More than any other issue, cybersecurity issues, and data privacy breaches are some of the most critical problems a company can face. As data privacy breaches are becoming increasingly common and severe, implementing personal data privacy ordinance and GDPR becomes the need of the hour. GDPR and the data protection law and policy in Hong Kong are some of the most famous and powerful data privacy laws currently.

Even with increasing data privacy breaches, numerous companies are reluctant to adhere to these ordinances and regulations. They believe it to be a waste of time and resources. However, such companies fail to recognize the benefits that these data privacy laws can provide, not just for their customers but also for their own business.

One company that adheres to these ordinances and regulations is Apple. Recently, Apple is planning to launch a search engine in the iOS 14 system to take on Google according to the Financial Times.

Forbes recently published an article regarding Apple building a search engine to tackle Google. One of the most unique features this search engine has is increased user privacy. Given privacy is a huge concern, the company insisted that “privacy” is a basic human right, and one of apple’s core values. Therefore, this search engine would refrain from storing personal information, nor track users across the web.

With one of the world’s most valuable company prioritizing privacy and protection, here are five reasons to consider incorporating data privacy and protection regulations into your business operations:

Non-compliance with data privacy and data protection laws, such as the GDPR, data protection law, and policy in Hong Kong, personal data privacy ordinance, can attract several heavy fines. Businesses end up losing a major chunk of their revenue in trying to pay off these fines. According to the official GDPR website, violation of the GDPR regulations can result in fines of up to 10 million euros. Undertakings can be fined 2% of their global turnover as well. Obviously, it is a smart decision to avoid these fines and utilize this capital in other domains. Apart from these fines, non-compliance can also lead to losing numerous strategic business partnerships. Reputed and established businesses do not want to associate themselves with companies that do not follow data privacy and data protection laws. This can throw a huge wrench in your business growth.

One main reason why businesses avoid implementing data privacy and protection laws is that it will hamper their products and services. They believe not having access to data might stop them from providing enhanced service to their customers. However, this is where businesses are going wrong. Implementing data privacy and protection laws in Hong Kong can help them bring forth innovative products and services.

It takes a lot of innovation to create products and services in line with data privacy and data protection laws. Thus, companies incorporating data privacy and data protection laws in their business models will be able to create new technology with data privacy at the heart of it. Since customers are demanding data privacy and cybersecurity more than ever before, providing them such products and services will enable companies to grow exponentially.

The only way to protect personal data to the fullest is by implementing top-notch security controls. However, when a company fails to do so, they stand the risk of data privacy breaches that can have a crippling effect on their business. According to a report by the Ponemon Institute, a single data breach could cost an IT company about $3.86 million in 2020. Plus, when you face a data privacy breach, you betray your customer’s trust. Since the customer’s data has now been shared with a third-party, your customer will no longer stay loyal to you. This can have a drastic effect on your business’ growth. Such data privacy breaches destroy your brand value and prevent you from building a loyal customer base.

Your customer begins to lose trust in your business and no longer finds it safe to purchase from you. However, companies that take extra efforts to provide data protection will attract positive attention from customers. When companies prioritize customer data privacy, they improve their brand value. Such solid standing in the market enables you to grow your business and gain a competitive advantage over your competitors.

Awareness about data protection and data privacy amongst customers is increasing with every passing day. When companies fulfill their customers’ wishes regarding the same, they can build a brand that endures. Your customers will begin to do long-term business with you without worrying about any repercussions (because there won’t be any). Building customer loyalty enables you to avoid acquiring more customers. Acquiring a new customer is costlier than retaining an old one. Thus, building customer loyalty by complying with data privacy and protection laws will reduce costs associated with gaining new customers.

Companies that comply with data privacy and protection laws would never want to do business with companies that don’t. These ethical companies are trying to build themselves as a thought leader, rather than a bad reputation. In other words, if you incorporate data privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity laws in your business operations, you stand the chance of building better business relationships. After all, everyone wishes to work with a trustworthy business partner who won’t jeopardize anything.

