FinTech innovation alive and doing well

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FinTech innovation alive and doing well
Gitex Technology Week confirms that people and companies are still pushing boundaries with their FinTech ideas.

Published: Sat 22 Oct 2016, 8:00 PM

Last updated: Sat 22 Oct 2016, 10:47 PM

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You may have heard that the world of finance is often considerably ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. And by and large, that's true. Before there was social media, the most powerful computer algorithms came not from Silicon Valley, but from Wall Street, with money men trying desperately to slash nanoseconds off their trading times.
That sort of thinking has since permeated the entire the finance industry - the technology behind your mobile banking services, your credit cards, and even your insurance, is properly advanced.
Still, this doesn't mean that there's no room for innovation in the world financial technology (FinTech, as we like to call it). And you need only look to Gitex Technology Week for confirmation that people and companies are still pushing boundaries with their FinTech ideas.
We were exhibiting at Gitex 2016 last week to show off our insurance comparison platform, which is a fair example of a piece of powerful FinTech to come out of the Middle East. I won't go into too much detail on it, but we essentially had to build out an entirely new technology model to bring insurance comparison to the Middle East. We couldn't do things the same way comparison sites in Europe or the US do things, due to the technological limitations in this region, so we had to come up with a workaround that provided the same user experience, but was completely different on the back end. That's FinTech in action.
And at Gitex, there were plenty more examples of this from across the finance industry. Card manufacturers (the guys who actually make the credit cards your bank gives you) touted amazing new possibilities with cards based on contactless technology; government departments demonstrated new payment systems that will make payments on the go easier than ever; and banks described the incredible work being done behind the scenes to make sure that online and mobile banking can be conducted safely and securely.
One of my favourite exhibitors was Trriple, a company that aims to bring electronic banking to the unbanked. You may not know it, but there's a sizeable chunk of the UAE population with no bank account whatsoever. These people deal in cash, and cash only, meaning they're unable to take advantage of the fantastic innovations that FinTech has enabled for banked individuals. Trriple aims to fix that by offering a mobile wallet service that can be deposited into, withdrawn out of, and used to make electronic payments.
Due to regulations, the service has to meet all of the stringent rules that are set out for banks, meaning that the technology that bridges the gap between online and offline needs to be extremely powerful. But look what the investment in that technology will achieve - it'll bring so many more people into the 21st century, from a monetary point of view. That's something to get excited about.
While it used to be the preserve of the Wolves of Wall Street, FinTech is now entering an era that will see benefits brought to everyone. And judging by what we saw at Gitex last week, it would appear that the Middle East is at the forefront of FinTech innovation geared towards making people's lives better.
 
The writer is CEO of compareit4me.com. Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.
 

By Jon Richards
 Industry Insight

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