Category: FinTech

If you are wondering how you can spend your unused Bitcoin, here is a place where we are bringing value in return of it. Now crypto can help you in getting your software project developed sooner. We at INT. have started accepting different cryptocurrencies for payments and transactions with our clients, as announced in this Valdosta Daily Times article.  A burgeoning number of members of different domains of the worldwide industry are accepting/utilizing bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies for a host of reasons such as investment, operational, and transactional purposes. As of now, INT. only attempts to keep the usage of cryptocurrencies at a transactional level for primarily Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. As with any novel frontiers, there are many unknowns, but also strong incentives to explore them further. We will attempt to explore the kinds of questions and insights enterprises should consider as they determine whether and how to use digital assets, including transacting with them. Why consider using crypto? More than 2,300 US businesses accept bitcoin, according to one estimate from late 2020, and that doesn’t include bitcoin ATMs. An increasing number of companies worldwide are using bitcoin and other digital assets for a host of investment, operational, and transactional purposes. The use of crypto for conducting business presents a host of opportunities and challenges for any company, let alone software ones. As with any frontier, there are both unknown dangers and strong incentives. That’s why companies venturing to use crypto in their businesses should have two things: a clear understanding of why they are undertaking that action and a list of the many questions they should consider. What can crypto do for your company? To spark your company’s thinking about crypto, here are some of the biggest motivations behind why some organisations are currently using crypto: Crypto may provide access to new demographic groups. Users often represent a more cutting-edge clientele that values transparency in their transactions. One recent study found that up to 40% of customers who pay with crypto are new customers of the company, and their purchase amounts are twice those of credit card users. Introducing crypto now may help spur internal awareness in your company about this new technology. It also may help position the company in this important emerging space for a future that could include central bank digital currencies. Crypto could enable access to new capital and liquidity pools through traditional investments that have been tokenized, as well as to new asset classes. Crypto furnishes certain options that are simply not available with fiat currency. For example, programmable money can enable real-time and accurate revenue-sharing while enhancing transparency to facilitate back-office reconciliation. More companies are finding that important clients and vendors want to engage by using crypto. Consequently, your business may need to be positioned to receive and disburse crypto to assure smooth exchanges with key stakeholders. Crypto provides a new avenue for enhancing a host of more traditional Treasury activities, such as: Enabling simple, real-time, and secure money transfers Helping strengthen control over the capital of the enterprise Managing the risks and opportunities of engaging in digital investments Crypto may serve as an effective alternative or balancing asset to cash, which may depreciate over time due to inflation. Crypto is an investable asset, and some, such as bitcoin, have performed exceedingly well over the past five years. There are, of course, clear volatility risks that need to be thoughtfully considered.

If 2020 will be remembered as a dark year for the pandemic, it is darker for the banking sector. It lost $3.3 trillion revenue as customers abandoned the application for its mediocre customer onboarding experience; banks have also reported losing 78% of the customers to the neobanks.  With physical branches closed and everything moving online, banks are expected to do the same. Moreover, the convenience of digital banking attracts customers to seek digital channels for communicating with their banks. In the Cornerstone Advisor survey, it has been noted that customer onboarding ranks top the customer list when it comes to banks, followed by payments and lending. Focus on Customer Onboarding In a fiercely competitive market, banks must focus on customer onboarding with enhanced customer experience. As per the report by Gartner, two-thirds of companies are competing in the customer experience segment. Moreover, poor onboarding due to lack of automation process, reliance on manual workflow and long customer touchpoints will escalate the loss.  Honestly, the lack of automation in customer onboarding and poor customer experience is not hidden from the banks. They are well aware of their flaws. The fear of failing to comply with the banking regulations are forcing them to redirect the banking customers to the physical branches. This leading customers to switch to the challenger banks. Commercial banks take up to 16 weeks for the single client onboarding process. According to the research report by Delloite, there are eight steps to be followed for the client onboarding process such as: Commercial banks are heavily reliant on completing these steps manually, thus slowing down the onboarding process. In contrast, in the case of neobanks, the client onboarding process takes less than 20 minutes, and account review is done within three working days. This process is entirely digital! Thus banks must reconsider their onboarding model to be in line with the rising customer expectation of experiencing a fully digital experience.  Remodelling the customer onboarding process The latest intelligent automation process can handle complex business-critical anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC process. The latest technologies hold promises to improve the customer experience journey by delivering greater speed and accuracy. The report suggests that “$100 million can become one time savings by adapting automation”. But, how banks can adapt to automation if they are looking for one right now? According to Deloitte, banks can start their automating journey in the following steps: Operation Analysis  Banks must understand their onboarding process thoroughly. They must analyse on a task level basis to understand the cycle time of each task. Repeated tasks must be identified and redirected for automation.  