The internet has had a profound effect on all the industries across the globe. Financial services are no exception. They may be impacted more by technology and the internet then other sectors because people from every part of the nation have some type of mobile device that they use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
With mobile devices come the ability to bank online, make payments online, order absolutely anything through various platforms, social media connections, and we could go on, but you get the point. Everything that we do is connected to the internet in one way or another, and as such financial institutions have had to adapt to keep their doors open. Their physical and virtual doors.
Before we get into it there is a term that needs to be clarified, Fintech. Fintech is defined as financial technology that is implemented to improve any and all areas of financial services. It is basically a shortened term for financial technology.
Now that Fintech is understood we can get to the meat of the article. The internet and the effects that it has on the future of Fintech.
- Society-The financial industries have a unique opportunity to shape the way that society conducts all types of financial tasks. These institutions have a ton of control over how people act because they control the wealth of the countries, and of the world. As the financial institutions continue to push people to use online platforms, the more commonplace that it will become. Soon going into a bank to do a transaction will not be possible, and all loans and investing will be done from the screen of a mobile device.
- Togetherness-All financial companies will work together to ensure that the internet is at the center of the majority of transactions. Innovative technology like Blockchain allows everything to be automated, and since the information is stored in chains of blocks in a public ledger all companies on the same program can communicate and share information automatically. Agents will not have to type anything into computers by hand because the consumer will do all the data entry.
- Customers-This is where financial industries may run into a few problems, especially smaller companies and firms that are not equipped to deal with so much internet As the big financial institutions continue pushing for a connected online platform customers will keep flocking to them. Soon internet transactions will be the only way that business will be conducted within the industry.
- Security-One aspect of all financial companies that the internet can help with is security. If the proper precautions are not taken, though, security can go up in smoke. That is where new technological concepts come in. The smarter that hackers become, the better the security programs need to be. If financial companies work together on one platform it will be harder for anyone to breach the security of the companies because if one location is hacked, the other locations on that same platform will know it.
The bottom line is that as the world moves along into the future the internet will become more important than ever. Online services will be the way that business is conducted, especially in the financial sectors. It may even make it hard for some sections of the industry to maintain their jobs.
As things become more automated there will be less need for people in physical locations. For instance, if a bank pushes for all their customers to go online the number of tellers needed will diminish. Same with loans and investing. As online use grows, jobs in the industry will decrease.
