Finance

5 myths that fintech startups shouldn't believe

The fintech industry has been growing at an impressive pace for several years. New, unusual solutions are appearing and the biggest players are outdoing each other in offering innovations. Due to the increased interest in modern banking, the fintech industry is surrounded by long-held beliefs that have little to do with reality. At INCAT, while working every day with entities planning to enter the fintech industry, we encounter such misconceptions all the time, so today we decided to tackle the most popular ones that create a false image of the industry.

1. It takes a huge amount of money and time to make a fintech

What is the truth?

The amount of financial expenses that a fintech startup incurs depends primarily on the business model adopted. If you decide to develop the whole fintech infrastructure and a wide range of services, then of course it requires a lot of funding - you need a budget for operations, infrastructure, team, technology and marketing. However, if you choose the minimal option and decide to develop one service at the beginning and see if the market will accept it, then you can afford to optimize cost and time by choosing, for example, the INCAT FaaS AI platform, which allows you to quickly implement a transaction system and the possibility of subscription billing instead of a standard license.

2. Your product or service must be a gamechanger

What is the truth?

Innovation is a word that is used in all cases in the fintech industry. It is commonly believed that a solution offered by a fintech company must be unique and must completely change the rules of the financial market. Meanwhile, the recipe for success in the fintech industry is much simpler - you don't have to reinvent the wheel and create a solution that no one else offers yet. You can do similar things to those already on the market, just do them better. Find out what the pain points of users of existing solutions are and answer them, without necessarily changing the status quo right away.

3. Fintech's biggest enemy is the traditional bank

What is the truth?

The competition titled "fintech vs bank" has existed since the very beginning of the fintech industry. The thing is, while in the beginning there was a slight rivalry between banks and fintechs, this has now changed to collaboration. Banks recognize the technological potential of fintechs, while fintechs are open to partnerships with banks to build their customer base and navigate the challenging regulatory environment. The PKO Polish Banki initiative titled “Let’s fintech with PKO'' can be an example of such cooperation. Let's Fintech with PKO Bank Polski is a program of partnerships with startups under which PKO is looking for fintech solutions ready to conduct internal and production pilots and scale their business in partnership with the Bank.

4. Regulation kills innovation

What is the truth?

The fintech industry is an area that, just like banks, operates in a certain regulatory environment, but it is not designed to stifle innovation, but to create standards and to ensure transparency and security of financial services. In addition, Polish regulator - KNF creates a number of initiatives that support and educate fintechs on the requirements they must meet to become a full-fledged participant in the financial market. Such initiatives for example include the creation of the Innovation Hub educational program and the creation of a virtual sandbox for fintech start-ups.

5. Fintechs don't care about client’s security

What is the truth?

It is exactly the opposite. Fintechs, unlike traditional banks, are still working on trusting users and convincing them to deposit their assets with them. This makes it all the more important for them to take care of the security of their customers, because not taking care of this issue is a one-way ticket. Although we still hear about various security-related mistakes in Polish banks, banks have such a strong position among their customers that they often indulge in such slip-ups. It's different with fintechs - any mistake can have consequences in the form of ruining the image of a trusted financial partner, so fintechs are very sensitive to user security aspects.

by BOS Communications

5 financial industry trends in 2022

The end of the year is coming, so on the one hand is the time to sum up the past months, but on the other hand, it is a good moment to forecast what to pay attention to in the next, coming year. Although technology in the financial field is not changing so rapidly in comparison to others, there are still new solutions and trends to consider. What technology trends will emerge in the fintech industry in 2022? Let's find out:

1. Hyper Automation

Hyper automation is not just a technology trend, it touches business processes in a big way.

The increasing emphasis on growth, digitization and operational excellence
have highlighted the need for better, more widespread automation.
Hyper-automation is a business approach to identify, verify and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. It requires Orchestrated use of multiple tools and technology platforms, including RPA, low-code platforms and process mining tools.

It is an extension of existing business process automation beyond the boundaries of individual processes. By combining AI tools with RPA, hyper-automation enables automation of virtually any repetitive task performed by business users.