Complexity Scoring Banks should segment each task into high, medium and low complexity scoring. Based on the level of scoring, the bank must target to automate the process. According to the report, banks must start with low complex tasks to high complexity tasks for automation.  Collaborating with technology partner With multiple options for technology partners available on the market, banks must carefully choose their software development partner for vendor support and vendor experience. Banks must consider the following key attributes before finalising on a technological partner: Completing a pilot programme The bank must run a pilot programme to visualise how the automating process will look like; Banks can better understand the results of implementing automation in a controlled setting for a short period of time. Go Live and Scale After full completion of the pilot project, the bank can finally implement automation on the entire process. There will be an iteration process of modifying the code to deploy bots by the technology partner. Further in the future, banks will deploy more bots in the onboarding process to automate it.  Attract customers with the enhanced customer onboarding experience With the increasing number of acceptance in automation in the customer onboarding process, commercial banks need to deploy advanced technologies in the following uses to scale up customer acquisitions: Custom-built CRM can help gather insights and thus deploy analytics to cross-sell relevant products to the customer. Lowering the fraud rate through digitising ID collection processes such as “account opening through video identifications” or “biometric in document validation”. Mobile-first solution through an intuitive app for onboarding  Fetching real-time data for offering products at the point of sale Thus, for end-to-end digital banking solutions, we deploy our expertise to zero in success. INT.’s client onboarding platform is a blend of using robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive technologies. The platform, through captured data, provides uniformity in customer experience across multiple channels. A centralised system helps in performing risk assessment and overall customer profiling. Comprehensive intelligent customer onboarding solution of INT. helped in- accelerating customer acquisition through minimum touch points, it reduces operational cost drastically, increases productivity by 5x through automation and reduces chances of money laundering rates through in-built risk profiling tools. To know about emerging technologies deployed in the customer onboarding process, book a free consultation. Till we contact you back, go through a few of our success stories.

In the last five years, we have seen four times growth in the number of neobanks globally. In contrast with the reports, it is observed that from 2018 to 2020, there has been a dip in customer trust by 2.9%. So, Digital banking startups are in a tough spot. Suppose we are thinking about the reason for the rise of neobanks (in numbers). In that case, it is because of their relentless approach towards customer-centricity, wooing them with an innovative tech stack and conveniently reaching out by means of modernised services. Then why are they losing customer’s trust? According to the AT Kearny report, by 2023, neobanks are projected to have up to 85 million customers alone in Europe. A large customer base doesn’t mean neobanks have huge trust. An inverse relationship has been noted- a large customer base leads to a huge loss of profit for the neobanks. Challenges led to the loss of trust.  Customer acquisition is expensive. New customers aren’t always profitable when there is less direct deposit relationship and huge compliance and customer service cost. Neobanks tends to overlook the lifetime value of a customer.  The pressure to attract new customers at a higher rate than their competitors has forced neobanks to provide high savings rates, low lending rates and discard many preliminary charges that lead to renouncing profits. Later on, after increasing the customer base, these neobanks tend to change their pricing model and thus lose the trust of a highly engaged customer base. Currently, the world is going through digital transformation, and everything around us is customer-focussed. Neobanks, to be the disruptor, need to act fast. Focussing on customer acquisition can provide short-term success, but neobanks need to develop a unique proposition for long sustainable growth. Today, “one-size-fits-all” is an old concept and neobanks need to become niche in its offer through a “customer-first bank”. 2-Key success factors for Neobanks With rapidly changing customer behaviour and crowded market, neobank needs to provide unique offerings to stand out. Here is the list of top two ways where neobanks should narrow down the focus:  Meet the unmet needs for micro-savings and micro-insurance  In the neobanks sector, there are ample products in the market that fulfil the demand for stable incomes, but the uncertain income group segments find fewer products viable for them. Thus, neobanks may find a niche in providing financial services to the huge unbanked segment. A goal-oriented approach to attract customers faster A vast number of customers lack financial knowledge; thus, directly reaching out to them with the product will be a flawed strategy. Neobanks should come up with a more goal-oriented focus to attract customers faster than their rivals. For eg: a different sort of financial advice should be given to the person who wants to save for their children’s higher education and different for someone looking for starting a business. Shift from product-focused to goal-focused. A tool kit for neobanks to become “Customer-First.” We have been studying the neobanks market for a long and have realised that neobanks need to be customer-centric to disrupt the banking landscape by offering hyper-personalised products. Here is the checklist crafted after identifying the challenges neobanks are facing in 2021. We know whether neobanks cater to the smaller segment or more extensive customer base, it becomes essential to build customer-centric systems and processes. Leveraging a strong voice led system for advising or high AI and computer visioned tech to enhance the front-end technologies, neobanks must adopt technology to provide financial services to the unbanked.

