As trends toward mobile banking and decentralization of access meet increased information around identity and advanced analytics-- opportunities are being created which will enable customers and providers of financial services to interact in unprecedented ways.
This digital evolution has created ‘Fintech’, an industry integrating finance and technology to advance the global, frictionless future of financial services.
Fintech: Where the Digital Revolution meets Financial Services
Originally defined as computer technology applied to the back office of banks or trading firms, the Digital Revolution has expanded Fintech to include any technological innovation in the financial sector-- including innovations that are disrupting traditional trading, banking, and financial products.
In Q1 of 2018 alone, VC backed Fintech companies raised $5.4B-- signaling the scale with which new companies are emerging, and existing companies are disrupting their own business models to reimagine themselves digitally.
- from CBInsights, 'Global Fintech Report Q1 2018'
Digital democratization of financial services is marked by the industry wide pivot from mandatory visits to branches, salesman and desktops-- toward transactions exclusively executed via mobile devices. Customers expect convenience from personal finance apps, and rely upon them to be secure. Our trust in machines to protect us from digital information theft should be implicit-- making effective, reliable, Digital Identity Authentication solutions essential to successful transactioning in the Fintech space.
Fintech + Blockchain
Blockchain technology has the potential to completely transform the way business is transacted across the globe. Fintech is leading this transformation in the financial services industry, as many current innovations in the space include, or revolve around offerings built on Blockchain, including:
- Cryptocurrency - Digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.
- Digital Cash - Money that may be transferred electronically from one party to another during a transaction.
- Smart Contracts - Self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller directly written into lines of code which utilize computer programs to automatically execute contracts between buyers and sellers.
- Open Banking - A concept that leans on the blockchain and asserts that third-parties should have access to bank data to build dApps that create a connected network of financial institutions and third-party providers.
- Cybersecurity - In consideration of the proliferation of cybercrime and the decentralized storage of data, cybersecurity and Fintech are interlocked.
Kairos means frictionless Digital Identity Authentication business
At Kairos, we’ve been telling you about the conveniences created by amazing innovations of the digital revolution, for years. And right alongside our praise of frictionless innovation, has been our acknowledgment of the necessity for equally advanced innovation in identity verification. This need is even more critical in the Fintech space, as access to our banking information, digital wallets, and all aspects of our digital financial lives-- in the possession of a malicious hacker-- could have implications as far reaching as complete financial ruin.
As protocols for the process of ID verification are decentralizing, we are seeing the pivot from passwords to face biometrics as the standard for authentication. Our products are integral to the execution of the Know Your Customer (KYC) processes which fight fraud, and can be easily integrated into your Fintech product to improve user experience and provide the digital security they expect, and deserve.
