As we know it, one of the largest and fastest transforming sectors globally in the current age is FinTech. With that comes new challenges and unique growth patterns. While wallet-less transactions have taken us by storm, there is more innovation packed in the journey for fintech. The sector is transforming rapidly in many new ways and is here to touch our daily lives. I would like to share some interesting FintTech trends and top initiatives that are going to revolutionize it further, especially the ones I see being dominant in Southeast Asia:

• Blockchain and Crypto

Blockchain technology is set to decentralize most of our everyday operations. Many fintech, banking startups, and insurtech have already adopted this all-new development environment. It is enabling a leap in financial transactions globally with its low processing fees, speed, and global accessibility. An analysis by PwC suggests that 2025 will be the tipping point when blockchain technologies will be adopted at scale across economies worldwide. The key application areas include payments and financial services, contracts and dispute resolution, and identity management. One of the most interesting regional use cases for SE Asia is our very own DBS bank – which is soon planning to launch crypto trading for its investors.

DBS will be launching crypto trading for all its retail investors.

This news was revealed by DBS’ CEO, Piyush Gupta, during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call recently. DBS’s brokerage arm has had secured approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide crypto services in 2020. India is one such country that has over 15 million crypto traders. DBS already had its crypto exchange working since December 2020 and launched a trusted service for cryptocurrency in May 2021, along with the launch of its first security token offering. 

• Digital-Only Bank

Another exciting and swift development that will be relevant in the near future is the concept of a digital-only bank. It will provide banking facilities only online through app platforms and on mobile and tablets. Closer home, Standard Chartered launched a digital-only bank in Singapore jointly with NTUC – named Trust Bank, which is soon to be launched. India’s SBI is ready to launch a complete digital bank with a leaner and modular architecture, more streamlined journeys, sleek and personalized customer-centric design – Only Yono. Banks are looking to cater to a defined customer segment, providing a more targeted approach than ever before.

Digital payment is evolving and soon we may never step into a bank or queue up to open an account – and yet nothing will stop, as we go about our daily activities uninterrupted. Here, I would like to share one of my customer’s animated chats with me, on how we are living entirely digital:

“On one of the Saturdays, I took my daughter to her Ballet class. We left home early at 8:00 AM and after her class, went for a breakfast buffet, did some shopping, took taxis from the street to reach from one place to another and finally reached home at noon. On reaching home, I noticed that my wallet was left on the dining table, and it was then it struck that I wasn’t carrying any card or cash with me at all. I spent many hours shopping, eating, and commuting just using my mobile! 

• AI Disruption

Artificial intelligence is transforming so many industries, including BFSI. AI based technologies are making banking processes faster, money transfers safer and back-end operations more efficient. AI is transforming customer interaction by enabling 24/7 customer service, robo-advisers, AI voice and more – making CX a delight with automation in processes and lesser human intervention. 

Data collection, real-time analysis, risk management, data enrichment and security – there are many use cases of AI in the financial sector today. According to a recent survey by OpenText, almost 80% of banks recognize the benefits of AI, 75% of them already make use of this technology. Whereas, financial institutions and fintechs continue to invest in AI-based security systems ‘to significantly reduce digital attacks and spot suspicious activity in real-time.’

• Buy Now Pay Later Solutions

In 2020, 8% of global e-commerce purchases are made through a “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) services. This figure is forecasted to double by 2023. Instead of paying for an item up-front, the customer pays off the item via installment payments. Thus, Buy Now, Pay Later is expected to be the fastest-growing payment type globally over the next five years.

Retailers are opting in for a buy now pay later solution to help enable customers in purchasing their daily essentials with an affordable financing plan so that they can pay it out in installments rather than at one single time. Many businesses across the world are using buy now pay later for financing large equipment, purchasing raw materials and paying employee salary in driving the growth of the overall market.

As the market size has increased and reached $90.69 billion in 2020, it is also projected to reach $3.98 trillion dollars by 2030 growing at an unprecedented rate of 45.7% from 2021-2030. It is a short-term financing solution that has helped individuals purchase daily useful products like clothes, electronic devices and other important products. Some of the biggest players in the market are Affirm Holdings, Afterpay, Paypal Holdings, Payl8r, Perpay, Quadpay and Sezzle.

Ashnik for Fintech

Ashnik is a leading enterprise open source solutions company in Southeast Asia and India, enabling organizations to adopt open source for their digital transformation goals. Some of the major clients that Ashnik has worked alongside have been from the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) industry. We help bring insights and expertise to help enterprises in the key areas of: 

• Delivering Database platform of choice
• Enabling hybrid and multi-cloud platform
• High-speed Data Pipeline 
• Building log aggregation platform for infra monitoring
• Building Kubernetes platform
• DevOps and Automation

To know in-depth about the top FinTech trends and success stories check out our case studies or feel free to get in touch with our team of experts for a free consultation.