The world, through technology, is becoming more connected than ever. As a result, the finance world is seeing key transformations in the global payment landscape. From innovations such as mobile banking to blockchain technology and virtual accounts, fintech is revolutionizing how we handle money.
Over the past few years in Africa, there has been a significant rise in the development of the financial technology (fintech) industry. This industry is worth billions of dollars and is still growing. A major factor contributing to the current upsurge of fintechs is their benefit to customers. In the past, global remittance transfers were often cumbersome, costly, and time-consuming. However, with the arrival of the fintech era, the whole process of international transfer is experiencing a redefined process.
This post sheds light on the role of fintechs in facilitating global money transfers and closing the gap between the financially underserved. Keep reading.
Understanding the Fintech Industry
Before exploring the world of borderless transactions, we will give a brief overview of fintech itself.
Fintech combines advanced technology with financial services to enhance speed, efficiency, convenience, and accessibility. It encompasses a wide array of innovations, including mobile banking apps, peer-to-peer platforms like the Changera platform, blockchain technology, and more.
In essence, fintech is all about harnessing the power of technology to streamline financial services and make them more easily accessible to the majority. So far, fintech has opened up opportunities for individuals who were previously under-served by traditional banking services.
Role of Fintechs in Facilitating Global Money Transfers
Fintech has emerged as a powerful tool to facilitate cross-border transactions. They do this by offering solutions that overcome the limits that come with traditional banking. Gone are the days when cross-border payments were slow and costly. Fintech startups like Changera have introduced innovative payment platforms to allow efficient money transfers across international borders.
Let’s take a look at how fintech is revolutionizing the international payments landscape.
Improved Digital Payment Models
Fintech companies have and continue to innovate advanced digital payment solutions for both online and offline payments. Embedded payments and real-time payment trails (RTR) are major areas that have seen significant improvements.
Increased Mobile Payments
The rapid increase in the number of smartphone users worldwide has accelerated the need for fintech services. Most people now prefer to perform all their financial transactions on their mobile phones rather than going to a physical branch of a bank. Hence, fintech startups are actively innovating solutions related to online transactions. This growth of mobile payments has significantly impacted financial inclusion globally.
Enhanced Cross-border Payments
The cost of sending remittances to Africa used to be the highest globally. This was largely due to complex banking systems, numerous intermediaries, inefficient payment systems, and so on. However, as of the time of writing this, the narrative has changed. Thanks to the power of fintech, there is a reduction in the cost of cross-border payments. This has helped to unlock an increased volume of cross-border transactions and has facilitated regional integration.
How Fintech Solutions are Improving Cross-border Transactions
Fintech companies like Changera have created a safe way to transfer funds between countries. These companies are more efficient, cheaper, and technologically advanced than traditional banks. The following are the benefits that using a fintech platform offer to customers:
Automated Payment Reconciliation
This is one of the primary benefits that fintech platforms offer individuals and businesses alike. For businesses that receive thousands of transactions per day, tracking payments can be overwhelming and tedious. However, fintech uses technology to solve this problem by mapping all payment collections from each customer with a simple process.
Lower Transaction Fees
Compared to traditional banking services, using fintech platforms significantly reduces the cost of payment fees. You don’t have to pay a percentage of the transaction amount each time money goes into your account. A fintech account allows you to pay a flat fee for each of the transactions you make on the account.
Plus, the operating and maintenance of a fintech-generated account significantly costs less compared to a traditional account.
Streamlined Operations
Fintech leverages digital accounts to give your company a centralized structure, which helps improve transparency and visibility. With a virtual account, you have greater transparency about where and how money is flowing into your business.
Budget planning and account management are also way easier with virtual banks. This is because of the customizable nature of virtual banking, which provides features like round-up savings and saving targets.
Enhanced Transaction Speed
One of the most annoying problems that affect customers and business owners alike is delayed payments. People want to be able to conduct transactions swiftly and seamlessly.
Fintechs have become incredibly popular due to their ability to provide innovative tools to process transactions swiftly.
Advanced Security
Fintech solutions ensure that your security is covered at all times. For example, Changera uses high-end encryption of users’ details to ensure that there is less risk of compromise of customers’ data. In addition, there are multi-factor authentication and biometric login features to mobile apps and websites for added protection against online scams.
Takeaway
Fintech has proven to be a breakthrough in the global payment landscape. Indeed, it is the future of money transfer and the benefits of this innovation continue to grow in real time. Some of the notable benefits include faster, more efficient, more affordable, and more accessible financial services.
Although fintech is already revolutionizing how we handle payments, there are still more opportunities in Africa’s payment landscape. As we look to the future, we envisage further improvements and breakthroughs for a more interconnected world.
In the meantime, you can experience the power of innovative fintech solutions with Changera. Download the Changera mobile app from the Google Play Store or the App Store to get started.
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