The future's Fintech
12 September 2018
Professionals from business and academia have learned how banks are using technology to meet the evolving needs of their customers at the latest in Cardiff Business School’s Breakfast Briefing series.
Increasingly financial products and services are being digitised as customers are paid directly into their accounts, use contactless payment for goods and services, setup direct debits for subscriptions and cheques become near enough obsolete.
These trends have seen banks and other providers champion financial technology, or fintech, creating accelerator programmes and innovation teams to respond to the digital delivery of financial products and services.
Technology businesses
Steve Chown, Entrepreneurial Innovation Manager at NatWest, said: “I think in reality, most financial services businesses today are actually technology businesses.
“As consumer behaviours change, we are focusing more and more on technology because things like branches are just not being used.”
Steve, who has spent the last 25 years in banking, is now responsible for NatWest’s fintech accelerator programmes.
His presentation tracked the evolution of fintech from the introduction of services by Monzo and Revolut arising from the desire for increased competition following the financial crises, to the open banking, block chain and AI applications of today.
“As things like open banking get used more and more, technology will enhance the additional things that financial services can tell you. Are you paying too much for your electricity? Is there a new offer from your mobile service provider? Is your gym membership too expensive?”
“So, in the future we’ll see fintech using your data to analyse what you’re doing and what you’re spending.”
Lynq-ed in
To demonstrate a fintech programme in action, Steve finished his presentation by introducing his colleague, Sina Yamani, Managing Director of Lynq, one of NatWest’s fintech projects.
Sina, a graduate of Cardiff University’s School of Computer Science and Informatics, said: “Technology is making things much more streamlined, much simpler to use, much more flexible and the end goal is to improve the consumer experience.
“For example, Lynq makes it much cheaper for businesses to operate because it connects different types of service providers and applications in one place...”
“So old services that were slow, inefficient and expensive are being replaced by newer companies with better products.”
The Executive Education Breakfast Briefing series is a network that enables business contacts to find out more about the latest research and key developments from industrial partners.
If you were unable to attend, catch up on our live stream of the event.
And register now for our next briefing on 18 October 2018 where Mark Drakeford AM will outline what Vacant Land Tax will mean for Wales.
