Flexibility, speed, customization. They are almost buzzwords when it comes to FinTech. The risk, if some label is not filled with this content, is that they turn into just another useless trend. To avoid this, the real question we need to ask ourselves is: what do these keywords mean exactly and how can we translate them into innovative financial products and services? To answer this question we talked with BorsadelCredito.it, one of the Milan Fintech Summit partners that works every day to build the way for the future of financial and banking services in Italy.
“Firstly – BorsadelCredito.it experts underline – we have to understand that when we bring terms like flexibility, speed and customization into the world of FinTech they become the reason why FinTechs can intercept market trends and anticipate the emerging needs of market niches. Usually, in fact, this needs are not met by financial institutions – which too often offer expensive services supported by inadequate technological tools. Oppositely, FinTech can deliver new, customised, tested and efficient solutions in just a couple of weeks“. This is, for example, exactly what Fintech companies such as BorsadelCredito.it have been doing during 2020 to help organizations overcome the economic crisis due to Covid-19: “We have delivered new, tailored loans, in just a few weeks’ time“, as BorsadelCredito.it told us.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF INNOVATIVE FINANCE
The creative process of a FinTech company starts when it intercepts an emerging need linked to a specific event – such as Covid-19 pandemic – or a particular request coming from customers. “The first step – as stated by the BorsadelCredito.it rapresentatives – is always to try to understand if there is an end market and how large this could be. Once this is done, we study the feasibility of a product that responds to that need in a customized way“.
After these actions, finally, it’s time to move on to the execution phase, which is carried out by the IT team with a constant focus on the impact of this new product on the entire FinTech platform and its general sustainability. “From the first kick-off idea – BorsadelCredito.it underlines – the whole process requires more or less two weeks. Within BorsadelCredito.it, we have applied this process to all the products we have launched in 2020: from the short-term and long-term loans for companies affected by the economic crisis, up to the loan for construction companies connected to the Italian Eco-bonus tax incentive. But we have also used this process for the previous products. In fact, this approach isn’t new to us. In 2018 and 2019, for instance, we launched special products like these for pharmacies and Amazon sellers!” In this way, FinTech companies can position themselves in those markets where more traditional solutions are not very effective or do not even exist. “The idea behind this kind of products and services – BorsadelCredito.it experts explain – is that of being advantageous for all the parties that are involved in these operations“.
2 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL FINTECH SERVICES
There are two main ingredients at the core of this approach. “The first – says BorsadelCredito.it spokeperson – is technology, which is totally developed by our team (one of a kind in Italy), being in this way genuinely flexible and suitable for every need without authorization procedures or legacy changes“. The second ingredient, instead, is more of a simple process. “We can describe it as a sequences of “trials and errors“. This is a typical start-up way of doing things that we also apply to the creative moment of business development with the aim to bring the “fail fast” Silicon Valley model into the context of Italian economy and business ecosystem. By combining these elements, we can make pilot products and services in a totally autonomous and fast way. So fast that we can anticipate some emerging needs in a rapidly changing market“.
All of this makes FinTech disruptive: because it can create ready-to-use product in two weeks’ time since the surfacing of a need. Moreover, BorsadelCredito.it experts add that “in this way, it can create a concrete advantage for all the involved stakeholders, with interesting returns on investments. We know that this is the future of financial services and we will continue to walk in this direction“.
