bank robbers. Actually, they already are.
Currently, under the banner of “Enhanced customer experience”, banks sift through enormous piles of data: what do the customers spend money on, where do they shop, and even what sites do they browse online.
Disruptors with better financial ideas are fighting an uphill battle if they can’t access that data. Banks until now had enjoyed a virtual monopoly over customer data — a monopoly that has allowed the quality of provided services to slip, and the fees to go up.
Nevertheless, in Europe, at least, with the curse words of GDPR and PSD2 becoming common household names, this story is unravelling in unexpected ways. Expect a plot twist.
ORCA is delivering one of those plot twitsts — building an open source platform for financial services. A banking Spotify if you will. It will allow integration of bank accounts, digital wallets and cryptocurrency exchanges into payments services. All done digitally and reachable on your computer or mobile screen. Just a few clicks to link accounts, and you won’t have to leave the platform ever again. It’s like a millennial wet dream. Cryptocurrencies, banking on a digital application, suggestions from artificial intelligence-fueled assistant and full customization capabilities. What can top that?
Visit ORCA Alliance website to whitelist for the tokensale.
Getting away with lousy service
Retail banking provided financial services can be complicated, hard to obtain or alarmingly expensive for people on low or volatile incomes. Especially disadvantaged are those with stubby or non-existing credit records.
For the person with a remote or freelancing job and on-the-go lifestyle, the drawbacks of not having a local bank account can also be burdensome. Sending money home and exchanging foreign currencies involve forbiddingly high fees if you’re not a valued customer.
The settled types too sometimes bump up against the stonewall of bureaucracy and find it hard to cope. According to the Centre for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI), a think-tank, 35% of American households which turn in more than $60,000 a year. Once again proving that being good at earning money and managing it completely different skills.
In some instances, even though you have a bank account, you can be denied some of its services, such as loans or mortgages. People in these circumstances are defined as “underbanked” — thus their only option in a financial hardship is to to go outside the banking system, usually turning to services such as payday loans.
Going digital and affordable
FinTech (Financial Technology) is filling in these gaps by cutting costs for just about everyone and disrupting traditional banking models. According to NewVantage Partners 2018 executive survey, nearly 80% of top financial firms’ executives fear their companies are at risk of disruption from highly agile, data-aggregating comptitors.
Armed with algorithms instead of clerks
Security procedures in Banks can be frustrating. When opening a new account, the process shouldn’t really take more than an hour of your time. While Inconveniences such as having to post documents, visiting a branch in person can definitely be avoided.
Yet these old practises refuse to surrender. This is where disruptors are essential. Monese, a digital banking company, for example, does not require customers to provide physical documents. Rather it asks them to install its app, video themselves and snap a photo of their passport. Identity is checked with high accuracy verification algorithm, and bank account is opened within 2 minutes.
MONI is developing automated help in various languages with the help of artificial intelligence.
Lower service costs and novel products
By adopting cost-cutting Artificial Intelligence (AI) or blockchain technologies, FinTech firms are able to simplify their services. As they develop new theories and business models, they also cut costs for everyone.
TransferWise as well as Revolut are already fairly entrenched in the foreign exchange and money-transfer markets, offering keenly priced rates. Revolut as of 2018 March has already saved $160 million for its customers in fees.
Peer-to-peer lending, on-the-go insurance and even the sale of crypto-currencies are also bound to bring novelty and sharp technology to the business. An added bonus is that FinTech firms are better at collecting and sifting through data. They can thus find creditworthy people among those, who might otherwise be denied loans and other services.
Zopa, a pioneer in peer-to-peer lending, is particularly efficient on this front. Offering loans at reduces rates and less cumbersome security checks as well as providing savings accounts.
Competition broadens horizons
The authorities have encouraged the entry of these service providers, partly because big banks have become ever more dominant and loathed after the financial crisis. A particular source of disruption in European Union is a new set of regulations, snappily named the Second Payment Service Directive (PSD2), which came into force this January. Under new rules, banks are compelled to share data with licensed third parties at the request of an account-holder.
Not only does it essentially force Big Banks to innovate to keep up, it also opens up new frontiers for the financial upstarts. “Open Banking” apps might build on banks’ aggregated data by offering services such as alerting users if they are splurging out on alcohol or iTunes hits, or allowing them a single-tap option to send unspent income directly to retirement plan. Financial data can be neatly organised in one place and combined with other banking information to compare service fees of different providers.
Open Banking, as the term suggests,opens APIs of financial institutions and brings in competition from startups, What is more, the majority of cryptocurrency service providers are already built using open APIs.
It’s a perfect match for ORCA’s platform. Delivered through 5-stage implementation process, ORCA will be a dreamlike application for personal finance management. Link financial accounts, track your exposure, make the best trades and become financially independent. Easy, convenient, and simple. Just what a regular person needs.
In Summary
The storms are fast approaching, breaking windows and blowing new winds into the dusty filing cabinets and vaults. The change should be welcomed for practical reasons of cheaper and more innovative customer services as well as for the philosophical aspect: it is a step towards the ideal of free financial services. No doubt, with novelty and laudable goal on their side, Fintech firms can disrupt the old guard.
It’s a perfect time for change. And thanks to PSD2, Europe is location where the change takes place.
