With the fintech industry making significant strides within a short time, the banking sector ought to integrate blockchain technology to keep pace with this area, according to HashCash CEO Raj Chowdhury.ย
For a holistic transformation to be witnessed in the conventional financial landscape, Chowdhury believes the adoption of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain should happen even though digitalisation, improved UI/UX, and competitive pricing are happening at the front-end.ย
Blockchain adoption continues to tick based on various factors, such as improved transparency, better capital optimisation, decreased counterparty risks and errors, instant cross-border payment settlements, and bypassing intermediaries.
These attributes are expected to make blockchain in the supply chain market surpass $14.88 billion by 2028.ย
Chowdhury pointed out:
โOriginally designed as a platform for an alternative to the existing fiat currency system, blockchain is now built to answer the challenges in the existing banking infrastructure, and help them deliver better services.โ
Blockchain technology is also creating fintech opportunities through smart contracts because they help eliminate people-intensive paperwork and escrow service requirements.ย
Chowdhury added:
โThe traditional universal banking model offering all-in-one services has seen an alternative with separate fintech businesses offering specialized services. From wealth management, payment services, to loans- the focused specialization of fintech increases customer expectations leading to competition with the BFSI sector.โ
The significant worldwide proliferation of fintech services has prompted paradigm shifts and innovations like embedded finance and banking-as-a-service through cloud API connectivity.ย
According to KPMGโs Pulse of FinTech report, the fintech industry in Singapore made notable strides in 2021 by hitting $3.94 billion, with blockchain and crypto funding contributing nearly half at $1.48 billion.ย
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