Straddle finance and technology

Gauri Chhabra

The digital revolution has profoundly impacted not only our lives but businesses across sectors as well. This is true to such an extent that it has transitioned into an industry in itself, comprising technology, internet, and e-commerce players. With the core business interests directly in line with the digitisation of the economy, working for the 'financial technology' or 'FinTech' industry as it is popularly called, enables you to remain at the forefront of this revolution, effectively spearheading this change. FinTech is a relatively new technology branch, which has given a boost to job creation in the field of IT, software and mobile app development, data analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. 

Course Content 

The course content is usually divided into three different parts. It begins with Financial Markets and services, which includes the role of finance, Indian security markets and its role in Indian Economy, types of securities and financial derivatives, types of risk and its management practices and evolution of technology in Financial Markets. The second section is all about the role of FinTech in India and it includes digital India and its role in promoting FinTech, role of FinTech in Financial Inclusion and Financial Integration, implications of FinTech Developments for Banks and Bank Supervision, understanding UPI - Unified Payments Interface and its implications. The last part is the study of analytics which includes artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in Accounts and Finance

Job Prospects

Product Manager: The typical job description of a product manager at any financial service organisation talks about envisaging a product roadmap to meet customer needs and collaborating with technology teams to implement the same as per timelines. This goes hand in hand with assessing strategic alliance opportunities in collaboration with on-field business development representatives to foster the sustained adoption of the co-created products. You will be expected to perform all these functions, the size, scale, nature of business, and lean operating model of the firm make the role especially challenging and exciting. You will forge the strategic partnerships with financial institutions and merchant to create solutions with a large number of uses cases and boosts adoption. 

Innovation Consultant: The FinTech ecosystem in India is maturing rapidly. According to the FinTech Trends Report, 95 per cent of financial institutions (FIs) want to partner with FinTech firms. However, the explosion of FinTech firms makes it challenging for FIs to navigate through the entire ecosystem, assess firms on multiple evaluation parameters (relevance to the FI's growth story, the business and operating model viability of the FinTech, the market potential of the firm, etc.) and select the best fit. Further, as FIs establish their innovation CoE to engage with start-ups, they are keen to partner with third-party specialists. The benefit of having of a consultant as part of the journey is that you will adopt an outside-in, unbiased view of the FI's innovation journey. Unlike employees, you will be typically not impacted by the FI's existing power structures, business-as-usual (BAU) processes and decision-making hierarchies. Hence, you will be in ideal position to assist the firm in stitching together its innovation story. You will also help FIs embark on their innovation journey and conquer challenges at each juncture of this journey from ideation to strategy, execution, management and continuous improvement.

UI/UX and Graphics Designer: In the FinTech ecosystem, the goal is to develop innovative products to help solve customer problems and offer an unparalleled user experience. As you know, design thinking shifts the focus to the end user. The role of a user interface (UI)/user experience (UX) designer has, thus, become pivotal. While working as UI/UX designers you will be expected to adopt the principles of design thinking’’, which has evolved into concepts such as product design and business design. This approach assesses the business context and user state of mind to develop innovative solutions which go beyond the traditional mind-set of designing.  

Cloud Management: With FinTech adopting an opex approach for infrastructure investments, cloud management professionals manage the entire ecosystem, including governance and cyber security over a cloud. The adoption of the cloud in all  sectors will increase, but with a focus on security and regulatory compliance continuing to be the front and center. Therefore, this is another major role for FinTech ecosystem.

Sales and Marketing: An increasing number of start-ups are entering the money transfer, payment technology, loaning, and lending space. Investment banks are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with these innovative financial technology firms that specialise in one specific area, compared to the traditional banks that usually cover multiple sectors. As transaction throughput is an important metric for FinTechs, the role of the sales and marketing team is to target the right segments and acquire customers largely through digital only channels. 

Data Scientist: Fintech companies are put to higher standards when it comes to customer’s data security. On the other hand, fintech start-ups, especially those in the lending or debt management niche, need to protect themselves and their communities against the fraudulent clients. A comprehensive big data analytics solution could be embedded in operational processes and automatically active during live transactions to isolate and minimize fraud risks.  FinTechs typically look at unstructured data as well to reach the underserved. You will uncover the value from data collected through multiple sources to customise product offerings. 

What is Fintech?

It is a business that combines technology and finance to provide financial services, it has crossed myriad labyrinths from crowd funding and payment technologies to Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI). They are no more the 'what if' scenarios of finance.  They are the progeny of the marriage between finance and technology.

FinTech has biforked into categories - first is incumbents (existing banks and tech companies) and second- tech start-ups in the financial services space. 

Institute watch

• University of Mumbai, Mumbai, offering Master's in Financial Technology 
• BSE Institute Limited, Mumbai, offering Master's in Financial Technology 
• S P Jain School of Global Management, Mumbai, offering Professional Programme in FinTech. 
• Imarticus Learning Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, offering a FinTech Certification Course 
• N. L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai, offering Post Graduate Certificate Programme in FinTech.  
• National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), Faridabad, offering a short course of two weeks in FinTech.

Eligibility

Opportunities in FinTech domain vary from Engineering to Operations to Marketing. There are different disciplines that you can actually try out for such opportunities. For engineering discipline, you should possess a basic BTech or BCA or MCA degree. For Operations and Marketing, a minimum graduation degree is required. Graduation need not to be in technical discipline. Graduation discipline varies from profile to profile.

Conclusion

Today, FinTech sits at a curious cusp of change- that of a bubble ready to burst and also of a sector that holds potent promise. Which side it would gravitate towards, only time will tell.

But while it is there, it will create some deep pockets and lucrative careers, and yours may be one of them.