It even takes it to the next level and automates automation - dynamically discovering business processes and creating bots to automate them. Hyperautomation was identified by Gartner as one of the top 10 strategic technology trends of the year.

With an array of tools such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) working together in harmony to automate complex business processes - including where domain experts were once needed - hyperautomation is the way to go for true digital transformation.

2. Buy-Now-Pay Later Goes Mainstream

With the rise in popularity of online shopping and new generations coming online, the adoption of new payment options is happening faster than ever before. Take, for example, buy now, pay later solutions like Klarna and Afterpay, where consumers can now even convert their homes into a ‘virtual changing room’ by trying before they buy.

The BNPL industry has modernized layaway and installment payments to offer consumers flexible payment options for their purchases. Compared to credit cards, intended to be used repeatedly, BNPL solutions are applied to individual transactions—appealing to consumers who want to make less of a financial commitment, even on lower ticket items.

The pandemic’s impact and BNPL’s overall rise in popularity will lead the industry to rack up $680 billion in transaction volume worldwide in 2025.

While some BNPL solutions are available in-store, they are native to ecommerce checkout, making them more widely available when shopping online. And with ecommerce sales climbing an estimated 44.4% year-over-year (YoY) in Q2 2020, more consumers may choose to use BNPL solutions more regularly, if they haven’t already.

3. DeFi

The essence of decentralized finance is that it is a set of tools and applications functioning in the blockchain network and allowing the user to use a number of financial services that we know from the traditional financial sector, but mostly implemented without the involvement of a central institution (e.g. bank).

As indicated by Fintech Poland, decentralized finances have a huge growth potential. In less than a year and a half (from July 2020 to October 2021) DeFi market capitalization increased from 3 billion dollars to over 200 billion. Adding to these numbers is the potential of the crypto-asset market - today there are already 330 million crypto-asset users worldwide, and the value of transactions on the Etherum blockchain reached $2.5 trillion in the second quarter of 2021.

DeFi seems to be one of the most innovative and fastest growing areas of modern finance. The development of decentralized finance changes the foundations on which the banking system was based for years - it neutralizes the role of financial institutions, balances the level of control of system participants, gives wide access to capital and new users.

4. Cloud for banking

Data, its storage, processing and analysis is the most sensitive part of banking, which is being addressed by the most trusted cloud solution providers and companies implementing them in organizations. Replacing on-site infrastructure with cloud solutions is a natural direction of technological development for banks, which responds to their most important needs.

Implementation of cloud solutions in the case of financial institutions means a significant reduction in expenses on data storage and archiving. Cloud also allows to offload central systems and faster changes to the process or product that is built on it. The biggest challenges can be seen at the interface between new technologies and traditional solutions. This is not only the reorganization of the entire IT, integration of new cloud infrastructure with central systems, but also changes in the operating model.

5. Cross-Platform Services

Digital finance transactions frequently cross over to various other industries such as retail, healthcare, and utilities. On point, the emergence of third-party payment providers such as PayPal and AliPay largely attribute their success to making the most of this phenomenon.

Due to the commonly lengthier transfer process and tediousness of going back and forth between banking apps and other business sites, many consumers are turning to third-party providers who most likely have already made themselves available in growing digital spaces such as e-commerce. In terms of proportion, the global tally of online banking direct payments are 5.3% lower compared to third party payments accounting 39.7%.

By embedding payment services such as developing mobile pay or hybrid wallets available for cross-platform transactions, your business can turn the situation around. Evidence of this can be observed in the growing popularity of Payment Mini Program Integrations within WeChat in China. By integrating services such as payments or transfers as a bite-sized app or service in the multi-purpose WeChat app, many finance vendors have not only increased awareness but also significantly raised their total revenue outside of interbank and intra fintech transfers. This goes to show that in the advent of digitisation spanning industries serviced by the financial sector, visibility will be the key to sustaining business.

by BOS Communications

DeFi - what is decentralized finance?

Fintech Poland Foundation, in cooperation with Cashless, has recently published a report which aims to introduce the issue of decentralized finance DeFi (DeFi stands for Decentralised Finance). You can read about this new area of financial services market in our article.

What is decentralized finance?

