By Adam Gaca, Head of Cloud Ops at Future Processing

As inflation rises and the economy fluctuates, a significant number of consumers are beginning to look for alternative ways of banking and managing their finances. This is where fintech comes into play, as it offers a wider range of services that align with the needs of modern consumers. The fast-growing industry covers most financial services that are available online, from digital lending and mobile banking to cryptocurrency and insurance. Over the last few years, the growth of financial technologies has been rapid, exposing the sector to a range of difficulties from scalability to security.

Evolution of Fintech

Financial technologies allow vendors to access financial services and tools that allow them to better market online and reach a wider customer base, which is a step forward in supporting small businesses with limited financial resources. Additionally, as the UK market is evolving at a rapid rate, it becomes the target of cybercriminals as fintech companies obtain more valuable data to protect than ever before.

Beyond digital risks, there are many security threats surrounding digital banking. Most cybercriminals use social engineering techniques to gain access to the target organisation’s networks, which is a growing danger for digital corporations. Reducing fraud, which is an increasing issue for many businesses, is certainly a goal for financial services providers. Fintechs can help businesses navigate this challenge by employing smart devices such as mobile phones or wearable gadgets that store biometric data to help authenticate individuals.

Meeting the Needs of the Modern Consumer

The flexibility that fintech has to offer attracts global consumers, small businesses and startups to adopt these tools over traditional banks, for their ability to deliver universal digitised services in a quicker, easier and more cost-efficient manner. Consumers use fintech services for electronic payments via apps like Klarna, PayPal or Revolut, which offer free online accounts that function no differently from traditional bank accounts. The modern financial consumer is open to different ways of banking, but is also aware of risks associated with new technologies. Although the majority of fintech companies seem to be matching those expectations on a similar level, we can’t dismiss the customer satisfaction that further drives businesses’ growth.

Considering Modern and Emerging Technology Trends

Keeping consumers’ changing demands in mind, the industry has observed a shift in making payments more convenient to suit their customers. From utilising mobile wallets and contactless payments, mobile banking and insurance to investing and savings apps. Beyond investing in a stock or foreign currency, we witnessed a large interest in cryptocurrency, which offers a completely new form of investment that fintech apps now facilitate. Businesses are now aware of easy access to a range of services including lending and credit solutions. These new unique selling points attract businesses who look for a more effortless experience and are expecting fast results, which drives fintech’s need for better scalability. More businesses using financial technologies lead to increasing concerns over data security, the very worst nightmare of any digital enterprise. All these challenges lead to the goal of maintaining user retention. It took decades for traditional banks to persuade consumers to trust them with their finances, and it is still a challenge to maintain the loyalty of consumers who chose to look for better service beyond the standard.

Cloud Computing

There is no panacea when it comes to fintech companies overcoming the increasing challenges in today’s digital marketplace. There are, however, some technological solutions that are worth considering. The biggest is Cloud computing, which offers solutions to alleviate some issues fintech companies are exposed to through improved flexibility, increased security, bolstered innovation, and better scalability at a global rate. Cloud computing defines anything that involves providing hosted services over the internet, they include infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS).

The aim of Cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services regardless of location. Financial firms can gain a higher level of data protection, fault tolerance, crisis recovery and eliminate the risk of delays and disruptions in the supply chain. Cloud computing also delivers a high level of redundancy and system backup at a more affordable price than traditional managed solutions. With access to large data from small businesses or consumers, fintech companies gain agility by aligning their services with their clients’ needs and offering further digital solutions, which certainly works towards remaining competitive in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Fintech is a growing market which developed immensely as a response to consumers’ needs, in light of recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and economic uncertainty, but also the ongoing supply chain crisis that caused huge disruptions to data centres, which without access to components struggle with building their own infrastructures. Industries which accepted new norms now thrive using emerging solutions to leverage the benefits of digital transformation. As the market grows and innovation is a significant driver of a competitive edge, businesses need to consider how best to implement these new technologies. Cloud computing is undeniably a growth propeller in the fintech industry’s expansion by promoting safer data storage, improved scalability, faster processes and better security.