The world of fintech has inched closer to the mainstream realm over the past couple of years after multiple developments and adoption events. Just recently, this surge in popularity was again put on display when the Monetary Authority of Singapore organized the Afro-Asian Fintech Festival.
The event witnessed mass participation with several big players in the industry also attending the event. Sources have informed us that the festival was a joint collaboration by the Central Bank of Kenya, Huawei, Standard Chartered Bank and Safaricom.
During the course of the event, panelists touched upon areas of discussion such as next-generation digital platforms, cashless and digital payments, and the relationship between fintech and banks. The theme of the 72-hour long event was “People and Talent Harnesssing: Collaboration in Pursuit of Resilience and Growth Post Covid-19. The general consensus was that digital banking had changed the game with future roadmaps charting out better solutions.
The interdependency of the banking world and fintech was another widely discussed topic. Over the past couple of years, many institutions have partaken one or the other form of fintech to streamline their overall process. Apart from this, fintech also enabled different user demographics to enter the world of digital trading. Participants further talked about the issues that may exist in the intersection of technology and finance.
Some predicted that there may not be widespread network problems in the future but rather smaller fragmented API issues. Head honchos of major fintech companies added that there were plenty of new opportunities within the blossoming world of fintech applications. Chen Zhentao, the Director FSI Southern African Region at Huawei took the side of cashless payments. He said that ditching hard cash would be the perfect way to elevate the financial ecosystem to the next level. A lot of individuals envisioned a digital economy where everything took place on a decentralized network that was safe, fast, and privacy-oriented.