Opinion By Chris Harmse, Co-Founder of BVNK 

In a short period of time, cryptocurrency and blockchain has gone from being a niche area of finance to an increasingly integral part of corporate banking and treasury functions. According to a survey by Deloitte, 76% of senior executives believe digital assets will serve as an alternative to, or replacement for, fiat currencies in the next 5–10 years. Gartner forecasts that 20% of large enterprises will use digital currencies by 2024. 

Also read: The impact of blockchain on various areas.

The current challenge facing Chief Financial Officers and Treasurers is how best to manage their legacy currency operations with emerging cryptocurrency requirements across payments, trading, custody, and yield. However, as organizations get to grips with this challenge, a new breed of financial service provider is emerging to help create crypto-powered banking experiences. 

What’s Fintech and what are the best financial technology companies?

Fintech is definitely the shortened version of the phrase Financial Technology, which is currently utilized to explain companies that provide financial services using contemporary technology and software program. A few fintech advancements have improved conventional services, for instance mobile banking apps, while some other have revolutionised services like pay per mile automobile insurance or even developed items that are brand new, like Bitcoin.

Also Read: Is Crypto Part of Fintech?

Wherever perhaps you have learned about Fintech and Fintech platforms?

Fintech has been a buzzword recently. It’s frequently reported in the media by way of new financial technology companies and product launches or maybe anxieties about precisely how new advancements will be regulated to protect users. See the importance of Fintech on next video Davos 2017 – The Global Fintech Revolution:

 

Everything you have to learn about Fintech technology companies and their innovation systems

Fintech has been one of probably the fastest growing sectors, with fintech funding growing, brand new start ups and investors placing cash into accelerators and incubators for revolutionary little fintech businesses. Innovative innovative developments have challenged the conventional way of doing things in fintech services, which includes peer-to-peer lending means there’s currently a substitute to borrowing from the bank as well as mobile only stock trading apps charging no charges where global fintech companies main goal is to create innovate services to consumers and business as a financial technology innovation lab.

For many, fintech investments may be at the riskier end of the spectrum, with start ups failing to recognize the regulatory environment or otherwise packaging the item of theirs properly. Nevertheless, you will find new innovations plus more revolutionary technologies being produced which may be utilized in the future. Suggestions like enhanced information analytics that will assist consumers perfect the funding decision of theirs making even more, making this and fascinating place to be conscious of.

Also read: The Ultimate Breakdown: What Are the 4 Types of Cryptocurrency?

Evolution of fintech Fintech has been around a lot longer compared to a lot of people believe. Even though the most recent iteration of fintech lets you spend on a cup of coffee with a mobile app, the story of fiscal technology may be traced back to the first credit cards which were adopted into the common public in the late 1950s.

Immediately after the charge card, monetary engineering evolved and also launched a number of significant milestones to the mass sector, for example ATMs, electric stock exchanges, bank mainframe pcs, as well as web based stock switches. Each brand new portion of technology advanced the monetary infrastructure which almost all folks used each day, but seldom had to consider.

Before the 1990s as well as the era of the word wide web, traditional banks, thrived on fintech. Based on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, banks increased from about 13,500 business bank branches in 1950 to more than 83,000 in 2008. In the late 1990s & early 2000s, internet fintech businesses, like PayPal, entered the marketplace but did not truly threaten the standard infrastructure until the 2008 global financial problem. Throughout this particular time, lots of individuals lost the trust of theirs in regular banking while millennials welcomed completely free as well as online new financial technology hub. Fintech is an extensive cluster which entails numerous technologies and several business models.

Nowadays, fintech treatments are actually challenging the conventional financial infrastructure, as more services move to a brand new technological paradigm, like making use of a transaction app on a mobile wallet rather than carrying bodily credit cards in an actual wallet.

