FinTech - Financial Technology Course And Certification

What Is Financial Technology – Fintech?

Financial Technology shortened to as Fintech is a term that is used to describe new technologies that seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services. ​​​

Fintech is introduced to help companies, business owners and consumers better manage all of its financial operations, processes, and lives by making use of highly specialized software and algorithms that are used on both computers and smartphones.

The word "Fintech", is a combination of "Financial Technology". 

When Fintech first came up in the 21st Century, the term was first applied to the technology that is used at the back-end systems of well established financial institutions. ​Since then, however, there has been a shift to more consumer-oriented services and therefore it now has a more consumer-oriented definition. Fintech now involves other sectors and industries such as retail banking, education, fundraising and nonprofit, even investment management to mention but a few.

Fintech also involves the development and use of crypto-currencies such as bitcoin. That branch of fintech may see more headlines than others, though the big money still lies in the traditional global banking industry and its multi-trillion-dollar market capitalization. 

Features of Fintech

Some of the most active areas of fintech innovation include or revolve around the following areas:

Cryptocurrency and Digital Cash: Fintech offers Blockchain technology, which includes BitCoin, LiteCoin, Ethereum, Ripple etc. These are distributed ledger technology (DLT) systems that manages and maintains records on a network of computers, but has no central ledger.

Smart Contracts: Smart contracts or e-contracts makes use of computer programs to automatically and digitally carry out contracts between buyers and sellers.

Open Banking: Open banking is a financial technology that offers open APIs for third-party developers to build applications and services around financial institutions providing transparency options for account holders ranging from open data to private data. 

Regtech: Regtech seeks to help financial firms to meet up with industry compliance rules, especially those that involve Anti-Money Laundering protocols and Know Your Customer protocols in order to fight fraud.

Robo-advisors: such as Betterment, makes use of algorithms to automate investment advice to lower its cost and increase it's accessibility.

Cybersecurity: given the proliferation of cybercrime and the decentralized storage of data, cybersecurity and fintech are intertwined. 

Benefits of Fintech

1. Better Payment System: Fintech is a very useful software that can make businesses more accurately collect payments. They also ensure that they’ll have good relations to customers to increase the chance of return customers and new buyers.

2. Rate of Approval: There are many small businesses across the US that are starting to use financial technology lenders. The main benefits of these vendors are accessibility and speedy loan approvals (typically within 24 hours).

3. Greater Convenience: There are many Fintech companies that provide a single platform of payments, such as Adyen. This Adyen company serves more than 4,500 businesses around the world.

4. Efficient Advice: Many of the latest systems rely on robo-advice to help people understand their finances. Fintech is a very low-cost option and you can get more useful information with this system. However, the main drawback is that this in-depth advice will not come from a professional adviser.

5. Advanced Security: Fintech company security methods are very secure to keep their customer’s data safe. Many consumers use Fintech without any regrets, because it’s safe for investment. Also, there are plenty of new options that you can use, like tokenization, biometric data, and encryption.

Why Study Fintech

1. Gain essential fintech knowledge and skills. 

2. Become a competent fintech professional and analyst.

3. Enrich your CV and increase your earning potential.

4. Job opportunities and career advancement.