Our Funds Electric

No longer a mere buzzword, fintech is the brave new world for the property market— bringing with it innovation, disrupting conventional financial exchanges and enabling customers to save time and money as they benefit from new systems

- Jonathan Evans

Fintech may not be a word we use all that often, but it’s been part of our daily existence for a while now. Internet-based systems like PayPal enable online financial interactions; e-banking procedures are commonplace for anyone with a broadband connection; and contactless (smart) payment cards run the gamut of daily activity, from public transportation to the supermarket checkout.

Global funding of fintech ventures peaked at USD46.7 billion in 2015 as e-wallets and other financial platforms became widely available. A 2017 study by PwC and Startupbootcamp, an accelerator network, further predicts payments via mobile and contactless systems around the world to reach USD95 billion by the end of 2018, and will collectively lower the cost of basic financial services by up to 90 percent. Over the last two years, the rise of cryptocurrency has likewise elicited a feverish anticipation not seen in the tech community since the World Wide Web, giving fintech a whole new impetus.

THERE IS A NEED TO EMBRACE FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY. IT DRIVES EFFICIENCY AND HELPS CUT COSTS AND DO THINGS IN A MUCH MORE FOCUSED MANNER. THERE’S ALSO THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE PART OF THE STORY—THE MORE CONVENIENT YOU MAKE IT, THE MORE CLIENTS YOU WILL ACQUIRE

Even as fintech disrupts areas once monopolised by financial institutions, banks themselves are tapping fintech specialists to take on the modern marketplace. “There is a need to embrace technology,” says Umakanth Rama Pai, chief risk officer at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai, epitomising the refrain of professionals who see immense advantages in adopting such innovations in their operations. “There is something more fundamental: it drives efficiency and helps cut costs and do things in a much more focused manner. There’s also the client experience part of the story—the more convenient you make it, the more clients you will acquire.”