After re-defining the world of financial services, fast-growing FinTech companies are now experiencing challenges in their quest to hyperscale.
For these companies, managing their increasingly complex operations and regulatory obligations while still driving innovation is becoming a significant roadblock to growth.
In 2020, a US-based mobile app that offered commission-free stock trading onboarded some three million new users. The platform’s popularity led to a surge in customer service requests, which in turn raised a number of technical issues. The problem became overwhelming and the app was forced to lock customer accounts for over a month.
Not surprisingly, the firm was flooded with lawsuits. More recently, a leading cryptocurrency platform was forced to shell out USD 100 Million as a penalty for breaching Anti-money Laundering (AML) regulations.
Scaling up requires a reliable roadmap that strategically aligns the needs of an organization with its resources and projected milestones. In today’s hypercompetitive world, this has led to many innovators recognizing one unavoidable fact — growing FinTechs need a proven partner to proactively analyze and overcome regulatory, technological and domain-specific pitfalls.
A thought leadership paper by ISG and WNS, Helping Fintechs Soar, finds that companies can save 30-50 percent of overheads by engaging a third party to handle operations. By partnering with providers of mature infrastructures, such as cloud-based solutions, FinTechs can avoid scalability issues and loss of business and reputation.
Forging the right alliance can help FinTechs acquire new customers, streamline internal processes, strengthen digital capabilities and improve customer experience. This in turn can enable them to reach their full potential by focusing on what they do best – create innovative products and services. Here’s a look at what such partnerships can offer:
Delegating Compliance Issues
2020 witnessed global banks cough up USD 14 Billion in regulatory fines, with American banks alone accounting for 78 percent of the issued fines. FinTechs constantly risk falling foul of policy and regulatory requirements, which can hamper the pace of innovation and growth, says a Deloitte report.
An example is the recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act proposed by the EU Commission. This legal framework to regulate AI-led businesses will, when enforced, impact how FinTechs deploy AI. Certain uses may be banned and others may be subject to strict rules.
FinTechs must therefore develop a holistic regulatory strategy early in their journey. This will allow them to be resilient and compliant in an environment marked by changing and stringent rules.
With a collaborative approach, FinTechs can access domain and functional expertise, as well as tech support, to ensure compliance and reporting. A strategic provider can also offer clarity on existing risks and compliance gaps, and develop a framework for timely risk detection and mitigation.
Going Global
Crossing borders and tapping new markets to expand the product portfolio comes with a special set of challenges. Language and cultural barriers, new laws governing local business operations and lack of familiarity with the local competitive landscape can become significant hurdles. Teaming up with a partner who offers global delivery capabilities can help FinTechs meet regulatory requirements, leverage specialized skills for niche functions and better communicate their USP to potential customers.
Deep Domain Expertise
At a certain point, building a robust product solely in-house can become challenging. FinTechs need experienced teams to help prepare a roadmap and deal with recruitment issues that can put the brakes on speed and innovation. Aligning with a partner with deep domain expertise can more quickly stabilize and optimize systems and processes while scaling up performance.
As ISG and WNS’ Helping Fintechs Soar points out, FinTechs gain significant benefits by collaborating with a strategic partner that can:
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meet their evolving business and technological needs
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meet operational challenges, and
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provide support across functions and regions for sustainable growth
Read how WNS FINSIBLE, a modular suite of banking solutions, is helping FinTechs address challenges across operations, compliance and CX.