There are several kinds of Fintech technologies and Fintech platforms

Fintech has revolutionized a number of different markets, most particularly the banking, trading, insurance as well as risk management industries. Fintech makers as financial services companies, which include startups, technology companies and established financial institutions, utilize emerging technologies, like big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and edge computing to create financial services more accessible plus more effective. You will find a variety of kinds of fintech:

1. Mobile wallets as well as transaction apps are several of the most ubiquitous types of fintech. Services like PayPal, Square, Venmo, Apple Pay and Google Pay enable peers to transfer cash to one another or maybe merchants receive payments from clients. These wallets are changing the payment process all over the world.
2. Crowdfunding platforms, like Gofundme and Kickstarter (there are more fintech companies) have disrupted pretty traditional financial backing alternatives by permitting platform subscribers to commit the money of theirs in companies, people and products.
3. Cryptocurrency as well as blockchain systems are several of probably the most popular, and most scrutinized instances of fintech. Cryptocurrency exchanges, like Gemini as well as Coinbase, allow users to purchase or even sell cryptocurrencies.
4. Blockchain technologies additionally have the potential to move into industries outside of finance to minimize fraud it´s the mainstream financial services companies.
5. Robo-advisors comprise of algorithm based profile suggestions as well as control to lower costs and boost efficiency. A few common robo advising solutions include Ellevest as well as Betterment.
6. Stock trading apps, like Acorns and Robinhood, have turned out to be an innovative and popular instance of fintech as investors are able to trade stocks from anyplace because of their mobile device rather than visiting a stockbroker.
7. Insurtech businesses have disrupted a lot of diverse insurance types, like house as well as automobile insurance. Vendors as Oscar Health and Credit Karma are actually examples of insurtech firms that have entered the healthcare as well as personal finance business.

Influencers in fintech technology industry that all fintech platforms wants a review 

1. PATRICK COLLISON
   @patrickc
   Patrick Collison is Founder and also Chief Executive Officer at Stripe, an on-line payment handling business that develops fintech innovation framework and aims to “raise the GDP of the web.” He gets on the Board of the Long Now structure as well as has been included on NPR, on Tim Ferris’s blog site, and interviewed by Mark Zuckerberg for his job Tech and also Society.
2. TIM COOK
   @tim_cook
   Tim Chef is President at Apple. Throughout his tenure, he has actually led business reforms on monitoring, cybersecurity, environmental impact, and production as well as appeared in Time Publication’s list of the “100 A Lot Of Prominent People on the planet.” Apple’s moves into electronic banking and also payments will form the future of fintech.
3. KRISTO KAARMANN
   @kaarmann
   Kristo Käärmann is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the global inexpensive money transfer service TransferWise. In 2018, TransferWise had 4 million customers as well as handled around $4 billion month-to-month. Before this, he was a Manager at Deloitte and also an Expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers. His passions include retail money, data warehousing, insurance policy, on the internet solutions, threat administration, and cloud computing.
4. VITALIK BUTERIN
   @VitalikButerin
   Vitaly Dmitriyevich “Vitalik” Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer and writer who is best known as one of the co-founders of Ethereum. Vitalik Buterin, a cryptocurrency researcher as well as programmer, is the Owner of Ethereum, the globe’s second largest (after Bitcoin) cryptocurrency platform. Ethereum is open-source and also designed for non-centralized procedures. Its currency is the Ether (ETH), and its system is utilized by more than 1,900 cryptocurrencies and symbols. The Ethereum system went deal with 65 million Ether coins in 2015.
5. TOM BLOMFIELD
   @t_blom
   Tom Blomfield is CEO at Monzo, among the UK’s very first totally digital banks with more than 3.6 million accounts developed. Prior to this, he was Vice President of development at Grouper as well as Co-Founder of GoCardless. He is interested in startups, company consulting, and innovation.
6. NIK STORONSKY
   @nstoronsky
   Nik Storonsky is Founder and CEO of Revolut, a central financial services remedy for financial, spending, on-line payments, global cash transfers, and global ATM MACHINE withdrawals. In 2020 it was valued at ₤ 4.2 billion ($ 5.5 billion), making it the UK’s the majority of valuable fintech startup. Before this, he was an Equity By-products Trader at Credit Bank Suisse as well as Lehman Brothers.
7. BRIAN ARMSTRONG
   @brian_armstrong
   Brian Armstrong is CEO and Founder at Coinbase, one of the most important financial services institutions , a cryptocurrency system that intends to produce an open, international financial system. He is also Founder of the philanthropic giving system GiveCrypto, which monetarily encourages people by providing cryptocurrency so they can access the international economic system. Prior to this, he was Chief Executive Officer and also Founder of UniversityTutor.com and worked at Airbnb.
8. VALENTIN STALF
   @valentinstalf
   Valentin Stalf is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at N26, Europe’s very first mobile financial institution. In 2016, N26 was valued at $3.5 billion. Before this, he was Entrepreneur in Residence for the on the internet incubator and investor Rocket Internet, where he was associated with creating fintech and also on the internet payment firms consisting of Paymill GmbH as well as payleven.
9. SIMON TAYLOR
   @sytaylor
   Simon Taylor is Founder as well as Blockchain Method Lead at 11: FS and also is a co-host of the podcasts Fintech Expert and Blockchain Expert. He typically rates as a leading influencer in fintech, financial, and insurance coverage. Before this, he led r & d of blockchain at Barclays. He presently advises governments and services in blockchain as well as dispersed journal technologies.
10. MINH Q. TRAN
    @Minh_Q_Tran
    Minh Q. Tran is a Taking Care Of Companion at Mandalore Allies, an investment fund sourcing and also partnering in cutting-edge technologies and calculated financial investment lorries. He is also a Founder or Partner at Insurtech Resources, Alchemy Team, Seed Founders, and AXA Seed Factory. As an investor and influencer, his interests include asset building, alternate assets, insurtech, wealthtech, and proptech.
11. RON SHEVLIN
    @rshevlin
    Fintech expert Ron Shevlin is Director of Fintech Research at Cornerstone Advisors and also a Senior Contributor at Forbes’ Fintech Snark Tank. The author of guide Smarter Bank, he is a worldwide fintech influencer and also audio speaker. Prior to this, he was an Elderly Expert at Aite Team, Vice Head Of State of Advertising at Epsilon, and also Vice President at Forrester Research.

