17 Feb Fintech: new technologies applicable to the financial world
Fintech has experienced exponential growth in recent years, especially thanks to the elimination of place and time constraints for banking and other transactions. In today’s article, we’ll explore the benefits of ‘technofinance’ and take a look at how translation and localisation can help the industry expand to new markets.
You may have heard of fintech, perhaps in an advert on television or reading a newspaper article. Although the term may seem complicated, fintech technologies have actually become more widely used over the past few years, helping to increase people’s economic literacy as well as access to banking and digital services.
If you’ve instead never heard of fintech, or if you’d simply like further information about how new technologies are revolutionising the financial world, our article today is definitely for you: thanks to our decades of experience in the economic-financial field, we’re ready to reveal all the secrets of this promising new sector.
What does fintech mean?
Of course, let’s start with the basics: what does fintech mean?
Coined a few years ago, the term is short for financial technology: in general, therefore, fintech companies are referred to as those services that use technology in order to speed up, facilitate, improve and digitise banking and financial transactions.
Indeed, the advent of Internet banking, first, and P2P payment systems often accompanied by debit cards with IBANs, later, has provided consumers with better services, taking advantage of the technological revolution and allowing companies to gain a major advantage over traditional competitors.
Wondering if you even personally deal with fintech at all? Indeed, it’s quite likely that you, too, use a fintech service on a regular basis. So let’s take a look at some practical examples of companies that have embraced the concept of financial technology.
Fintech: practical examples
Consider services such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Venmo, but also smaller but equally popular entities such as Revolut or N26: all of these companies offer quick and easy ways to exchange money and send and receive payments using technology, undoubtedly earning them the title of fintech companies.
However, the concept of fintech not only includes traditional banking, but also extends to services designed for investment and P2P lending: consider for example Robinhood, Lending Club, Prosper or Acorns, companies that leverage digitisation to facilitate investment transactions or directly connect private lenders and borrowers.
Keep in mind that companies in the industry do not always offer services that involve consumer spending or investment: even programs and applications such as Mint and Personal Capital, designed solely to help users keep track of their finances and plan their spending, fall squarely within the ideology of financial technology.
What about Square, SumUp, Scalapay or Satispay? In their own way, each one uses technology to offer better and more beneficial services to their users.
In short, fintech companies have gained a substantial slice of the market in recent years, fuelled no doubt also by the pandemic crisis, which has given a further boost to collective digitisation.
Benefits and upsides
Now that we’ve detailed the main functions of fintech companies and understood how present they are in our daily financial operations, let’s discuss the benefits associated with these new financial instruments: in other words, how can fintech improve services for consumers?
The first advantage of fintech is definitely accessibility: unlike traditional financial institutions, fintech services are usually available 24/7 and are easily accessed from smartphones, tablets or computers. Whereas in the past it was necessary to physically go to the bank for certain transactions, it is now possible to carry out many payment transactions, and much more, directly from your device.
This clearly leads to an additional advantage: speed. In fact, fintech services make many payment and investment transactions faster thanks to the accessibility of platforms.
Moreover, by using digital technologies to automate almost all manual tasks, such services often prove cheaper than traditional alternatives, becoming accessible to larger segments of the population.
Lastly, fintech services usually provide security and transparency, using well-tested systems to prevent fraud and providing clear and transparent information to consumers, who in the past would have had to physically go to the bank in order to request certain information.
The importance of translation in the fintech industry
Many fintech companies operate predominantly (or exclusively) online, their services being aimed primarily at those who are well-versed in the digital sphere.
This context therefore makes the translation and localisation of programs and services extremely important. But how can translation help fintech companies in practice?
Firstly, localising and translating apps, websites and business documents proves crucial for expansion into new markets. For example, consider what would have happened if PayPal had decided to launch its services in Italy without having its platform translated into Italian. It most likely would not have been as successful as it is today, as it has nearly reached 10 million users there.
Of course, the language component also proves crucial for customer communication: in order to provide high-quality service, it is indeed essential to ensure excellent customer service. This means not only communicating with customers in their own language in the event of problems or questions, but also posting information and notices that are always understandable. Since these all relate to banking services, being able to win the trust of customers is crucial, and this can only start with clear and timely communication.
Therefore, we can conclude that localisation for fintech companies is imperative for entering new markets, gaining customer trust and building lasting relationships with both users and new international partners.
If you have a company active in the fintech sector and are thinking of expanding abroad, contact us obligation-free: our team of experts will be happy to examine your situation and work with you to study the best solution for your needs.