Sources:</>

[1] https://www.hytrust.com/blog/when-consumer-privacy-is-a-competitive-advantage-security-can-be-a-marketing-tool/

[2] https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/pdo/en/

[3] https://swiftsystems.com/guides-tips/benefits-of-data-protection/

[4] https://www.cpomagazine.com/blogs/privacy-intelligence/12-reasons-why-data-privacy-protection-brings-business-value/

[5] https://www.cherwell.com/library/blog/it-security-compliance/

With the unemployment rate going up, billions of people still under the poverty line, and the mass majority still poorly-informed about financial services and products, the need for financial inclusion is high. Financial inclusion serves as a gateway for everyone to make secure transactions and get access to essential financial obligations such as savings, credit and debit cards, fixed deposits, funding, and more. These modern needs push for a collaborative economy where the goal is to uplift the lifestyle of everyone.

An essential part of being able to do so is the adoption of fintech and continued research and development to advance it further. Fintech offers us a means of accessing sustainable finance. When more users can utilize services provided by financial institutions to store and grow money, make regular payments, receive money from other users, and gain an overall control with their finances, we can say that financial inclusion is spreading effectively.

Fintech offers us the luxury to advance these financial services and not just make payments available to everyone but also remove barriers to entry, spread more financial awareness, and make the digital transaction experience better.  The evolution of technology and the adoption of digital transformation, the financial services industry has been revamped. More businesses and fintech startups have leveraged the applications of financial technologies adopted Open APIs and curated customer experiences.

Let us have a closer and detailed look at how fintech startups spur financial inclusion worldwide.

It is crucial to learn where you can make an impact before setting down to create a roadmap. Fintech startups are working tirelessly in gaining access to new market segments that can give them an in-depth look regarding the size of the requirement and its scope. This access is achieved by joint ventures with venture capital companies for fundraising, crowdfunding, and intelligent fund distribution.

Plus, this also helps fintech create new offerings for the end-users and provide them with reliable, affordable, accessible, and valuable financial products for growth and financial inclusion.

An excellent example of businesses using fintech to access new financial market segments is Santander in the UK. They needed to accelerate the process of underwriting loans to cater to a wide range of audiences in reduced time. Santander needed an automation solution that could stay compliant with all regulations while processing loans for small and medium-sized companies. They licensed Kabbage to automate this process, allowing them to bring in new SMBs into their business portfolio.

Fintech startups are taking a different road than their legacy predecessors. They work mostly in collecting data and running big data analysis on it. Fintech can find out which geolocation has highly targeted customers, the spending habits of a target group, which service is required to be offered to someone, and more.

Big data analysis helps fintech receive actionable insights on their financial products, the preferences and needs of the end-users, the most appropriate channel to reach these customers, and how to push forward the cause of sustainable finance. Harnessing such an advanced innovation also helps fintech receive more opportunities for crowdfunding and joint ventures.

Another purpose that fintech startups are trying to achieve is data security. For active financial inclusion, it is crucial for fintech to provide financial services that are safe and secure. Any shady or threatening services can have a crippling effect on their growth. Big data analysis teamed up with artificial intelligence has helped fintech add additional layers of protection to digitized finance and helped end-users conduct business with improved ease, convenience, and safety.

For long, the relationship between financial institutions and their customers has been strained. Users are hardly able to get in touch with financial institutions for simple queries, every little change to be made had to be taken care of by going to the branch itself, credit cards wouldn’t work sometimes. Plus, the biggest problem was deprived of access to financial services and the high chances of fraud.

However, fintech startups have already brought about a significant change in this aspect. With better fund distribution, they can allocate appropriate resources to build services that are advanced in nature and easy to use and access. This ease has helped fintech startups enhance customer experience and engagement.

It has also enabled them to chalk out a path towards sustainable finance. With increased fundraising and effective partnerships with joint ventures, fintech startups work tirelessly towards creating reliable long-term solutions. These solutions can include anything – advanced digital payment solutions like QR code payments or digital payment wallets, providing easier access to account information, allowing faster query resolution with chatbots, and better targeted financial products.