Fintech Unicorns are the top of fintech technologies ?

The fast rise of financial modern technology on financial services sector has revolutionised just how we spend, save as well as obtain money in the 21st Century.

Many of the FinTech companies begin– ups which have actually appeared in the last number of years have hit the desired billion-dollar valuation mark.

For some people, it’s been a lengthy journey to unicorn condition; but for others, the surge has been speedy. New research study from FintechZoom has actually taken a look at the surge of 100 of the largest FinTech platforms in the world, like financial technology companies, exposing simply how long these worldwide disrupters took to come to be unicorns.

The UK has 11 business in the fastest 100 worldwide FinTech unicorns, behind only the US (46) and China (13 ). With an average-time-to-unicorn-status of 8.7 years, the UK is eighth in the listing in terms of rate. Australia, China as well as Brazil blaze a trail. Also, we find easily several big fintech stock examples on financial markets like, Square, Paypal, Amazon, Ant Financial, Revolut, Stripe, Wise or even Maqeta.

How Fintech Platforms Make Money and what are their Business Models? 

1. Subscriptions/Fee

Wonderful and simple: the money comes right from the customers themselves. Monthly or year, the fintech business bills the individual a specific quantity for their services. This is an useful monetisation approach considering that totally free tests provide the user an opportunity to “taste” your item before going all in. It’s rather uncomplicated and also it’s additionally rather popular. Lots of Fintechs use this strategy, such as Revolut as well as others.

The other technique which is generally partnered with memberships is a flat cost, also known as a “transactional strategy”. The company earns money every single time there’s a fund transfer. For instance, Wise charges in between 1% to 4% every single time you make a settlement overseas (although it’s complimentary if it’s another Wise account).

So how fintech companies like Monzo generate income? Both through registrations as well as purchases. Every single time a Monzo individual pays with their Monzo debit card, Mastercard or Visa (in this instance Mastercard) bills the seller (Lidl, a coffeehouse, anywhere you’re acquiring) a little percentage for each deal (that’s why some merchants don’t approve card or have a minimal card quantity). Monzo takes and maintains a small piece of that purchase for themselves.

It’s not much, and that’s why Fintechs require to focus on expanding in order to have countless users as well as make it worth it. In addition to those tiny portions they keep, the fintech business may do memberships or adopt among the income models below.

2. Robo-advisors

We’ve had a look at neobanks, currently let’s check out robo-advisors.

Robo-advisors are a sort of system that enables customers to trade on the financial business market paying extremely reduced fees. The user does not require to pay for investment experts because the platform uses formulas as well as devices to manage profiles. Examples of business like these are Betterment, Robinhood as well as Moneyfarm.

Just how do they make money? Like financial investment managers, they additionally charge a specific portion of overall properties. The distinction is that it’s more affordable. Financial investment managers can bill 1% or more, whereas Betterment costs 0.25%. Overheads are lower because robo-advisors utilize formulas that instantly designate, take care of as well as maximize properties.

Consequently, more cash for them. Robo-advisors are a fantastic way for a business to generate income thanks to the reduced overheads. We’re seeing increasingly more Fintech companies deal robo-advisors in order to raise income.

