Overcoming uncertainty in 2023: How banks and fintechs can stay resilient

Global success for banks and fintechs has never been so paramount amid economic uncertainty and geopolitical issues. Success is influenced by a multitude of factors, but there are three key characteristics that, to me, are the most important. To ensure your business thrives on a global level in 2023, proactivity, customer focus, and diversity are integral. Without being willing to disrupt the market, putting your customers’ needs first, or ensuring your solutions adhere to local market needs, getting your business on the global stage will be difficult. Below, I discuss the three factors that will help make your business stand out in a hugely competitive industry.  

The first key to success is proactivity. Effective banks and fintechs act instead of waiting for approval to disrupt and lead. Financial services is an ever-shifting sector, which can be influenced by advances in technology, an increasing need for customer information security, and the demand for more convenient payment methods. Financial services providers need to be prepared and take action rapidly to address a variety of factors so that their technology enables both present and future use cases. 

An example of disruption within banking is the shift by several banks, transitioning away from data centre-hosted platforms to cloud-based environments built on solutions such as Microsoft Azure. Cloud technology allows banks to improve their flexibility, scalability and security, while reducing costs. 

The second key to global success is making things easy for customers. The most successful companies put their customers at the forefront of innovation, focusing on convenience and exceptional user experiences. Fintechs that are experiencing sudden and exponential growth can only provide an exceptional service for their customers if they are able to scale rapidly. When that happens, they need issuer-processor partners with the flexibility, reach and scale to support them, so they can continue to assist their customers.  Investing in digital innovation makes this possible with the ability for financial service providers to integrate with numerous core banking platforms around the world, with sophisticated and adaptive APIs. These capabilities mean that fintechs and digitally minded banks can launch programmes faster, rapidly issuing cards anytime, anywhere. This provides organisations with more time, enabling them to focus on user experience and means that global expansion can occur effectively and efficiently. 

The final factor to ensure success when working across the globe is diversity. In order to anticipate or meet customer's needs, understanding of culture is vital. When aiming to reach different types of business in different cultures, the experiences and thinking of these cultures must be reflected in your workforce. For example, in Saudi Arabia, financial institutions must be compliant with Shariah Law and Islamic Banking practices, so schemes such as buy-now pay-later or loans may not be appropriate. Instead, services such as Murabaha credit solutions, enabled by data driven Mada-certified platforms, are more suitable in this case. Islamic Banking has been around for 1,500 years, but there is a strong future in digital, so it is important that solutions are created with local need in mind.