With smoother, convenient, and global access to such robust solutions, end users can safely utilize them as per their needs. It is only when you grow together that you can spearhead the journey towards 100% global financial inclusion, and that is what fintech startups are striving for.

The next decade marks an incredibly important time for the digital payment industry. We are looking at not just remodelling of the current digital payment system but also a massive wave of advanced digitization and a heightened focus on digital payment experience. Online payment systems, cryptocurrency, improved fraud prevention, and more will be the prime focus in the next decade. A revolutionary global effect has been made by mobile apps like Pay2Go and PayPal on the way to make mobile payments. Banks, financial institutions, fintech enterprises have been benefitting from open APIs and fintech megatrends and applications while fintech has transformed the financial services industry immensely. Here are the most crucial five digital payment trends that are set to revolutionize the industry even further.

In the wake of a fast-moving world that’s increasingly looking to add as much convenience and ease to their lives, people are looking to do more in one single go. This need to do more is where bundled financial services will come into play. We will soon be using mobile payment apps with a single interface for multiple cards and bank accounts. Users can easily switch from one bank account to the other using a single tap.

Users will be able to view aggregated information and easily switch between one account to the other seamlessly. Such bundled services add additional value to the user’s experience of digital payments and help them pay as they go. Users won’t have to log into multiple online payment gateways to get the job done.

How Bitcoin transactions work is no secret to the world anymore. This decentralized platform of digital payment was adopted and rejected alike. However, cryptocurrency has continued to become a rising point of interest in the digital payment industry since it is not and cannot be regulated by a central financial institution.</p.

With Bitcoin becoming more energy-efficient and fast, it is expected to gain more widespread adoption in mainstream digital mobile payment methods. The adoption of cryptocurrency is already picking up speed in the countries where Bitcoin is accepted. Moreover, it’s not just Bitcoin but also other cryptocurrencies that are expected to serve as great digital wallets shortly. They offer higher security (two-factor authentication) than credit cards and are also decentralized. Thus, traditional financial institutions won’t be able to restrict its price movements.

Plus, they also won’t have any control over transaction or processing fees when making payments via cryptocurrencies, thus eliminating these extra charges. Soon, this innovatively creative online payment system will witness a boost in its performance and usage.

Open APIs or Application Programming Interface have become a revolutionary technology in a very little time. Used in numerous industries, open APIs have now also found their way into the banking and fintech industry. In terms of its application in the banking and fintech domain, it is a way for a banking application to use a common communication channel and interact with other applications. If there’s a request for data, an open API works by establishing a communication channel and then responding to that data request.

It is crucial to note here that there’s a stark difference between API and webhook. In a webhook, as soon as new data is available, the data will be sent. There doesn’t have to be a request for the data to initiate a response. This fact, however, is not valid for an API. When we say that an API is open to third parties, any of these third parties can utilize it to develop new apps and services. Fintechs rely heavily upon innovative and revolutionary API gateways and API testing tools to bring more value and enhance the customer experiences. The benefits offered have made them incredibly famous, especially API in Hong Kong. Let us have a more in-depth look into how banks and fintech enterprises are benefitting from open APIs and how it relates to fintech megatrends and applications.

When banking and fintech enterprises utilize open APIs, they are enabling data sharing in real-time. Customers now have complete access to all their banking details without going through multiple steps to get their hands on a tiny piece of information. Plus, all of this can happen in real-time, allowing customers to access the data quickly.

With access to real-time data sharing via open APIs, third parties can quickly develop new businesses. This facilitation of innovation would not be possible without uninterrupted access to valuable and actionable data from the banks or fintech. In 2018, HSBC Bank launched the Connected Money app, which enables users to view information related to multiple bank accounts, account information, account balance, details about loans, and even about fixed deposits and other investments in one single app.