The essence of decentralized finance is that it is a set of tools and applications functioning in the blockchain network and allowing the user to use a number of financial services that we know from the traditional financial sector, but implemented mostly without the participation of a central institution (e.g. bank).

The functioning of the service is coordinated by the so-called smart contracts, i.e. agreements written and programmed in the form of computer code located in the blockchain network. The services which are realized in DeFi model include lending, asset trading, insurance or providing liquidity for exchanges. What is important is the fact that the blockchain technology, on which DeFi is based, allows to omit the link, i.e. a particular financial institution that mediates the transactions. The decentralization of transactions, the absence of an intermediary and the equality of all participants in the register are the features that distinguish DeFi from traditional, centralized banking.

The potential of DeFi market

As Fintech Poland points out, decentralized finance has huge growth potential. In less than a year and a half (from July 2020 to October 2021), DeFi market capitalization grew from $3 billion to over $200 billion. Add to these numbers the potential of the cryptoasset market - today, cryptoassets are already used by 330 million users worldwide, and the value of transactions on the Etherum blockchain reached $2.5 trillion in the second quarter of 2021.

How is DeFi different from traditional finance?

The DeFi marketplace is an innovation of sorts that could soon change the status quo of the financial sector. We outline the main areas of difference between DeFi and traditional, centralized finance:

No middleman

In traditional banking, there is an intermediary between one party and the other in a transaction, with control and full access to the transaction history, such as a bank that provides the full legal, technical and institutional infrastructure.

In DeFi the institution of an intermediary does not exist - there is a single, distributed register of transactions that can be accessed by any user of the system, on an equal footing.

Control over assets

In the traditional approach, funds and client assets are directly controlled by regulated financial entities. In decentralized finance, assets are always under the control of the user, without the involvement of a third party.

Execution and speed of transactions

Transaction clearing and settlement with DeFi is accomplished much more efficiently than with traditional banking - recording the transaction on the blockchain usually completes the settlement process. Depending on the type of blockchain it takes from a second to several minutes, while the settlement of the transaction performed by the clearing house usually takes from a few hours to 3 days.

Regulations

The traditional banking market is heavily regulated, with governance and oversight of the system determined by service providers, regulators and supervisors. The supervision of the operation of the protocol on which DeFi is based is done by the community around the network. Especially in the initial phase, the supervision is performed by
developers. As the network grows, the management system often takes a decentralized form which involves distribution of voting rights
among the community involved in protocol development. Voting on changes is done using so-called management tokens.

Security

Traditional banking and financial applications are vulnerable to attacks
and data leaks both by people from outside and from
The human factor generates the biggest risk of error.

In DeFi, individual applications and protocols are vulnerable to attacks and exploits,
mainly through errors in code and imperfect design of smart contracts.
However, the openness of the code promotes rapid security improvements through
comments from the community. The security of a blockchain network is also directly proportional to the number of people involved in securing the network itself.

Services

DeFi's primary service categories include:

Stable cryptocurrencies (stablecoins) - which are digital currencies whose value
is pegged to the corresponding fiat currencies (currencies that are not backed by material goods).

Exchanges - analogous to traditional stock exchanges, they allow the exchange
and trade in digital assets.

Loans - this service involves the creation of time-limited, interest-bearing instruments that allow users of the protocol to block assets in it and earn passive income, as well as borrowing assets in exchange for interest.

Derivatives - are financial instruments whose value is dependent on the value of an underlying asset or group of assets.

Asset management - includes tools and services that optimize the allocation of asset allocation in an investment portfolio based on variables such as risk profile or time horizon or time horizon.

Insurance -  provides financial protection should a particular event occur, reducing the overall risk associated with a transaction.

Oracles - services that provide smart contracts with access to data from outside the network (such as asset prices underlying
derivative products in the DeFi ecosystem - both decentralized as well as traditional)

Cryptocurrency wallets - interfaces that allow users to manage crypto assets stored in the blockchain. They are divided
into non-trusted wallets (the user has exclusive control over the funds through their private keys) and custodian wallets, (private keys are managed by service provider).

