From a transatlantic cable to disruptive financial services

The origin of Fintech world.

¡Hola world!, this is Elliot López. This is the first blog entree I’ve ever created. I am a Mexican UX/UI designer working for the financial/technological sector. I am currently pursuing my master’s degree in Interface Design, Multimedia, and Internet at the University Sorbonne Paris Nord in France.

Of course you’ll be asking: Oh great, now what? Well, the conception of this blog is to allow me exploring and sharing what is happening out there for the financial/technological sector from an interface and design perspective. I would like to engage in this changing market and getting to know the rol of a Design and innovation in the Fintech field. We would be able to analyse different products, seeing new tools and the challenges around it. But before going deeper, let’s start with my favorite part of everything: History, C’est parti!

History for finance and technology 101

Fintech is a term that has been used most recently in the last years, but it actually dates from the past century. How did we get here? According to Stephanie Walden from Forbes Advisor, Fintech means “financial technology.” Yet it means that technology is used to augment, streamline, digitize or disrupt traditional financial services. As you could notice, this word holds a complex background and multiple opportunities, therefore implicates different contributors to it, in order to set it in our daily lives.

… technology used to augment, streamline, digitize or disrupt traditional financial services”.

Most authors describe the evolution of this word in different eras. In the research document One of The Evolution of Fintech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm? The authors Arneris, Barberis and Ross have captured the key periods:

FinTech 1.0:

Back in 1866, when the first transatlantic cable was successfully stablished across Continents, after several trials by The Anglo-American Cable house on the Telegraph Field, Foilhomurrum. This provided fundamental infrastructure for the period of intense financial globalization from 1866 onwards. The transatlantic cable allowed a message and a response in the same day.

This was just the beginning as it came after the first fund transfer system operating throughout the telegraph and Morse code. Until we see the apparition of the credit cards launched American Express. In this Era most of financial services remained analogue despite the apparition of the technology.

Fintech 2.0 (1967–2008) — Development of Traditional Financial Services

In this era, Arneris, Barberis and Ross describes the increassment of the development of digital technology for communication and transactions. It is the ATM machine by Barclays in 1967 the beginning of other important innovations. The world had witnessed the first digital stock exchange, and SWIFT. The development of the internet made possible the online banking making visible a transition to a digital environment. However the Global Crisis in 2008 will define the end and the dawn of a new era.

Fintech 3.0 (2008-) — Democratizing Digital Financial Services

Due to the economical crisis in 2008, users distrust the banking services and this is were new opportunities emerge. It is the start for disruptive financial services from start-ups and the introduction for the different cryptocurrencies (2009).

Furthermore the possibilities of using the technology in different devices becomes possible. This is were we will be able to see not just the desktop but mobile or tablet (multi device services). The world now witness the descentralisation of the traditional bank allowing different intervenants to close the gap created by banks and the user. It is now possible to see multiple transactions in a matter of seconds for example, and users moving their finance with friendly interfaces.

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According to the Fintech 50 2022 by Forbes, this is the top 3 most valuable American private Fintechs so far:

• Stripe $95 billion: helping big and small sized-enterprises to process online payments.

• Klarna $46 billion: the pionner of the buy-now-pay-later model.

• FTX $32 billion: One of the largest crypto exchanges in the world.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabelcontreras/2022/06/07/the-10-biggest-fintech-companies-in-america-2022/

Let’s get started! Allons-y!

As you can see, the concept of Fintech has been evolving during the years, so the way it approches to the user. Remember that Fintech implicates using technology to augment, streamline, digitize or disrupt traditional financial services. And that is just possible by putting together multiple professionals to solve it. In my case I want to take a look at how the UX/UI designers participates in here as well. For instance, we could thought they are here for making more appealing and user-centered all interfaces implicated in this market. Also to break the bounder of boringness that can be sometimes related for those who aren’t familiar with finances. I believe in the last recent years UX/UI designers have turned into important game-players in Fintech world and it is our mission to discover beyond what our status-quo believes.

Ok, so this is where we are about to jump into a complex, changing yet wonderful world of technology and finance!

À bientôt amigos!