3. Third parties

This appears to be the most financially rewarding and also the very least time intensive earnings method for financial technology companies. These platforms incorporate with 3rd parties that use value in a few other way to clients. Instances could be a credit history tool (Nerdwallet), health insurance, accounting solutions as well as more.

It’s pretty straightforward: the Fintech reels in the clients, routes them to the third party and the third party offers a percentage of their revenue to the Fintech. An example of a company rolling in money from this strategy is Coinbase. They’re a marketplace for buying and selling crypto. Thanks to their partnerships with Expedia, Dell and others, they can enable bitcoin payment functionalities with Paypal and Stripe. Mo’ money for them.

The Oliver Wyman paper reports that only 26% of total Fintechs rely on third party beneficiaries, but that nearly 43% of the mass market solutions ones (the budgeting and savings tools) use this revenue stream. There’s a huge opportunity here because financial services can literally be integrated into everything: governments, universities, schools, insurers and more. And with invisible payments soon being a thing … just imagine!

4. Advertising and Affiliate programs

One of the oldest forms of monetization is simply putting ads up and selling your users attention to other companies. This is a model that works because users don’t need to pay money to use your services – instead product owners sell customers’ attention or data to advertisers and business partners. These customers can also invite friends or relatives and encourage more users to join through referrals.

An example of this working is NerdWallet, a website that offers advice, information and many fintech products / tools to help people make financial decisions. They make money from ads and also from partners for reviewing and promoting their products.

You may not have seen many fintech platforms with ads on their websites or apps (thank God!), this is because they mainly focus on referral arrangements rather than advertising – offering bonuses for signing up a couple of friends. Hopefully we won’t be seeing ads any time soon!

5. Data? and This is the Key.

In this current information age, data and machine learning is more valuable than gold. One of the reasons some financial technology companies are so successful is because they are able to gather data and offer a more personalized service to users. Fintechs are able to see what people are spending their money on, when they receive their salaries and who their favorite merchants are. This data is gold, and can also be a sweet revenue stream.

Just think about the huge amount of data Big Tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon have. And once they enter the financial services industry … that gold turns into diamond!.

As the website LendFoundry states, Big Data is a huge asset. However, “the gap between Big Data and monetizing it requires careful strategizing and planning”. Fintech platforms should be focusing on enhancing their data economically, whether through upsells or cross-sells in order to make it even more valuable.

More and more Fintech and tech companies are taking on this strategy as an income stream. An example would be the budgeting app Yolt. The app has a ton of data on people’s budgeting habits. That’s incredibly useful data to third parties such as credit score companies and banks. Yes, it’s creepy, but you did sign that T&C before joining…

6. APIs?

Thanks to Open banking, APIs not only allows data to flow more securely, but it also offers the opportunities for companies to build products through partnerships. With Open Banking, Fintech A has built a pretty cool feature and could now sell it to Fintech B with an API.

The new revenue model means Fintechs could sell licenses and code. A collaboration might mean growth in revenue for all partners involved (including the big banks). Who’s going to build the apps and interfaces so companies and financial institutions can share customer data securely? Whoever that is, they’ll be making a pretty penny.

As FIS Global’s white paper suggests, “This area is a nascent financial technology industry for productivity-improvement, driven by new APIs.” Since Open Banking is pretty new and this revenue model is still pretty new, I put a? – but I do believe more and more Fintechs will be adopting this strategy to increase revenue.

Conclusion and what will be the future for Fintech Platforms?

The financial technology sector shows every day many new  fintech technologies, many fintech platforms, many fintech products. These financial companies, like banking services or corporate financial data are making our real world roll out like payments, payroll, transfer money, well it´s a global financial services on fintech industry.

We can read all days on fintech news different examples of fintech fetishism”—an excessive optimism, that is also show on global fintech adoption index. 

These global fintech services are connecting financial services world with huge and critical financial data very important to market, so is these the reasons of fintech unicorns worth?

Just as fintechs helped transform the banking user experience over the past decade, new crypto-banking platforms will become the next generation of banking infrastructure – in the process creating faster, more flexible, and lower cost services.

The key driver behind this shift is blockchain. Distributed ledgers enable banking platforms to structure financial services and transactions in new and more efficient ways, where trust is baked into the model from the outset and costly middlemen made redundant. This change signifies nothing less than the digital transformation of banking infrastructure, and the results will be unprecedented. Here are some examples of just how cryptocurrencies and blockchain will change business banking.