Summary

DeFi seems to be one of the most innovative and fastest growing areas of modern finance. The development of decentralized finance changes the foundations on which the banking system was based for years - it neutralizes the role of financial institutions, balances the level of control of system participants, gives wide access to capital and new users. Like any innovation, DeFi is not free from risks and threats, which grow in direct proportion to the development of this area. Therefore, on the one hand, the financial market should reckon with the potential of DeFi, and on the other hand, the focus should be on adapting the financial ecosystem to the possibilities of decentralized banking and securing a regulatory area that will allow the participants of this market to develop in a safe and legal manner.

by BOS Communications

BOS & Fintech Futures released industry report "Fintech vs Fintech? The rise of digitalisation in banking"

In collaboration with Fintech Futures, we have prepared an industry report on the digitalization process in banking

As Alex Hamilton, editor of Fintech Futures, writes:

"Digitisation has gone from a “nice to have” to an imperative for many in the banking sector, and nothing has quite put fuel to the flames quite like the COVID-19 pandemic.

As customers diversify not just the way they interact with their financial institutions, but also the ways they live their daily lives, so must an innovative company pivot – strategically and technologically – to meet these changes.

Yet now the fintech sector is awash with popularity, mass market adoption, and VC funding. Challenger banks that once counted users in the thousands now count them in the millions. Others wrestle with regulatory frameworks with the same gusto their banking contemporaries do.

Where once fintechs looked on the banks as competition, and now see them as collaborators, or slow-moving contemporaries, what do budding new firms think of those who came before them, the legacy fintechs?

In this deep dive industry report, produced in collaboration with Incat, FinTech Futures investigates whether a new market can emerge, a new competitive scene where fintech battles fintech for the scraps."

From this report you will learn:

• How customer demands are laying the groundwork for new fintech strategies
• Whether the super app is the right strategy for the future
• How to overcome the challenge of time-to-market
• Is it really fintech vs fintech in today’s industry?

Additionally in the report you will find a commentary by our CEO - Piotr Hanusiak, who indicates what is currently the biggest market challenge for fintechs.

The report you can download here: https://bit.ly/FintechFuturesReport.

by BOS Communications

A revolution in the approach of fintechs - from a simple payment card to a broad set of services

1st July marked the 6th anniversary of Revolut, one of the first fintechs to offer modern payments for the B2B and B2C markets. In 2015, what Revolut offered its customers was perfectly consistent with its name - simply revolutionary. Today, however, the use of modern payments is almost a standard, as fintechs are outdoing themselves in expanding their offerings with products and services that many traditional banks would not be ashamed of. What has changed in the approach of fintechs and why, and what does it mean for the financial industry? Let's find out.

PSD2 and greater trust for fintechs

Much has been said about the role of PSD2 in modern banking, but it is impossible to take up the topic of fintech development without setting it in a regulatory context. Because it was the implementation of the PSD2 directive that not only allowed intermediary entities such as fintechs to gain access to customer data, but also gave an impetus to traditional banks to undertake broader business cooperation with modern financial entities. Formal issues aside, however, PSD has allowed for something more - for fintechs to be treated as equal to banks and as trustworthy market players, and this has opened the way for fintechs to offer more advanced services and products.

MVP versus a wide range of financial services

As a result of these changes, we are seeing fintechs starting to move away from being a single-service provider to offering multiple payment products, dedicated to different target groups and fulfilling different business objectives. The aforementioned Revolut started with a payment card, whose main distinguishing feature was the simplification of setting up an account and payments between recipients and lowering the costs of international payments through attractive currency conversion rates. The fintech started with MVP - a single, simple solution that, on the one hand, allows to verify the business validity of the idea and inspire confidence in the market, and on the other hand, facilitates the creation of a customer base to which new products and functionalities can be offered in the future. Because today Revolut is not just a payment card - it is also a range of modern solutions, starting with savings accounts, cryptocurrency exchange, affiliate programs, and ending with credit products.

