The COVID-19 impact: what innovations and changes are shaping Fintechs’ future

The COVID-19 pandemic definitely has pushed financial institutions to change the ways they operate and come up with new solutions for this.

These and other topics were recently discussed during the Fintech week Lithuania online conference on the 15-18th of June. Genome also participated in the event and we would like to share some of the most interesting ideas voiced during a panel “The most exciting COVID-19 crisis innovations that will shape the future of Fintechs”.

The issue was deliberated on by the head of Fintech Lithuania at Infobalt Paulius Tarbūnas, head series producer and host at Fintech Finance Douglas Mackenzie, founder and CIO at Etronika Kęstutis Gardžiulis, co-founder and chairman of the board at Pervesk Vytautas Karalevičius and chairman at GREEN EQUITY SGP Jesper Carvalho Andersen. Here’s what they had to say on the topic:

It is undeniable that Fintech companies were much better prepared for the COVID-19 crisis than the traditional banks, as the former already met most of the criteria required in the lockdown scenario: they provide services and operate online so that their clients don’t need to visit banking branches.

From an organizational point, Fintechs are also more agile, fast, and tech-savvy than the banks. Also, being more technologically advanced allowed Fintech companies to make a smoother transition to work from home.
Moreover, some companies even saw a rise in staff’s productivity, as employees felt more motivated to work from home, where they can spend more time with their families and also don’t have to face daily stress associated with the need for social distancing.

Still, Fintech companies also had their fair share of problems due to the pandemic: their clients that are in retail were hit hard by the lockdown with spending decrease expected to continue, a lot of deals and collaborations have been canceled or postponed.

There is even a possibility that the pandemic may derail collaborative approaches between Fintechs and banks, as the latter will try to work on self-improvement to be ready for upcoming challenges. Thus, Fintech companies should be prepared for a scenario where some exiting innovations may be put on halt due to some banks not wanting to cooperate.

The COVID-19 crisis became a catalyst for faster implementation of ideas and technologies that existed in Fintech before but should have been leveraged years ago. For instance, in the last few months, more cloud-based and customer experience technologies are being used in banking.

Some Fintechs launch lending suites that are based on cloud solutions and are more efficient. 

Machine learning technologies proved to be useful as well, especially to mitigate risks related to employees working from home. Considering all that, the experts believe, that soon there will be a stronger investment in cloud-based, KYS technologies and machine learning. And traditional banks should also pay attention to these innovation trends if they want to keep up with the fast-changing world.

If you would like to read more about thought-provoking ideas, you can check out Genome’s article “Fintech Week Lithuania Overview: 5 Insights from Keynote-Speakers” published by Fintech Baltic. Here we have gathered some of the most exciting insights voiced during the whole 4-day conference: from traditional banks’ and Fintechs’ future strategies to advice on how to adjust to the COVID-19 crisis.

We at Genome continue improving on our services to deliver the best online banking experience to our clients. Our COVID-19 initiative is still available for low-risk businesses – check out Genome’s website to open a business or merchant account for free. Now you can also talk to our support team in real-time using Genome’s chat (learn more about this tool here).