Brexit

The
changing
face of
finance
he financial services industry has been the subject of
considerable change over the past decade. In fact, so
much has changed that if financial services were a person
you knew, you’d probably be walking past it in the street
without even realizing. But what is causing such significant
and rapid change? The answer is, of course, technology.
The introduction of technology and its rapid evolution has
had an enormous impact on the industry, bringing many
new challenges and opportunities along with it.
One of the first major changes was that of globalisation
on a scale we have seldom seen before. Until relatively
recently, our major financial centres of the world were
almost exclusively limited to London and New York. Now,
with the help of technology, other major cities across the
globe have now caught up: Hong Kong, Sydney and Dubai
to name a few. Transactions can now be made from almost
anywhere, at any time: a feat that was absolutely unheard
of twenty years ago.
However, along with such growth came some challenges,
as you’d expect. Managing colossal amounts of data and
doing so securely became the main focus, and with that,
IT specialists were now just as important as the finance
experts themselves. Major investments were made in
data mining and security, generating thousands of new,
specialist jobs within the industry to cope with the huge
demand that large banking institutions were faced with.
More recently though, while these large banks have
certainly benefitted from the arrival of modern technology,
it is the smaller, more niche organisations that are
really paving the way for innovative change within the
industry. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, large
financial institutions have found themselves under
increasing pressure to reduce their spending and improve
transparency. Therefore, it has become increasingly more
difficult for banks to develop their own innovative systems.
Having been quietly working away behind the scenes over
the past few years, ‘fin-tech’ (financial technology) firms
are finally emerging, disrupting and revolutionizing the
way in which banks operate and communicate. Their fresh
take on technology in the financial industry is challenging
the outdated ways in which systems have been previously
run, whilst the nimble nature of fin-tech organisations
like MahiFX also enables banks and institutions to go to
market much more quickly. Drawing in over $19.1 billion
of investment in 2015 alone, it’s safe to say that fin-tech
businesses are here to stay.
However, fin-tech firms are not just bringing new
technology to the table; they’re breaking time-honoured
rules and re-imagining the entire culture of the banking
industry. The openness that banks now have towards
accepting fin-tech providers has transformed the previous
culture, as big institutions now acknowledge the ease
at which they can outsource to specialists, and the
advantages of becoming more customer-oriented. As a
result, it’s improving everything from efficiency to client
interaction. The disintermediation of conventional business
models has meant that fin-tech is reducing the level of
dependence that clients once had for their banks. Whilst
banks were previously used for almost anything related to
our personal finances, the arrival of online services has
lessened our reliance on banks drastically. Next-generation
financial technology is centred on user-experience; with
the end client being the focus. In an industry that has been
dominated by a small number of big names for decades, the
playing field is finally being leveled, as fin-tech brings highlevel
technology services to all businesses, regardless of
their size.
FIN-TECH FIRMS ARE NOT JUST
BRINGING NEW TECHNOLOGY TO
THE TABLE; THEY’RE BREAKING
TIME-HONOURED RULES AND RE-
IMAGINING THE ENTIRE CULTURE OF
THE BANKING INDUSTRY
From the introduction of technology to a complete overhaul
of the way in which organisations are run, the financial
industry has undergone some vast changes over recent
years. However, finance’s visage is set to change more
dramatically than ever thanks to the arrival of fin-tech.
By Kate Wright, marketing executive, MahiFX
GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT
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