The same is true for the ZEN.COM, which in late 2020, in partnership with MasterCard, debuted its payment card offering protection for online purchases. Today, after only a few months, ZEN also already offers "zenefits" among which we find, among other things, an additional one-year guarantee when buying electronics, instant cashbacks, and the possibility to use a multi-currency account and transfer money at no additional cost.
Expanding the range of financial products allows you to build long-term customer loyalty and commitment to one entity. By choosing an application in which almost everything can be done, the customer does not need to look for alternative solutions that provide additional functionalities, because all services are available in one place, seconds after logging in. And yet, what fintechs have won from the beginning is simplicity, achieved through limited functionality, intuitiveness and ease with which customers can use the offered functionalities.

Technology that gives you a business advantage

However, these advantages would not be realised if it were not for modern technology, which forms the basis of solutions and products offered by fintechs. Every financial institution bases its operations on a transaction system, which - in the simplest terms - processes and organises data about clients, their accounts and transactions. So far, the role of transaction systems has been limited primarily to functions that enable efficient financial activity, in a manner consistent with compliance. Recently, however, the role of transaction systems in shaping fintech products and services and in supporting marketing and product development has grown significantly. Today, a transaction system is important not only from a technology perspective, but also from a business perspective, because a fintech's advantage is also determined by its ability to implement new business functions as quickly as possible and to respond to new customer needs by efficiently expanding its already existing product offering.

INCAT, the provider of BOS, a modern transaction system dedicated to modern financial entities such as fintechs and challenger banks, knows this very well. BOS developers have noticed that fintechs need solutions which, regardless of their original application, address the requirements of a modern end client in the customer centric model. Thus, modern financial entities today need core systems whose functionalities are not only focused on the technological and product layer, but also support an innovative approach to processes addressing customer needs. Customers of fintechs today are primarily looking for services that allow them to perform various financial operations in a flexible and efficient manner, making everyday financial management easier and more attractive.

Technological solutions building the marketing advantage of fintechs

INCAT offers specific products that are ready to be used for financial activities, and these include affiliate programmes, automated cascading currency conversions or support for white labelling (multi-brand).

Affiliate Programme

BOS is used when creating a service such as an affiliate programme. Thanks to this functionality, entities offering their customers a system of collecting points, gaining discounts or fast cash refunds, can build long-term loyalty of their recipients. The system supports this solution through an extensive and flexible possibility of defining online shops linked with a financial institution, together with a set of parameters defining the conditions for the operation of loyalty programmes.

Currency Cascade

This is another example of a very interesting solution offered by BOS, which makes it easier for customers to make payments in non-standard conditions. The currency cascade allows the customer's funds, accumulated in different currencies, to be used automatically during the execution of a single transaction, if there are no funds in the main account or the account held in the currency of the transaction.

In other words, if a customer makes a payment of EUR 40, but only has EUR 30 available in his account, the payment system automatically draws the missing funds from the customer's other currency accounts, e.g. in USD or PLN, making an immediate currency conversion. The entire process takes no longer than a standard contactless payment and does not require any activity on the part of the customer.

Multibrand

Multibrand is a functionality which enables the separation of independent environments of several different brands and institutions, administered by a single entity, within a single instance of the BOS system. This is a great solution for institutions that decide to offer products addressed to diverse target groups and different market segments. An example of the use of this product may be offers of large loan companies which, in order to expand their customer portfolio, create several different loan brands, differing from each other in parameters and terms of obtaining financing, while still being formally a part of one large capital group or, conversely, not having any business relations.

The examples cited above are just a small sample of what can be achieved in the development of financial products with a modern transaction system, whose open architecture and adopted solutions allow for their rapid implementation. This is especially important today, in the era of open banking and huge competition on the fintech market. Fintechs already know that it is necessary to use advantages in all aspects of the business and support their offer not only with a creative approach, but also with technology that will keep up with customer expectations and trends that the market is constantly creating.

by BOS Communications

The 8 most interesting fintech companies to watch in 2021

Fintechs are inextricably associated with the modern payment industry. But it's 2021 and fintechs are showing that they can prove themselves in almost any area of life, not necessarily related to finance. Here is our subjective list of 10 most interesting solutions offered by international fintechs.

Betterment

Betterment is an investment platform and application for individual clients who are just starting their adventure with investing. Betterment offers not only the possibility of investment, but also substantive support of advisors and modern robo-advisory services, based on the mechanisms of artificial intelligence. Betterment also offers a retirement planning service, targeted savings accounts or financial planning packages.

