What is Fintech? What are Some Definitions of Fintech?

Fintech is changing the world of finance at a rapid scale. Here are a few examples:

• Credit Karma, a fintech startup barely exists 7 years ago, has now more than 80 million users in the US and Canada.
• Monzo, a mobile-only bank, becomes the most opened bank in the UK in a little more than 3 years.
• Yue Bao, the assets management wing of Alibaba, has over 100 billion-dollar assets under management in just 9 months after its launch.

This brings to the question of what is fintech?

Definitions of Fintech

The World Economic Forum defines fintech as:
“new entrants that promised to rapidly reshape how financial products were structured, provisioned and consumed.”

EY adopts a more encompassing definition of fintech as:
“organizations combining innovative business models and technology to enable, enhance and disrupt financial services”, emphasising that fintech is not only about early-stage start-ups and new entrants, but also scale-ups, maturing firms and even non-financial services firms.

In the same vein, McKinsey & Company characterises fintech company as:
“start-ups and other companies that use technology to conduct the fundamental functions provided by financial services, impacting how consumers store, save, borrow, invest, move, pay, and protect money.”

Similarly, KPMG defines fintech as:
“a portmanteau of finance and technology” which includes (1) “businesses who are using technology to operate outside of traditional financial services business models to change how financial services are offered” and (2) “that use technology to improve the competitive advantage of traditional financial services firms and the financial functions and behaviours of consumers and enterprises alike.”

Accenture states that fintech is about using technological advances to improve financial services, emphasising that:
“the ‘tech’ in Fintech is the emergence of brand new technologies, such as AI, blockchain, analytics and big data.”

In other words, fintech represents not only a powerful force of disruption from startups and technology companies to the financial industry, but also digital transformation within traditional financial services firms.

These include the application of technology such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain to offer superior services in sectors such as retail banking, asset management, insurance and compliance.

In this age of digital transformation, mastering fintech becomes increasingly critical to have a successful career in finance. At CFTE, we have developed two executive fintech education programs designed for finance professionals, entrepreneurs, technologists and consultants to bridge the knowledge gap.

Around Fintech in 8 Hours is a structured course in 16 modules that teaches the essential concepts to understand the impact of technology in finance. CFTE developed the course with 4 experts who know the industry inside out. Our co-founder and senior lecturer, Huy Nguyen Trieu, has led the Oxford fintech Programme and the HKU edX fintech MOOC.

AI in Finance is the first of its kind online course that dives into the specific application of artificial intelligence in finance. In AI in Finance, you will be able to learn from those who are building AI and from those who are implementing AI. These are AI CEOs, senior leaders from banks, investors and regulators who are driving the AI agenda around the world, from the US to Europe and Asia.

Join CFTE to embrace to change.