Fintech, as it is more often known, is a term used to describe emerging technology that aims to enhance and automate the provision of financial services. Fintech is primarily used to assist organizations, entrepreneurs, and consumers in better managing their financial operations, procedures, and lives. It consists of specialized software and algorithms used on laptops and mobile devices. The word “fintech” is an abbreviation for “financial technology.”

The term “fintech” was first used to describe the technology used in the backend systems of reputable financial institutions, such banks, when it first appeared in the 21st century. There was a move to consumer-oriented services between 2018 and 2022, roughly. Fintech now includes different sectors and industries such as education, retail banking, fundraising and nonprofit, and investment management, to name a few.

Fintech also includes the development and use of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. While that segment of fintech may see the most headlines, the big money still lies in the traditional global banking industry and its multitrillion-dollar market capitalization.

The phrase “financial technology” broadly refers to any innovation in how people do business, such as the development of digital currency or double-entry accounting. The development of financial technology has exploded since the internet revolution.

You probably make use of some aspect of fintech every day. via your iPhone to transfer funds from your debit account to your checking account, sending money to a buddy via Venmo, or managing your investments using an online broker are a few instances. Two-thirds of customers use two or more fintech services, and these consumers are becoming more conscious of fintech as a part of their everyday life, according to EY’s 2019 Global FinTech Adoption Index.

In its most basic form, fintech unbundles financial services into individual offerings that are often easier to use. The combination of streamlined offerings with technology allows fintech companies to be more efficient and cut down on costs associated with each transaction.

If one word can describe how many fintech innovations have affected traditional trading, banking, financial advice, and products, it’s “disruption”—a word you have likely heard in commonplace conversations or the media. Financial products and services that were once the realm of branches, salespeople, and desktops are now more commonly found on mobile devices.

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For example, the mobile-only stock trading app Robinhood charges no fees for trades, and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sites like Prosper Marketplace, LendingClub, and OnDeck promise to reduce rates by opening up competition for loans to broad market forces. Business loan providers such as Kabbage, Lendio, Accion, and Funding Circle (among others) offer startup and established businesses easy, fast platforms to secure working capital. Oscar, an online insurance startup, received $165 million in funding in March 2018.3 Such significant funding rounds are not unusual and occur globally for fintech startups.

This shift to a digital-first mindset has pushed several traditional institutions to invest heavily in similar products. For example, investment bank Goldman Sachs launched consumer lending platform Marcus in 2016 in an effort to enter the fintech space.4

That said, many tech-savvy industry watchers warn that keeping apace of fintech-inspired innovations requires more than just ramped-up tech spending. Rather, competing with lighter-on-their-feet startups requires a significant change in thinking, processes, decision making, and even overall corporate structure.

New technologies, such as machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI), predictive behavioral analytics, and data-driven marketing, will take the guesswork and habit out of financial decisions. “Learning” apps will not only learn the habits of users but also engage users in learning games to make their automatic, unconscious spending and saving decisions better.

Fintech is also a keen adapter of automated customer service technology, utilizing chatbots and AI interfaces to assist customers with basic tasks and keep down staffing costs. Fintech is also being leveraged to fight fraud by leveraging information about payment history to flag transactions that are outside the norm.

Since the mid-2010s, fintech has exploded, with startups receiving billions in venture funding (some of which have become unicorns) and incumbent financial firms either snatching up new ventures or building out their own fintech offerings.

North America still produces most of the fintech startups, with Asia a relatively close second, followed by Europe. Some of the most active areas of fintech innovation include or revolve around the following areas (among others):

• Cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.), digital tokens (e.g., non-fungible tokens, or NFTs), and digital cash. These often rely on blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that maintains records on a network of computers but has no central ledger. Blockchain also allows for so-called smart contracts, which utilize code to automatically execute contracts between parties such as buyers and sellers.
• Open banking, which is a concept that proposes that all people should have access to bank data to build applications that create a connected network of financial institutions and third-party providers. An example is the all-in-one money management tool Mint.
• Insurtech, which seeks to use technology to simplify and streamline the insurance industry.
• Regtech, which seeks to help financial service firms meet industry compliance rules, especially those covering Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer protocols that fight fraud.
• Robo-advisors, such as Betterment, utilize algorithms to automate investment advice to lower its cost and increase accessibility. This is one of the most common areas where fintech is known and used.
• Unbanked/underbanked services that seek to serve disadvantaged or low-income individuals who are ignored or underserved by traditional banks or mainstream financial services companies. These applications promote financial inclusion.
• Cybersecurity. Given the proliferation of cybercrime and the decentralized storage of data, cybersecurity and fintech are intertwined.
• AI chatbots, which rose to popularity in 2022, are another example of fintech’s rising presence in day-to-day usage.

The foundation of fintech development is technological advancement and innovation, which will also fuel new, disruptive business models in the financial services industry.