A FinTech聽firm has called on big banks to聽tap into聽the innovation within smaller聽providers聽to ensure they stay relevant in the fast-paced world of technology.
Kaye Rickards is the聽sales聽& marketing director聽at London-based retail FinTech Deko, which was created to tackle paper-based manual聽processes in the聽lending marketplace.
She聽says tech will eventually cut across all banking and finance –聽but that first there is a big challenge to face.
鈥淭he bigger the bank the more complicated the challenge is to change the existing tech that鈥檚 in place聽鈥� legacy systems are cumbersome and costly so working with smaller providers means bigger banks can scale quicker,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
鈥淓verything鈥檚 like a spaghetti junction in larger organisations 鈥� you have to unpick the processes before you redefine them and it can be a challenge for some parts of the finance arena but I think automation of those processes using technology can transform any business.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got lenders that use our tech as Software as a Service because it鈥檚 better than their own tech. They like it so much they put it into their own business and we are very proud of that.鈥�
Back in 2008 Deko had a vision that lending could become more like card payments and was the first to pursue this, using tech such as e-signatures to create a platform for lending for the eCommerce generation.
However progress in finance doesn鈥檛 mean ignoring聽existing regulation and legacy, says Rickards.
鈥淚n banking and finance you鈥檝e got regulation,聽GDPR and all the other heavy-duty regulatory considerations and that will never change,鈥� she said.
鈥淵ou can do a lot with tech but you鈥檝e still got to be respectful of those regulations, you can innovate around them but you can鈥檛 get away from them.
鈥淵ou need to know how to treat customers fairly, you need to show finance options, APRs and terms and conditions聽transparently聽and you need to make sure the customer knows what they鈥檙e signing up to.鈥�
This includes obtaining the right information and sending the customer back the right messages, says Rickards.
鈥淎ll finance lenders have a responsibility to some degree to ensure the consumer knows what opting for finance will mean for them. That will never change.鈥�
础蝉听FinTech grows companies must capitalise on supporting the finance process in a much more enjoyable way for the consumer to transact and borrow money, says Rickards.
鈥淲hen you look at how people鈥檚 transactions happen 鈥� from shopping to banking and organising their daily lives 鈥� a huge percentage of today鈥檚 consumers don鈥檛 know any way other than using a mobile device,鈥� she said.
鈥淔or example 65 per cent of all applications that we process come from mobile devices so having the ability to use tech to make the journey easier and the AI behind it to monitor and optimise it and make it better is absolutely crucial to a competitive edge.鈥