Financial technology, or fintech, is the use of digital tools to improve and automate financial services. It includes everything from robo-advisors and payments apps to peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms and investment apps.
Fintech is a broad and evolving field that has already reshaped our bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, loans, and investment decisions. The most important new developments in fintech include data analytics and machine learning, which are enabling companies to understand customers better and offer them personalized products and services. It’s also facilitating open banking, which allows consumers to use their data to create applications that connect them with a wide range of financial institutions and third-party providers. Finally, it’s empowering people to make their own financial choices with the help of online investment platforms like Mint and Personal Capital.
The era of fintech began in the early Eighties with technological innovations like computers, credit cards, the launch of a global telex network that dramatically facilitated communication and transactions, and ATMs. This paved the way for many of the financial services we now take for granted.
But it wasn’t until the 2008 global financial crisis that we realized the full extent of the interconnectedness and digitization that had taken place. The crash demonstrated how quickly things can go wrong when the system is weakened, and it showed that there is a need to continue improving our monetary systems through digital innovation. https://greyjournal.net/hustle/work-tech/navigating-the-new-challenges-for-fintech-startups-in-a-changing-economic-landscape/