You can read more about Betterment here: https://www.betterment.com/

GoHenry

Go Henry is a very interesting application dedicated to...children. The payment application and pre-paid card allows children to safely become familiar with financial management, with full parental control. Go Henry informs the caregiver about transactions in real time, and also gives the opportunity to set tasks and duties, the completion of which increases the transaction limit.

You can read more about GoHenry here: https://www.gohenry.com/uk/

Klarna

Klarna is a regionalized app that offers a "buy now, pay later" service to the e-commerce marketplace. With the mobile app, customers can shop at Klarna's partner stores and enjoy 30 days of deferred payments. The stores in the app include some of the biggest e-commerce brands in the world such as: H&M, Sephora, IKEA, Samsung, or Nike.

You can read more about Klarna here: https://www.klarna.com/international/

MeetCleo

MeetCleo is an AI-based financial assistant that supports the user in budget management. The application is dedicated to young people, offering support in building proper spending habits and accumulating savings. MeetCleo also offers the possibility to receive a mini advance against future income, a cashback option and a savings account.

You can read more about MeetCleo here: https://web.meetcleo.com/

ZEN

ZEN.COM is a fintech that debuted its payment card offering online shopping protection in late 2020, in partnership with MasterCard. Today, after just a few months, ZEN is also offering "zenefits" which include an additional one-year guarantee on electronics purchases, instant cashbacks, and the ability to use a multi-currency account and transfer money at no additional cost.

You can read more about ZEN here: https://www.zen.com/pl/

Remitly

Remitly is an application that offers convenient, cost-effective and fast international transfers and attractive currency conversions. The tool allows you to track a transfer from the moment it is sent until it is received by the recipient. It is an alternative to traditional foreign currency bank transfers that allows you to send money abroad cheaper and faster than before.

You can read more about Remitly here: https://www.remitly.com/us/pl/poland

RobinHood

Robin Hood is a mobile application developed by Robinhood Markets that allows you to trade on the American Stock Exchange without commissions. In Robinhood you can trade stocks, ETFs (exchange traded funds) and cryptocurrencies.

You can read more about RobinHood here: https://robinhood.com/us/en/

Fair Place Finance

Fair Place Finance creates a platform for basic financial services such as cards and payments. The solution enables investment clients to offer digital wealth management products that can be easily customized and integrated with partner offerings.

You can read more about Fair Place Finance here: https://fairplacefinance.pl/#home

Salary Finance

This is a very interesting solution that involves offering loans, credit and advances to app users, in partnership with the user's current employer. The application allows to launch a financial product, the repayment of which is covered by the incoming salary to the account. In addition, the user gets access to their current month's salary at any time, rather than on their employer's standard payday.

You can read more about SalaryFinance here: https://www.salaryfinance.com/uk/.

by BOS Communications

The new version of BOS is available now!

After many months of hard work, we can finally boast: BOS 1.9 is now available to our customers. While developing the new version of our system, we focused on updating key functionalities and creating solutions valuable from a business perspective. See what we have achieved!

New user-friendly interface

While working on version 1.9, we focused on developing the BOS interface in terms of UX and UI. Our goal was to create a user-friendly space where settings can be quickly and intuitively parameterized and configured to meet the individual requirements of a financial institution. We also managed to develop the possibility of full visual customization of the system, in accordance with the branding and color scheme of the client who uses BOS. This makes it possible to visually unify the client's external interface with the back-office, the role of which is performed by BOS.

Processes and functionality development

Event manager enables efficient and seamless process modeling and event management of the entire system from the level of a single interface. In version 1.9, we applied the event manager functionalities to the process of handling transactions, as a result giving customers the possibility of flexible handling of complex processes and creating advanced choreography of complicated events in the system. We have also developed processes of advanced transaction tagging, allowing to efficiently identify, filter and order transactions according to the adopted parameters. In version 1.9, we introduced expanded support for online and recurring commission tables, as well as a subscription plan mechanism. We have also optimized the process of funds management when handling payment orders.

