FinTech Influence on Today’s Generation

by: Felipe Daguila

Twitter: @felipedaguila

The rise of FinTech and the social impact it implicates on Traditional Banking Institutions.

The rise of FinTech and how it took traditional banking institution by storm struck a strong chord of resemblance to the movie, “Desk Set”. Much like the movie, “Desk Set”, technology became the cause and fear for many incumbents in traditional banking institutions.

Anxiety began to rise as study by Accenture reported that global investments in financial technology ventures tripled from US $928 million to US$2.97 billion, between 2008 to 2013.

This has led to a “jump on the bandwagon” reaction by a few traditional banking institutions. However can we really fault FinTech for its rapid successes in just a short amount of time?

Among one of FinTech trends that have caused a huge social impact on today’s generation is: Bit coins. Bit coins first emerged in the FinTech industry in 2008, as a part of an online payment system. Its peer-to-peer system has benefited a lot of people; particularly foreign workers who have to pay remittance fee for every transaction made, which could be costly.

Bit sparks, a Hong Kong based remittance start up company, shared its social impact success story that took the world by storm. Co-founder and CEO, George Harrap cites instances when the company made it possible for foreign workers to remit small amount of money to cover their family’s medical fee in just an hour’s time — free of excessive costs and restriction, which would be impossible via traditional remittance service.

Perhaps it’s time for incumbents in traditional banking institutions to ease the fear towards FinTech, and embrace the strong positive social impact that it radiates. Take a cue from Richard Sumner in “Desk Set” and let technology do its work.

Editors Notes: This entry has been submitted to the FINTECH Book, the world’s 1st globally crowd-sourced book on FINTECH. Readers that enjoyed this innitial abstract are invited to share and like it so that it may be featured in a longer version that will published in the FINTECH Book due to be released November 2015.