Financial technology

Fintech revolution disrupting traditional banking: one-on-one interview with Taavet Hinrkus

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• published: 04 Jul 2016
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금융 재창조하는 핀테크: 트랜스퍼와이즈의 타벳 힌리커스 대담 The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of New Champions -- which wrapped up last week in China -- brought together some of the world's leading innovators and startups challenging traditional businesses. One sector benefiting the most from these new technologies is finance. Kwon Jang-ho reports. Financial technologies, or 'Fintech' for short, has changed the way people use financial services. Instead of walking to a bank, users now swipe their fingers on the smartphones or go online. Investments in the industry rose 75-percent on year in 2015, and there are no signs of the growth slowing down. And behind this upward trend are new startups and innovators, challenging traditional banking models. "Consumers are very smart. Consumers, when they see something which is so much better and so different, they really make a jump for it." Taavet Hinrikus is the co-founder and CEO of TransferWise. It's a peer-to-peer currency exchange service that matches payments with those going the opposite direction. So money essentially doesn't cross borders and therefore it is cheaper than banks and other services, such as Western Union and Paypal. In just five short years, it now handles transactions worth over 750-million U.S. dollars a month, and the company has been valued at just over a billion dollars. "I don't think the word 'Fintech' existed then. So I think we've been kind of defining the genre of 'Fintech'. But really I don't think consumers care about 'Fintech', consumers care about a better experience...cheaper, faster, more convenient." "Have the banks changed the way they do things? Have they reacted to what you and what your company's been doing? "I think not that much yet, but it really comes back to deficiency in their business model...that reengineering process is something which is very painful to do in an organization which has thousands of branches, tens of thousands of people and existing shareholders who are used to a profitable company." Taavet said that along with technological innovations, it was also the 2008 financial crisis that led to people losing trust in traditional banking services and look for alternative solutions. "While we thought that banks were looking after us they only really care about their own interests. So we've seen a steady stream of new Fintech companies coming in every vertical of banking since the financial crisis" And what lay ahead in the future of Fintech? "Do you think it will last, this Fintech revolution? Do you think banks will catch up or even take over some services?" "I think we'll see a future where it's really hard to distinguish between a conventional bank and a Fintech disruptor, as in every other industry we're seeing that technology comes and takes over and becomes the center of it. Everything will be technology enabled, the same thing will happen in banking and finance." Kwon Jang-Ho, Arirang News. Visit ‘Arirang News’ Official Pages Facebook(NEWS): http://www.facebook.com/newsarirang Homepage: http://www.arirang.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arirangtv Twitter: http://twitter.com/arirangworld Instagram: http://instagram.com/arirangworld