Robinhood, a noun that was synonymous with valor, courage, and unconditional financial support to the backward class. However, times have changed and so has its usage.  Let me tell you Robinhood is a trading app developed by two Stanford Alumni. When we came across this, we decided to deeply understand why this name was chosen.  The answer was a number of existing applications missed the humane touch which users felt was a must-have when it is about trusting a brand. The study carried out revealed that first-time-investors are keener towards gathering more knowledge on stocks and various investment strategies whereas experienced investors are more interested in joining an expert community to talk more on investments and have a deeper insight into the already invested stocks through varied graphs and charts.   Robinhood identified this shift and aimed at creating a community in which we have an existing leader and guide everyone around with their learnings and experience. They later aimed at creating algorithmic trading principles based on data and learnings. However, were they successful? The answer is NO! Many users reported the information being compromised and hence leading to a huge loss of money. Many others revealed that there aren’t enough resources to fall back to for having more insights and others cited the lack of an expert community where they can learn, compete and practice investment together. Even after so much fame and research, Robinhood failed to earn the confidence of its users. It revealed a new threat to the fintech app users.  The Gamified version of a fintech can make it attractive but lack of comprehensiveness, lack of transparency, and lack of humanized ethics will be detrimental. In fact, a number of users accused Robinhood of “luring young traders and ending them up with devastating results”. Digital makes things easy to implement and optimize as well. With digital financial revolutionization growing with disruptive technologies like AI & ML, it has also attracted many other consequences which need to be taken care of. Some of the challenges we see are  “Lack of security compliance dampens the fintech market” “A survey conducted by TopLine Comms on 2000 consumers found that a major 83% were ‘unsure’ of the workings of the fintech companies.” Despite all the major efforts, we have often heard of fintech failing! Lack of security and absence of regtech is making the situation worse. Numerous reasons come up when we deep dive into the reasons for the failure of Fintechs. But, security often tops the chart. We always have to come up with a solution, and humanizing fintech apps is one. It is important to talk about failures and accept the loopholes without always suppressing it. “Make apps empath to humanize fintech” When we say humanizing fintech apps we don’t mean only embedding human voice in a digital space. It is beyond that! “There are five fundamental pillars on which banking for humanity can be realized such as financial inclusion; financial literacy; financial capabilities for the vulnerable; financial wellness; and promoting sustainability” When companies start taking care of the five pillars, succeeding probability becomes higher. Applications must act as a source that has empathy and values the money. Ensure you have smart bots and relevant integrations to support users’ capability to manage money better than ever. “Make it simpler and easier to understand” In a legacy system, bankers understood the client personas and came up with a solution, which undoubtedly was easier to understand and hence could easily earn the trust of Gen X and Y. But, the challenge is to entice the GenZ, who are more tech-savvy than their previous generation.  The concept of “physical teller” is long lost! But, we need a human factor to make it more humanized, and Fintech apps are expected to behave like them but at a much faster rate with no flaw. Overall, a fintech app is expected to teach financial strategies at layman’s terms!  Come up with an accurate and clear understanding of the requirements of the target group. Start educating them based on your inferences. Delivering a convenient experience through convenient UX. Empowering the customers with visualization power of financial management and planning.   “On-Demand human-touch” Human is an integral part of the financial services industry. Fintech, to date, has found difficulty in earning the trust of the customer in a smaller period. It is hard to gain the confidence of the users with their investments. When fintech is deploying technology to automate the process and deploying AI, ML to collect the customer data, maximum time for tiresome work has been slashed. This spare bandwidth can be utilized in building trust and reliability with the irreplaceable human touch. The idea should be to ensure lower response time and better CSAT. “Give bank to the unbanked” To humanize fintech comes up with a responsibility to act on financial inclusivity. Giving basic banking facilities to the unbanked makes the fintech more human. Fintech can play a major role in financial inclusivity which also makes the app resilient.  