Fintech is all about using modern tools to improve and create new applications, products and business models related to financial services. It is also about making the most of emerging technology and the global means to share information in order to make the financial system more agile. The term itself is a recent one, but the ideas behind it go back many decades.
The earliest examples of fintech are probably telecommunication innovations, like telegrams and morse code, that helped streamline communications and cut costs for businesses involved in international finance. However, the modern phenomenon started to take shape in the 60s with the introduction of ATMs and credit cards. These are all forms of financial technology that were primarily designed to reduce the cost of doing business and enhance consumer convenience.
Since then, the focus has shifted more toward digital innovation, as seen in the growth of NASDAQ and SWIFT, which established communication protocols between banks for large cross-border payments. In the 90s, online banking was introduced as a more convenient alternative to traditional banking. The 2000s saw greater digitization of the financial sector with the introduction of PayPal and other online payment services.
Today, the most popular fintech innovations include robo-advisors (like Wealthsimple) and savings apps, peer-to-peer lending platforms like Prosper Marketplace or LendingClub, cryptocurrency apps, and “insurtech” companies that use technology to speed up applications, underwriting and coverage determination. All of these help expand financial inclusion by enabling consumers and small businesses to bypass traditional financial services firms to get the money they need. https://greyjournal.net/hustle/work-tech/navigating-the-new-challenges-for-fintech-startups-in-a-changing-economic-landscape/