1. Enabling faster and more efficient payments and settlement

For fiat currencies, cross-border payments are fragmented and heavily regulated, leading to varying constraints depending on the jurisdictions involved. This fragmentation and complexity stands in stark contrast to our globalized and digital business environment. 

Today, merchants wishing to deliver an international service must use a range of payment service providers to meet the individual requirements of each market they operate in. Similarly, companies must manage a large number of bank accounts denominated in the different currencies they use. Using SWIFT rails, international merchants lack visibility into their payments and are burdened by lengthy settlement times (approximately 3-5 days) and high FX charges.   

The alternative afforded by blockchain and cryptocurrencies is as day is to night. Now, funds can be transferred within 24 hours to anywhere in the world using crypto rails (i.e., directly from one account to another). And costs are reduced with fewer intermediaries involved. 

Indeed, it’s not just cross-border settlement that benefits from blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Regular payments derive similar benefits from faster processing times and much lower transaction costs thanks to disintermediation. International payment providers take huge commissions for their services, but in reality add little in the way of value. Crypto rails and wallets offer a compelling alternative. 

2. Securing a high yield on assets

Once businesses have accumulated capital they put it to work. However, today’s record-high inflation rates and the associated impact on fiat currencies are causing treasury departments within organizations to look elsewhere to increase the value of their capital. With cryptocurrency, businesses are able to earn a yield on their digital assets at rates that often outperform traditional asset classes (Bitcoin is the best performing asset of the decade). 

For organizations that do not wish to be exposed to the volatility of the crypto markets, there’s an alternative. Through advanced banking platforms, organizations can lend their digital assets to third parties, such as hedge funds, which use the borrowed assets for innovative trading strategies. To reduce risk, companies can leverage digital asset custodial solutions, which ensure that digital assets do not leave secure custody and are insured against cybercrime while there.

3. Decentralizing credit services 

Decentralized finance (DeFI) is one of the most significant changes being brought about by cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Distributed ledgers remove the need for a trusted central bank (the hallmark of a fractional reserve fiat banking system). Rather, blockchain embeds trust and transparency through the underlying ledger of past transactions. 

One use case for this approach is particularly compelling: DeFi credit services. Blockchain-based smart contracts allow two or more parties to lend or borrow directly, according to pre-agreed conditions and without the need for intermediaries. As a result, DeFi credit services have the potential to disrupt the traditional credit ratings-based approach to lending, where the rating agency and bank has total control over access to credit. 

The implications of this shift are significant. Previously unbanked segments of the population and those with unconventional credit histories will be able to access credit. On a personal level that could mean all the difference to people struggling with rising costs of living. 

Similarly, DeFi credit opens a new and dynamic source of credit for small businesses, and one which costs less than traditional lending thanks to the removal of expensive intermediaries. Such services could thereby help unlock growth for smaller organizations at a time when lending from banks remains stubbornly low. 

4. Enabling real estate investment

Another way that businesses make money is through investments in real estate. However, as with payments processing, real-estate investments using fiat currency come with challenges, particularly in international settings. Companies can struggle for transparency into their investments and need to overcome the complexities of local investment rules relating to property. 

Advanced banking platforms enable cross-border real-estate investments via digital tokens and in a way that is much more transparent and scalable than with fiat investing. Not only that, but the real-estate investment itself can be ‘tokenised’, that is represented by a digital asset on the blockchain – as tokens can be divided into smaller shares, this brings greater liquidity to otherwise illiquid assets such as property and rent, and broadens investment opportunities. 

Real estate has also now been brought into the realms of DeFi, with real estate transitions being refinanced by participants in DeFi protocols – or the “bank of DeFi” – effectively removing banks from the real estate financing business.

Once again, by reducing the need for intermediaries, cryptocurrencies lower the cost of real-estate investing, while also providing a means by which companies can manage risk. 

Like fiat, only better

For the next few years at least, the majority of organizations’ financial dealings will be in fiat currency. But the balance between fiat and crypto is changing and the adoption of the latter will only accelerate. New banking platforms like Protego Trust, for example, have emerged to help companies manage this transition by bringing together both elements of their core business banking. But as the benefits of cryptocurrency become clearer, and businesses experience the full benefits of empowered, disintermediated, and agile money management and banking, it won’t be long before fiat currency starts to seem like an outdated monetary technology.