A major portion of the informal sector doesn’t have access to the credit and lending facilities of the banks. This is an opportunity for fintech to intervene and give credit lending access to the unbanked. Also, helping them with other fundamental banking activities such as storing, saving, and managing wealth. AI-based fintech deployed to develop a tailored financial product for the “new-to-credit” group thus penetrating the uncharted market segment. Further, it will humanize the app for creating vast opportunities for the unbanked and underbanked. Beginning of Humanization In a survey on fintech consumers, it has been found that users are reluctant towards complexity with their money. With advanced technology and the recent rise of numerous fintech services, malpractices have increased at a huge rate. Money being an emotional part of common lives, the transaction becomes an emotional process, and taking chances with it, requires a lot of trustworthy reasons. Standing out in any segment of fintech services is a bigger challenge and if we think

In the digital era of 2020, where technology is driving change in almost every industry, BFSI is not lying behind. Rather, it is one of the prime sectors where digital disruption has forayed at a rapid pace and transforming the way it functions over these years. With every passing second, digital transactions are emerging as a survival imperative. No doubt, COVID-19 pandemic has played a catalyst to this transformation, but in an extremely competitive premise, eliminating silos and maintaining a collaborative ecosystem is crucial to delivering seamless customer service. Though positive effects of the technological innovations are already evidenced in Indian BFSI, it’s high time to scrutinize in parallel, why the disruption is outweighing the benefits in certain areas. Here’s an insightful take on the emerging trends and their impact by the industry leaders like Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, the CEO of Bandhan Bank and Abhishek Rungta, the Founder & CEO of Indus Net Technologies, an award-winning digital-first agency that is playing a key role in syncing technology with digital marketing. Are the Large Tech Enterprises the Forerunner of Digital Disruption in BFSI Financial services is fundamentally a tech business and it’s absurd to see them separately. The future of digital disruption in BFSI will mostly be an interplay between the involvement of technology in traditional Banking. As quoted by Abhishek Rungta, “ Traditional banks will gradually emerge into a regulated platform to provide the transactions, compliances, data hubs, and microservices, and syncing technology in this system will provide them with a competitive reach.  He has added, “Tech companies that want to become banking institutions eventually through their reach, data on individuals, and ease of access for the masses. These are companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Apple may not be playing a role in the Indian market anytime soon, but I expect the other three to disrupt the financial services industry fundamentally”   “Fintech (many of them will die, some will survive – the ones who have figured out the right product and marketing) who will create long-tail financial products which will sit on top of the platforms offered by traditional banks and the tech-giants turned financial service institutions” Is Digital Disruption Something Beyond Online & Mobile Payments Digital payments are more of a tool for customer service. In reality, digital disruption connotes a bigger picture in terms of analytics, machine learning, fraud detection, robotics process automation, blockchain implementation, innovative distribution channels, and many more. In the coming years, new business models are most likely to emerge as the disruption will impact the relationship between bankers and merchants, as well as between technology providers and financial institutions and fintech. Human Interface or Hybrid Model: What’s the Next Big Thing We cannot ignore the fact that customer relationships are built on an empathetic or emotional plane. AI cannot match the emotional quotient of the human interface The digital speed will surely be a deciding factor in terms of the current scenario, but without a hybrid model, the banks will succumb to the conundrum in the long run. The Bottom Line The digital transformation is not an overnight affair. Rather it’s more of a strategy that needs continuous work in progress. Banks need to reinforce their respective strength areas and redefine their operations with friction-free digital-first models. Alongside, it’s important to look at mitigating risk factors in digital transactions. It’s high time that the banks start focusing on customer-centricity and comprehend human behaviour above everything else. Still, there is a major segment of the unbanked population, who are still interested in cash dealings instead of adopting digital channels. Before diving into the digital wave, it’s important to decide whether the digitization initiative will benefit this group as well as the consumers as a whole. Check out Mr. Abhishek Rungta and Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh discussing about “Emerging Digital Transformations Being Witnessed by the BFSI Sector”