New comprehensive microservices

Anti-fraud module

We extended the system with advanced anti-fraud and KYC modules, increasing the control of transactions and significantly reducing the risk of fraud. Anti-fraud tools are based on mechanisms of Machine Learning and AI, which allows for advanced and automatic analysis of user behavior, and as a result, identification and control of unwanted actions.

CRS

Customer Relation Sets is a microservice that gives our customers the ability to connect users into structured groups, with different levels of access to accounts and assets. Each customer can create their own access patterns and user groups, such as family, company, class, for example. Each group can be given different settings regarding members, fees, or linking multiple accounts together. In version 1.9 we have extended the CRS module with a number of possibilities: levels of access to company accounts, various types of groups, roles in a group and multi-level relationships between account users.

Cashback

Cashback is a completely universal tool for creating loyalty programs, allowing you to offer system users discounts in the form of a refund of part of the purchase amount. In the BOS 1.9 version we extend the scope of loyalty programs with card transactions and purchases in online stores.

by BOS Communications

The short story of fintech

Fintechs, treated as modern financial entities, seem to be a relatively new invention in the banking world, although the foundations for this area of ​​business were established in…the 19th century. Before you, the history of fintech: from the creation of the first transatlantic link to innovative financial startups, without which today’s financial landscape would not be complete.

19TH CENTURY – THE BEGINNING

We know that dating the beginnings of the fintech industry to the nineteenth century may seem “a bit” strange daring, but indeed the year 1866 laid the foundations for the development of this branch of the economy. It was this year that the first transatlantic link was successfully laid, providing the basic infrastructure for the period of intense financial globalization that will take place soon – right at the beginning of the 20th century.

THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

1918 is not only the end of military operations under the First World War, but also the time of intensive development of technologies, especially telecommunications. And so, at the beginning of the interwar period, the first ever electronic money transfer system called Fedwire was created. Its operation reflects the spirit of the time – Fedwire was based on the strength of the telegraph signal and Morse code.

In 1920, the first flashes of the philosophy on which today’s fintechs are based appear – John Maynard Keynes published his book “Economic consequences of power”, the main thesis of which concerns the development of finance, based on a combination of achievements of contemporary technology with the requirements of the financial market.

According to experts on the subject, the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century are called the “Fintech 1.0” period.

THE SECOND HALF AND THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The switch from analog to digital enabled the creation of the first Barclays ATM in history in 1967. This is the moment that symbolically marks the beginning of modern financial technologies. The digitization of the financial industry is developing at an impressive pace at that time. In the early 1970s, Nasdaq, the first electronic stock exchange, and SWIFT, a communication protocol used by financial institutions to make large amounts of cross-border payments, are created in the United States. The digitization of finance has increased due to the advancement of digital communication and transaction technology. Nasdaq and SWIFT mark the beginning of the financial markets and the communication protocols used today.

The 1990s, due to the intensive development of computers and the Internet, brought us online banking – from that moment both companies and individual clients can manage their finances from the computer screen. Internal processes and communication with clients are partially fully digitized and there is a clear shift in the way people interact with financial institutions.

Soon, the term “Fintech” appears for the first time in a wider circulation. In 1993, Citicorp established the Financial Services Technology Consortium, abbreviated as the Fintech project. This initiative is aimed at the cooperation of small, technologically advanced IT companies with banking institutions that want to develop the area of ​​financial innovation.

A milestone in the development of electronic payments is the establishment of PayPal in 1998 – one of the first financial organizations whose mission and scope of services is very similar to the shape of today’s modern fintechs.

The achievements of financial technology at the end of the 20th century close the era of Fintech 2.0.

21ST CENTURY

The long-awaited 21st century begins one of the biggest financial crises in the world – 2008 marked the collapse of the global economic system, which resulted in a sharp decline in the level of confidence in banks. The crisis paradoxically created space for the development of modern, non-bank financial services. A year later, in 2009, Bitcoin was created – the world’s first cryptocurrency, which paved the way for other cryptocurrency and distributed ledger enthusiasts.

