DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR OF ECONOMY

ЦИФРОВАЯ ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЯ ФИНАНСОВОЙ СФЕРЫ ЭКОНОМИКИ

Исмагулов Азамат Гибадатович,

студент, кафедра «Автоматизированные системы обработки информации и управления», Астраханский государственный технический университет,

РФ, г. Астрахань

ABSTRACT

What is financial technology for the average person? Opening a deposit or ordering a credit card in a mobile bank, money transfers to loved ones, instant payments for the desired goods and services – everything that only seemed like a dream a decade ago is now as familiar as a car trip. But what is behind this simplicity? New digital solutions that are the result of close cooperation between the IT-industry and banking institutions. This article is devoted to an overview of such revolutionary technologies that have changed the use of financial instruments.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Что есть финансовые технологии для обычного человека? Открытие вклада или заказ кредитной карты в мобильном банке, денежные переводы близким людям, мгновенный доступ к собственным накоплениям для оплаты желаемых товаров и услуг – всё, что только казалось мечтой десятилетие назад, сейчас является таким же привычным делом, как поездка на автомобиле. Но что стоит за этой простотой? Новые цифровые решения, ставшие результатом тесного сотрудничества IT-индустрии и банковских институтов. Обзору таких революционных технологий, изменивших привычное пользование финансовыми инструментами посвящена эта статья.

Keywords: fintech; finance; big data; banking technologies; digitalization; artificial intelligence; machine learning; blockchain; payments; Internet banking.

Ключевые слова: финтех; финансы; большие данные; банковские технологии; цифровизация; искусственный интеллект; машинное обучение; блокчейн; платежи; интернет-банкинг.

Digitalization is a global social trend based on the convertion of information into digital form, which results in the economic growth and the life conditions improvement. Digitalization has affected all spheres of social life, including the financial sector. The world's largest banks are actively using innovative technologies to interact with consumers, whо form the demand for innovative products. Describing these new economic phenomena, scientists use the term “fintech”.

Professor of the Fribourg school of management Patrick Schnufel offers the following definition of fintech: "Fintech is a new financial industry that applies technologies to improve financial performance." Fintech includes projects that involve the implementation of innovative technologies in the financial sector. These innovations can be technological, organizational and product-oriented. For example, technological innovation is the distribution of cryptocurrencies; organizational – using a model of direct interaction between providers and consumers without the mediation of banks, product – the emergence of ICO (Initial Coin Offering) [1]. Fintech instruments can be associated both with the execution of financial transactions and with their maintenance. Fintech is used in many specific financial areas:

— payment systems;

— digital currency;

— financial P2P platforms;

— robo-consulting and investing;

— Internet banking, etc.

Payments and transfers. The segment of payments is a key area of investment in fintech, which ranks first among all fintech companies. Due to the insignificant financial competencies required for this area, the largest fintech companies give high priority to payment systems. The transaction volume, annually providing by fintech companies, is about $ 100 billion. Traditional money transfers made through banks or by mail are expensive, and the transfer can take quite a long time. Here, traditional banks feel the greatest competition from fintech companies, as the latter actively create and develop transfer systems with a low commission and a small period of time between sending and receiving [2].

Lending. Although payments and transfers are "tidbit" for fintech companies, these services can be considered low-tech, and, playing only on the field of transfers, the fintech industry would never be able to compete with banks, because they offer a much wider range of services. First of all, bank is perceived as a credit institution that provides consumers with access to financial resources on a fee basis. Therefore, the only direction of development of fintech is to enter the lending sector. After the crisis of 2008 banks have become less profitable to lend to small businesses, that’s why the segment of small and medium-sized loans became the main one for fintech organizations.

P2P-lending. P2P (peer-to-peer) — is a model of direct interaction between providers and users of financial services without the mediation of the bank. Fintech companies provide a P2P platform where borrowers and lenders can openly cooperate. By eliminating intermediaries, such platforms can offer higher returns to investors than a bank deposit, but at the same time a lower rate for borrowers than a bank loan. This activity creates serious competition for banks and traditional microfinance institutions due to greater flexibility and convenience for users.

Internet-banking. In contrast to the above examples, where the implementation of fintech projects is carried out by commercial companies, Internet banking is mastered by traditional financial institutions — banks. Nowadays banking interaction with consumers is translated into digital format. This reduces the costs of banks and increases the availability of financial services to consumers [3]. Banks effectively introduce new fintech instruments in their activities for bigger allowance to the traditional financial services.

Blockchain. Blockchain technology has removed the possible risks associated with the penetration of a third party into transaction. When it is used, data on each transaction is instantly recorded in a separate block, the chain of such blocks is the history of transactions, which can be instantly tracked. The usage of blockchain in banking provides a number of advantages:

— optimization of banks ' activities;

— reducing of costs;

— increase in the processing speed of banking operations;

— transparency of operations.

Transaction, provided with blockchain, increases the rate of turnover of capital. Thanks to the above advantages, especially the transparency of transactions, the technology quickly resolves all misunderstandings among customers.

Big Data and machine learning. The introduction of machine learning in the banking sector helps banks to quickly solve a number of important tasks:

— coordinate a variety of directions and offer the client a specific product. In 2016, URALSIB Bank introduced a program that analyzes customer data and offers an alternative choice based on its preferences [1];

— implementation of cross-sales, allowing to communicate with the client in real time;

— fraud prevention. In 2017, HSBC Bank introduced a technology to prevent money laundering: a program based on customer data triggers a signal of any "non-traditional" customer’s transfer.

— risk management — collecting information about the financial activities of the client allows to make more informed decisions on the choice of the model of cooperation with him.

These programs are of interest to both traditional banks and fintech companies engaged in financial transactions (in particular, they are useful for operators of credit P2P-platforms, as they improve the quality of scoring).

References:

1. Babkin A.V., Burkaltseva D.D., Pshenichnikov V.V., Tyulin A.S. Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in digital economy: development genesis, St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University Journal. Economics, 10 (5) (2017) 9—22. DOI: 10.18721/JE.10501.
2. Cifrovaja transformacija jekonomiki i promyshlennosti: problem i perspektivy: monogr. SPb.: Izd-vo Politehn. un-ta, 2017. ISBN 978-57422-5881-0. DOI 10.18720 / IEP/2017.4.
3. Nikonov A.A., Stelmashonok E.V. Analysis of modern digital technologies' implementation in the financial sphere, St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University Journal. Economics, 11 (4) (2018) 111—119. DOI: 10.18721/JE.11408.