Briefly about what’s important: what investors need to know about the FINTECH industry
Today we will give some facts about the FINTECH industry, which will help investors and start-up teams to understand the current situation in the industry.
A few words about the history
The short history of the FINTECH industry is essentially tied to its relations with the banking sector. The first large IT companies appeared in the field of online payments in the late 90s. The next stage came after the economic crisis of 2008, when banks sharply reduced the volume of loans. As an alternative, there were PSP-sites Prosper and Lending Clubs, which were more loyal to customers. Thanks to technology, the process of obtaining credit has become faster and much cheaper than microfinance institutions. In the future, other IT platforms began actively appearing, making acquiring financial services more affordable. Analysts began to predict that soon FINTECH may even move banks out from the market.
Today, the market’s attitude towards this issue is different. Firstly, banks have their own undoubted advantages, whereas FINTECH platforms have their own. Rather, it would be correct to talk about different target audiences and solving the same problems, but with different accents and bonuses for the client. Secondly, today we can talk about the second stage of relations between banks and FINTECH, which consists in their partnership. It became clear that with the help of IT-solutions, banks can more effectively solve their problems, in particular in attracting customers and optimizing costs. Examples of points of contact between banks and FINTECH developments are: remote identification, alternative credit scoring, fraud control.
Competition
For FINTECH projects, today competition with other FINTECH projects is more important than competition with banks. In some niches there are already many market participants, so it is very difficult for newcomers to become successful. For example, in P2P lending, there are sites that have existed for more than 10 years, attracting multibillion-dollar investments and, accordingly, ready to offer customers the most interesting conditions. In this regard, many lending platforms loudly declare themselves as a more highly specialized platform that offers an ideal product for a specific audience, for example, students. Another strategy through which new startups can win is the introduction of the latest technologies. Investors are particularly interested in artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of things, big data and blockchain.
Our platform SHIFT.cash is an example of a niche platform built on innovative technologies. We specialize on loans secured by car titles. So an owner of a vehicle can get a loan. The target audience of our project is wide: in 2010 analysts counted more than 1 billion cars in the world. The peculiarity of our platform is that the investor and the borrower can be located in different countries of the world, while the loan is received online, as well as all operations for the investor. This was made possible thanks to blockchain technology. With smart contracts, all transactions in SHIFT.cash are fast and secure regardless of state borders.
The best projects 2018
Forbes magazine named the best FINTECH projects of 2018. 20% of the list is occupied by companies associated with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Many experts believe that 2017 will be the year of blockchain. Major companies and governments see this technology in the future as a solution to the challenges facing the financial industry today. The main hopes placed on the blockchain, improving reliability and saving on costs (paperwork, employees performing mechanical work, etc.). According to Accenture forecasts, only 8 major investment banks will be able to save up to $12 billion a year by 2025 using the technology. McKinsey analysts believe that the financial services sector could save $ 110 billion over the next three years.
In the top of the rating Forbes-sites providing alternative lending options. KMPG predicts that in 2018 we are waiting for the heyday of the online lending market. The most active areas in this sector today are P2P, POS and collateral lending. According to the CITI Global Perspectives and Solutions (2016) report, 74% of unicorn projects were in this area, as well as in the direction of payments and transfers. Along with them, factoring, investment management, insurance can be called among the most active sectors.
