The Fintech sector is constantly changing. According to data from the Observatory of Financial Digitalization Funcas – KPMG and the Spanish Association of Fintech and Insurtech, in the last three years, the companies operating in this field have multiplied by four. In Spain, there are already 2% of Fintech companies in the world and they employ 3,500 people.
In this context, new technologies and market demands are emerging that make the sector change and move towards new challenges. Marketpay, a Fintech smart payment solutions company, analyzes the main trends that will mark the development of Fintech in the coming years.
Biometrics
Without a doubt, 2018 was the launch of biometrics applied to remote customer identification. The forecast is that this technology will consolidate and advance until it is definitively established.
In fact, as highlighted by Marketpay, there is talk that passwords will soon disappear and will give way to facial or voice recognition of the user. “We are working on an increasingly secure type of identification, in order to prevent fraud and impersonation”, says Ricard Forn, CEO of Marketpay.
Blockchain for the financial market
Blockchain technology allows authentication of transactions without the need for third parties or entities. This way, it creates a more agile and effective system.
In addition, it provides new conditions of security and trust, something basic in the financial field. “The application of the blockchain in the Fintech sector will be increasingly important. It will bring about a major reduction in costs and eliminate the possibility of fraud and errors,” says Ricard Forn.
Robotic Process Automation
Massive adoption of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is expected. RPA will allow banks to increase efficiency and eliminate wasted time. According to KPMG, financial institutions that adopt RPA realize up to 75% cost savings.
Bots can perform repetitive administrative tasks quickly and accurately. This means greater efficiency. In addition, their adoption can go further and contribute to improved customer experience.
The talking bank
One of the trends that are being implemented the most is the implementation of conversation interfaces with the user. More and more, the user demands to be able to have direct communication through chat messages.
For this reason, the “Conversational User Interfaces” is here to stay, and they are even starting to experiment and work with voice conversation as a tool for more direct communication with the financial institution. We have moved from telephone banking to online banking, and now we are talking about voice messaging and conversation.
Artificial Intelligence and Fintech
Finally, another technology that has revolutionised and will continue to revolutionise the Fintech sector is artificial intelligence. Thanks to it, mechanisms can be created to solve problems or perform a service as a human expert would. AI will be very much present in the coming years both in the services offered to the client and in the management of the banks themselves.
The evolution of IoT: invisible payments
They are those that require the least possible human intervention. Today it is no longer necessary to take out the card to make each payment, it is enough to do it only once. The card is tokenized (it is kept encrypted, in a very safe way, without anyone being able to access it).
The rules of transparency and fraud on the platforms are improved, so that the customer can make payments with a simple click on an app, or by bringing the card or mobile phone close to the cash desk or machine, with the peace of mind that there is no risk and absolute traceability of all movements.
In the next few years, what is already a reality today will go one step further: human intervention will be eliminated to the point that payment will no longer even have to be accepted. This is the evolution of the IoT: machines make decisions for humans based on business rules configured with complex algorithms, including payment decisions.
For example, a refrigerator recognizes the products it has inside and automatically gives an order to replenish what is needed, with the generation of the corresponding automatic payment order based on a card already tokenized, belonging to a customer who has, of course, accepted the use of such system.
In the words of Marketpay’s CEO, Ricard Forn: “It is still a mystery to what extent and at what speed invisible payments will affect the payment models on the platforms, but Marketpay is already taking advantage of the opportunity to define a start-up model that will serve as a reference for the sector”.
The Fintech Smart Payments Marketpay solutions company provides smart payment technology for digital businesses. Three years after its launch, it has more than 50 national and international clients of very diverse types, ranging from marketplaces or crowdfunding platforms to other fintech or neo-banks or large companies such as telcos or energy companies. It has been rated by Early Metrics, an independent rating agency in the United Kingdom, as one of the most promising startups in Europe, placing it in the top 20% after evaluating more than 1800 companies.
