With inflation on the rise, your money is losing value. Gold is a solution.
According to the Office of National Statistics, October saw inflation rise to the highest level in almost a decade to 4.2%. Similarly in the US rising costs due to inflation is seeing the value of people’s money decrease.
Over the last 5 years, and despite fluctuations over that period, gold has seen an increase in value of over 40% with an Ounce of gold valued at £976.44 (on 10th November 2017) now valued at £1375.21 (10th November 2021).
According to the Bank of England, over the last five years UK inflation has averaged 2.5% per year. That would mean that if you had left that money in a bank account, with rising prices, your money would have lost 12.5% of its value. However, if you had bought an ounce of gold five years ago and sold today, even after factoring inflation over the period you’d still be much better off. This is why gold is regularly referred to as a hedge against inflation and why especially during times of economic uncertainty and high inflation, people see gold as an attractive safe haven.
Hamzah Almasyabi, Co-founder and CEO of Minted, a precious metals savings app, shares his thoughts on the ever-changing landscape of the industry.
What has been the traditional company response to financial technology innovations nationally?
As a fairly new fintech company with big ambitions, we are always keeping a close eye on innovations in the marketplace and exploring ways to add more value to our customers by leveraging these innovations. We’re constantly exploring possible partnerships to evolve the product both in the UK and internationally and where it makes sense, we’re always happy to explore.
How has this changed over the past few years?
When Minted first burst onto the scene, we were proud of what we had introduced to the market and the value that it brings to our customers. However, as the pandemic hit and we saw how quickly the landscape could change, we realised that as a company we needed to ensure we were always evolving quickly as a platform and staying ahead of the curve. With the evolution of technology and new possibilities emerging, we moved towards being a company that actively monitors the latest developments and incorporates innovations into our solution.
Is there anything that has created a culture of change inside the company?
Minted was born just before the pandemic, and with the pandemic came a great deal of uncertainty and great change in the market and working environment. As a result, we adapted and learnt how to run a lean operation that is remotely set up across different time zones and cultures. It wasn’t easy and took some learning so that it can work well for us, but now that it has developed as a norm, that has allowed us to be flexible and responsive as well as position us well for international expansion which is something we are about to embark on.
What fintech ideas have been implemented?
Our solution includes a range of fintech innovations such as Open Banking as well as Biometric verification to help secure our customer accounts. We use automated recurring payments for our monthly plans to make the buy of Precious easier than ever. We’re now working on adding new product lines including a Precious Metals B2B offering where Businesses will be able to offer their customers the chance to buy gold and silver through them via Minted Connect, a powerful API that will facilitate these transactions and create a new revenue stream for our Business Partners without the hassle.
What benefits have these brought?
Incorporating these solutions have helped us create an efficient platform with a streamlined user experience. Open Banking has allowed for faster payment clearing times, lower costs and increased choice for our customers. Biometric account verification has allowed the onboarding process to be completed in a much faster manner so that our users can make transactions and use the app almost immediately as well as keeping their account and assets secure. Automated payments have allowed us to offer our monthly plan to customers so that they can build their precious metal holdings in the easiest and most convenient manner that there is. We have much more coming and will be adding to the technical partnerships that form our ecosystem.
Do you see any other industry challenges on the horizon?
As technology develops, the risk and sophistication of online fraud has also increased. It’s key to stay a step ahead and businesses who fail to do that may find themselves paying a heavy price. Also, we may see increased regulation in the financial space and further clampdowns on Cryptocurrency.
Can these challenges be aided by fintech?
As fraudsters develop more sophisticated methods, we can expect AI to take a more prominent role in fraud detection and management.
Final thoughts…
If there is one thing that we learnt from the Covid pandemic, it’s how quickly economies and market dynamics can change on a global scale in such a short space of time. With that, and in the fast-paced world that we live in which has been accelerated by technological innovations, the need for companies to be agile and able to adapt in time has never been greater. Embracing technological advancements and being willing to change the norms within your business can be the difference between success and failure.