Products built by utilizing open APIs add a lot of value to the customer’s experience. Taking the HSBC example, customers previously had to go through multiple steps to view information related to different bank accounts. However, with the app, they can switch between different bank accounts by using a simple tap. Such apps add a lot of convenience and ease to the customer’s banking experience and enable them to receive added benefits without going the extra mile.

Numerous open APIs have also enabled users to indulge in consumer lifestyle services. Now, banking and fintech apps don’t just allow customers to check their account balance, transfer money, switch from one account to the other, and view investment-related details. They also let them purchase movie tickets, make recharges, pay bills, secure online transactions, make hotel or restaurant reservations, book flights, and more. Any business that provides this level of enhanced experience to its customers can quickly expect continued business with such loyal users.

With new and improved API testing tools and API gateways, banks and fintech enterprises can break down the silos and bring about change faster. These APIs allow fintechs to develop financial products and services much quicker than they could before. Plus, faster development of financial products and financial services using open APIs also means that they are tested quicker with API testing tools and thus released faster into the market. Now, suppose a fintech utilizes big data and can gauge the immediate need of their target audience. In that case, they can quickly use open APIs and bring the financial product into the market with added ease. These changes, inadvertently, are also a massive boost to customer satisfaction.

With new financial products and services in the production line, open APIs offer banks and financial institutions new streams of revenue. Moreover, it is also a great way to reduce costs of development and utilize that expense. For example, decoupling traditional platforms and rejoining them through APIs allows banks and fintech enterprises to reduce costs of development. Companies can then develop better financial products or add more value to the customer experience by utilizing capital. Without these open APIs, it will take a lot of money and time for the company to develop new products.

Plus, the collaboration between legacy banks, fintech enterprises and startups, and third party payment providers cultivate innovation. Thus, open APIs serve as a bridging gap between fintech (which are technologically advanced but require knowledge on financial business and regulatory compliance) and legacy banks (which need advanced innovations to step out of stagnation and offer their customers enhanced security and value).

Drop us a line at info@ndngroup.com to learn more about how our innovating technologies thrive your business in the era of fintech.

Fintech has evolved considerably and changed rapidly in recent few years, impacting diverse industries of trading, banking, insurance, financial investment, wealth and asset management. Banks, financial institutions and businesses have proactively engaged with fintech applications. In the next few years, the rise of Contactless Payments, On-demand Insurance, Algorithm Trading, Robo Advising and Open Banking are major megatrends being unleashed in the era of Fintech.

Banks and fintech startups have utilized technologies like Blockchain, Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help speed up and automate transactions as well as reduce operational costs.

For instance, the deployment of Blockchain, a form of decentralized distributed ledger technology, provides a secure and efficient platform for storing and maintaining transactional data records. Once stored on the blockchain platform and verified through Smart Contracts, the transactions become immutable. As such. banks and fintech enterprises can safeguard customers’ data security and create efficiency from business operations.

Nowadays, businesses have become more customer-centric to stand their ground. It never has been more important to understand what target customers really want and know customers’ value.

Contactless payments are synonymous with cashless payments that do not require contact between the devices used in consumer payment and POS terminals by the merchant. Contactless payment systems are based on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication) technologies.

According to a recent Global Market Insights report, the increasing number of cashless transactions in emerging economies positively impact growth in the smart card market. The smart cards include a small microchip that processes and stores electronic data while securing data, assets, and identity. The global smart card market is expected to reach US$65 billion by 2025 with banking representing about 25%.

The NFC technology within contactless readers can interact with phones and connected mobile devices such as watches or rings. The contactless payment allows customers to simply wave their smartphone across the reader to complete transactions swiftly. Contactless payments are faster and more secure than the PIN technology as it transfers the encrypted data to the point-of-sale device instantaneously.
Currently, payments are enabled via secure contactless and mobile payment systems such as Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay, or any bank mobile application that supports contactless.

Contactless payments are faster than cash and card transactions. Businesses have been focusing on offering superior customer experience and contactless payments will help achieve that. Customers show greater loyalty toward businesses which have embraced contactless payment technology.

