Covid-19 hit hard on every section of the society. Global economy collapsed and every organization is struggling to sustain in the market with limited financial and human resources. Fintech companies are also short of funds to conduct their operations, but has immense opportunities during and after this pandemic.
Earlier fintech services include contactless payments and online transactions, but now its operation includes Digital wallet apps, Virtual cards and remote financial services. Better connectivity and increased usage of internet and smartphones paved the way for digital transactions.
International authorities like WHO advised people to move into contactless payments to avoid virus infection. This saw a surge in online transactions. Digital payments increased in European and Asian countries where the pandemic was high. Along with money transactions, some fintech companies provided other services to customers like insurances schemes and Relief and Wellbeing network. Nottingham-based Fintech Tully announced the launch of Covid-19 Relief and Wellbeing network to corona virus affected people with access to payment relief.
In Europe, the application of fintech services expanded rapidly. Poland’s national payments processor let citizens sign documents remotely through an eIDAS- certified remote qualified e-signature service. The Financial Task Force is promoting the use of digital ID technology and remote financial services. Financial Conduct Authority of UK asked firms to accept selfies for client identification.
In India, fintech companies like Paytm and PhonePe offered insurance schemes to its customers during the Covid-19 outbreak. Amazon introduced Amazon pay in its e-commerce site which helps in connecting buyers and suppliers and made transactions in a single platform. Along with that, fintech companies are availing personal loans to its customers within minutes when they demand.
Everything is going digital and in future these digital services become necessities. E-commerce and OTT platforms are penetrating deep into the market and become the next source of revenue for Fintech companies. Tech giant companies like Google, Apple, Amazon have already introduced their digital wallet apps. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba introduced Ant financial services, which made huge profits in China and social media giant, Facebook is going to introduce payment services in its famous platform WhatsApp and will enter the market by the end of 2020. It can be seen that though the fintech Start ups are struggling to sustain in this economic slowdown, there exists opportunities and scope in Financial technology.