The area of ​​2010 is the contractual date of entry into the Fintech 3.0 era, in which we are today. The growing popularity of smartphones and mobile and mobile access to the web and financial services make the first startups from the financial industry appear on the market, driving the wave of new products and services. Even established banks are beginning to innovate in the spirit of start-ups, and it was this departure from the established banking position of the Fintech 2.0 era that defined Fintech 3.0. There are more and more financial entities on the market, such as neo-banks, challengers or digital banks, which combine the advantages of stable banking with a modern approach to creating financial technologies.

TODAY

Today, the rapid development of fintechs and modern financial institutions is no surprise to anyone. Innovative products and services offered to customers are actually the expected standard, and traditional banks are increasingly looking for a way to become part of this change. Although experts are outdoing each other in forecasting the upcoming financial and technological revolution, it is worth noting that it is already happening – for a long time now, fintechs have been redefining the financial market, changing the status quo and revolutionizing the assumptions of classic banking. It is a long and endless process – because what is innovative today will soon be history.

by BOS Communications

8 key functionalities we developed in 2020

The year 2020, although difficult due to the pandemic, has been extremely busy for us. For many months, we have been developing our BOS trading system, adding new functionalities and improving existing ones. Here is a brief summary of what we developed last year:

Event Manager

This functionality allows for efficient and trouble-free process modeling and event management of the entire system from the level of one, clear interface. The Event Manager is also of great help in the context of introducing changes as well as new financial products and services.

These kinds of tools provide total business flexibility. Especially now, when the competition in the financial market is significantly increasing, a system that allows for a flexible and quick introduction of changes to the existing and new customer service processes and their activities is one of the most important parts of the transaction architecture.

Multi-institutional cloud environment

This is an interesting solution for entities that want to offer their services within more than one institution. We have created an environment in which the customer can place any number of independent, functionally separated brands and institutions, while not losing control over management.

Comprehensive General Ledger

The synthesis and aggregation of accounting data from transactions carried out to the General Ledger are one of the critical areas of the transaction system. The multi-level and complexity of operations that must be reflected in the General Ledger register is, on the one hand, a complicated task, and on the other - a must, because it is a legislative requirement that cannot be circumvented.

Integration with the General Ledger as part of the BOS system means:

• full automation of processes related to data aggregation in the General Ledger;
• the ability to create a dedicated chart of accounts, define basic reporting attributes and complete freedom in creating links between operations on accounts and accounting accounts;
• advanced parameterization of all elements and processes, possible from the system user interface.

Parameters dump / load - possibilities of new environment cloning

Cloning of environments or verification of the business parameterization of the system is possible thanks to new dump and load mechanisms. Parameterization in the financial system is a series of registers, often closely related to each other. From the chart of accounts, through product segments, to transaction codes and interest rules. Process functionalities depend on a combination of these parameters. Currently, it is possible to export the system parameterization in its entirety or for individual areas. A business administrator with access to this feature can do so in an instant with a few clicks.

Transaction tagging

BOS allows you to label transactions and processes in any way you like. Automatic parameterization of tagging is possible from the level of the user interface, which significantly facilitates the search, ordering and filtering of posted transactions.

CIS - Customer Information System

The customer information management system is a separate BOS microservice that aggregates basic customer information from all institutions within the BOS infrastructure. The Customer Information System, which is an inherent part of the system, significantly extends the scope of information, allows to minimize the number of errors in the customer data held, and at the same time enables quick verification of user history.

Cashbacks

Our system customers can take part in partner programs that enable them to realize commercial rebates in the form of the so-called cashback. What does it mean? Refund of a part of the purchase amount to the customer's card after making the purchase with it. For this purpose, a separate microservice was launched, supporting both business partners, promotional offers, and the entire transaction path. The vast majority of transactions are carried out completely automatically, but the module also provides a path for manual pairing of offers and transactions. The use of our cashback module gives new value to the market. Trading bonuses are paid to clients immediately, not after a few days like with other systems. In this way, Fintechs using this module attract new customers by offering a card that realizes the benefit in an order of magnitude shorter than the competition.

CRS - System Relationship Management

CRS is another BOS microservice that allows you to create multi-stage access to accounts, both for individual and business customers. CRS is also a system of relations regarding account balances and limits. The advanced and modern structure enables intuitive management of all access parameters in such a way that they reflect the hierarchy within the user's internal organization.

by BOS Communications