Insurtech startups have embraced fintech innovations to impact the insurance industry. With Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, Insurtechs has leveraged data-driven insights to curate on-demand protection coverage that is customized and flexible for customers.

According to the recent World Insurance Report, 41% of customers said they are willing to purchase usage-based insurance and 37% explore on-demand insurance coverage. The report also showed 37% of customers are willing to share personal data in exchange for personalized coverage and better protection.

For instance, wearable devices and smartphone apps are increasingly popular with consumers and insurers, especially in healthcare and wellness space. Some devices can count the calories burnt during a workout and monitor customers’ heart rate and blood pressure. Insurtechs and startups have invested in developing the devices and wellness/health apps that allow customers to monitor their health. As such, customers can use the data to improve their health and fitness levels while insurtech can utilize the data to find out customers’ habits, preferences and offer customized insurance coverage.

With blockchain technology, insurtech startups have introduced simpler purchase processes and end-to-end automated claim management, thereby streamlining operations securing customers’ data privacy and making a purchase/ digital payment process user friendly.

With an agile operating model and digital innovations, insurtechs target potential profit pools and capture share among target customer segments. It is widely expected insurtech startups will increase the overall growth levels of the insurance industry and gain big market share.

Algorithmic trading is amongst the most talked about financial technologies in recent years. It has given trading firms more power in the rapidly evolving markets by eliminating human errors and changing the way financial markets operate.

Algorithmic trading can be applied in many forms of investment and trading activities such as commodity and foreign exchange trading by brokerage firms and investment banks.

Algorithmic trading uses computer programs to trade at high speeds and volume based on criteria, such as prices and specific market conditions. Devoid of human emotions, latency, technology-oriented, algorithmic trading executes trading commands accurately and instantly.

Algorithmic trading automates the trading process, ensuring that orders are executed at what are deemed to be optimal buying or selling conditions. The algorithms have the capability to analyze a variety of parameters and technical indicators in a second and execute the trade immediately. The increased speed on trading becomes important as the price movements can be captured by traders as soon as they occur.

Unlike traditional human-to-human financial advice, robo-advisors provide personalized and automated financial advice to customers based on algorithms.

Robo-advisors collects information from clients about their financial situation and future goals and then uses the data to offer advice and automatically invest client assets. Robo-advisors offer easy account setup, financial planning, portfolio management, and data security features, exceptional customer experiences and low fees. The main advantage of robo-advisors is that they are low-cost alternatives to traditional financial advisors.

Also, robo-advisors are available 24/7 and it takes significantly less capital to get started. In contrast, human financial advisors prefer high-net-worth individuals who need a variety of wealth management services and can afford to pay for them.

The future of robo-advising is bright. Robo-advising will be a tool used by nearly everyone, from financial advisors in wealth management firms to the average at-home retail investor.

Open Banking is a system that provides a user with a network of financial institutions’ data through the usage of application programming interfaces (APIs). With Open Banking APIs, banking data are available in real-time, providing consumers with better ways to conduct transactions and make investments.

Open Banking gives the benefit of choice to customers as they can select from multiple financial service providers available. It also empowers customers to take charge of their finances and manage their bank accounts.

Open banking APIs also enable service personalization to benefit customers immensely. Customers can now have access to multiple accounts in one place and enjoy the best deals available. It puts the power back into the hands of customers, enabling them to securely use third-party financial products and services that rely on banking data.

Meanwhile, Open Banking offers an excellent opportunity to fintech startups to meet the customers’ needs for new and better services such as personal finance management and access to credit services through a single application.

In conclusion, fintech has been used to automate insurance, banking services, financial investment, trading and wealth management. Fintech usage has risen significantly with an increasing number of players adopting innovative technologies to offer best-ever products and services to customers. The development of Contactless Payments, On-demand Insurance, Algorithm Trading, Robo Advising and Open Banking are the hottest trends in the era of Fintech.

Drop us a line at info@ndngroup.com to learn more about how our innovating technologies help expand your business in the era of fintech.