Former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson, might have said it best: ‘everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’
In this report, Erlang Solutions consider what the events of the last year will mean for fintech as we move towards the ‘new normal’.
For financial services institutions, much of what was road mapped for 2020 was ripped up or, at the very least, put on ice in response to the sucker punch that was the coronavirus global pandemic. At the time of writing, the world has been in ‘pandemic mode’ for over a year and there is little doubt that the global crisis will have a more profound impact on our societies and world economy than we can entirely know at the moment. Nonetheless, some clear patterns are emerging in the financial services industry set against the backdrop of advancing vaccine availability and iteratively improved governmental response protocols, making this an excellent time to consider what we can expect next for the sector.
For the Erlang Solutions team, we were well-positioned to shift to full remote delivery thanks to us already working in a very agile and distributed manner. Still, we have had first-hand experience of the challenges facing our clients and partners in the FS industry from both a business model and technological perspective. Projects have been accelerated, altered and postponed, challenging us as a business and as engineers to keep meeting the high standards we have set ourselves over the last 20 years building innovative systems that can scale to millions of users.
We focus on the following areas that have risen in prominence in recent months and how they could look as potential channels for improved tech scalability and reliability in FS: digital transformation, digital-first finance, security, blockchain and digital currencies. Along with our shared experiences working with FS clients around the globe, we have also interviewed and collaborated with some of the most influential commentators in the industry. We thank them for their time and thoughtful contributions.
The future of finance is digital
Not only is the financial industry not the cause of this crisis, it in fact holds the potential of being a key driver of economic recovery. Many of the trends of the last year will remain in the new way in which the financial services industry operates. Digital payments, improved data security and system resilience, and innovation in the use of blockchain and digital assets are not new to fintech but now they offer up genuine avenues for solving the real-world problems of today. Most importantly, there is now an environment within the whole FS ecosystem that recognises that technology can help improve our lives exponentially and create a better future.
Fintech firms especially, being well versed in the art of disruption, are well placed to adapt and prosper as we settle into any new normal. Other traditional financial institutions, having come through the immediate operational crisis of the pandemic, will no longer elect to ignore the need to digitise. With a return to traditional corporate office spaces unlikely in the same way as before making remote work a far bigger part of how businesses operate, everything from internal collaboration to customer authentication, to payments, must now incorporate remote-friendly practices.
The transition towards a digital-first economy will maintain the momentum to accelerate digital transformation. FS will eventually see a flurry of prototypes and POCs leading to full scale, consumer-facing apps and digital tools to solve many of the sector’s new and pre-existing pain points. With governmental support and suitable regulation, fintech will be one of the sectors that will end up with enhanced importance as we emerge from the crisis. As a software consultancy that works with clients in the space from the global payments giants to bootstrapped startups, we are very aware that individual projects need a tailored approach to be a success. This is why we favour a consultative approach where we immerse ourselves in our clients’ businesses to understand the problems they are trying to solve on a strategic and technical level.
In essence, at Erlang Solutions our ethos as a tech company rests in providing highly scalable, sustainable and resilient solutions. Working with us as a partner means you can avoid the high costs and inefficiencies of in-house development. What sets us apart is our commitment to enabling your tech team to successfully address all the difficult strategic decisions with which they are faced, minimising delays in time to market, avoiding inefficient practices and wasted resources.
To read the report in full, click here.
