What is a FinTech platform?

Competition in business is always fierce, so many Fintech businesses look to find an innovative solution to common problems in order to differentiate themselves from their rivals.

Other businesses look primarily at how user-friendly their model is, and the use of innovation and technology will provide a slicker user experience.

Whichever approach a business takes, an Account Management Platform will be the base upon which their innovative product is built because of the benefits this provides.

In one of my previous posts, we outlined why you should buy a proven platform rather than build your own, but let’s explore what a platform actually is, and how having one will benefit your business?

When looking at a platform, it is important to understand that it is a structure on which you can start building your product.

It provides:

          1). Infrastructure:

The infrastructure a platform provides allows you to scale your business. This means that you can maintain one central team of staff to run the day-to-day operations of the business, without the need to hire excessive amounts as your client base grows.

This scalability, and the stability it comes with, is important, especially for small businesses, as budgets will be better spent in the development and marketing of your core offering as opposed to the backend account management & payments processing.

Additionally, the infrastructure that many platforms come with will enable you to monitor activities, report on outcomes, and ensure your business is compliant with and stays up to date with industry regulations as it will have been developed and built with your industry in mind.

Buying a proven platform will allow you to build on this infrastructure as opposed to having to build it from scratch, meaning you have more time and funds to devote to your core offering.

          2). Platform:

Features will vary depending on the sector you are in and the purpose of the platform itself.

Businesses tend to have a number of different requirements, whether it is customer usage, backend administration or others, so having a range of user interfaces accounts for these different requirements.

Using a proven platform as opposed to building your own means you will benefit from the experiences of others who have used the platform and provided feedback and requests for ongoing upgrades and development.

By missing out the build and development process you are able to focus on your frontend business offering, where you are the expert and save money in the process.

For businesses in the FinTech sector in particular, multiple account types may be required, including loans, savings and current accounts to name just a few.

A platform should provide the ability to run and manage these accounts simply.

Payments are becoming a big industry. As businesses look to more innovative ways to make and receive payments, they will need platforms that are integrated these with new technologies.

          3). Tools:

A platform will, in many cases, also provide an array of tools to manage the business.

In the case of FinTech firms, payments, accounts and other features such as management of fees and transaction limits will need to be managed.

Security in financial services is vital, and a proven platform is likely to have weathered onslaughts from hackers and other such attackers over a number of years, meaning that your platform will reap the benefits of other users developments. In comparison, a purpose-built platform will need to go through initial testing and development.

          4). APIs:

An API, which stands for Application Programming Interface, is the messenger that takes requests and tells a system what you want to do, and then returns the response back to you.

By providing a comprehensive range of APIs, any business using a platform will be able to build any product it requires to act alongside the base platform.

This will mean that businesses, particularly those facing budgetary constraints, are able to focus their energy and attention on their core business proposal, while ensuring it integrates with the platform.

The truth of the matter is that in business nowadays being user-friendly, especially when handling payments, but also having the ability to handle data securely, are minimum requirements from customers.

As the sector faces these challenges, businesses need to ensure their fintech solution is proven and rigid enough to withstand any potential threats, but also flexible enough to respond to regulatory changes.