Cloud wastage remains a pain point that can be addressed by going serverless and a solid approach to security needs to be central to the strategy. According to McAfee, 1,004 distinct cloud services being used by the average financial services firm, a 32.1% YOY growth – based on a survey of 3.7M finance employees over 14,000 cloud services. What’s more, according to MarketsandMarkets, the predicted size of the Finance Cloud Market is expected to reach $29.47B by 2021, which represents a 24.4% CAGR.

A niche market is a segment of a larger market that has its own demands and preferences. Companies focus on niche markets to better cater to a specific consumer than competitors who target a broad audience. Catering to the unique demands that mainstream providers aren't addressing, businesses pursue niche markets to build loyalty and revenue with a largely-overlooked audience. For example, rather than offering a general cleaning service, an entrepreneur might pursue a niche by offering floor polishing services exclusively. Another business in the same city might occupy a separate niche, specializing in solely biodegradable cleaning products. 

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global big data market is currently valued at almost $140 billion. By 2025, it’s expected to grow to $230 billion at a CAGR of 10.6%. This makes FinTech app development a priority for companies that are transforming financial services with big data analytics.FinTech is one of the industries that uses big data extensively due to its complex services, use of IoT technologies, and need for risk analysis and security, which requires fast operations on large amounts of data.Big data developers help FinTechs gather an overwhelming amount of information and derive insights that really matter in the decision-making process.

Distributed-ledger technology (DLT) enables safer, faster and cheaper transactions in an ever-increasing number of sectors. The Commission considers DLT as a breakthrough technology that is key for the EU's competitiveness.

Smartel Money LTD is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the modern ICT platforms as well as using the mobile and non-mobile platforms as well as using the freely downloaded applications. Smartel money is an internet based e-commerce payment system, which intends to be a payment processor for online vendors as well as click and brick businesses, auction sites, grocers and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.Smartel Money provides the above via the My Wallet (TM) service which comprises a numerous tailored solutions both for businesses, organisations and end customers. For more information visit our website in the link given below.

Regtech is the management of regulatory processes within the financial industry through technology. The main functions of regtech include regulatory monitoring, reporting, and compliance. Regtech, or RegTech, consists of a group of companies that use cloud computing technology through software-as-a-service (SaaS) to help businesses comply with regulations efficiently and less expensively. Regtech is also known as regulatory technology. Financial institutions and regulators both use Regtech to deal with complicated compliance processes.

A FinTech sandbox or an application program interface (API) sandbox is an environment that innovators and testers can use to mimic the characteristics exhibited by the production environment on a real-time basis to help simulate responses from all the systems an application interfaces with. This enables banks and FinTech players to experiment with innovative financial products or services within a well-defined space and duration. Moreover, the presence of appropriate safeguards helps in containing the consequences of failure. Essentially, the sandbox allows for the pilot testing of newly developed technologies. 

‘KYC’ is one of the most important terms in FinTech, as ‘knowing your customer’ is a regulatory requirement for all financial institutions. The main goal is fraud prevention and constraining the ability of certain users who do not meet given acceptance criteria. Traditionally of course, this was done entirely in person, with account holders visiting their banks with the relevant ID documents. But for the past years, KYC has been moving increasingly into the digital domain. This move has brought a vast range of benefits to users and FinTech providers alike, but a number of challenges remain. Below, we outline some of these and present you with ways in which to combat them if you’re looking to set-up, or improve your digital finance platform, or to improve your customer experience.

The goal of blockchain is to digitally record information to be distributed but not tampered with. It is an open, decentralized ledger that records transactions and entries that are confirmed by peer-to-peer networks and encrypted. The data is stored into a “block,” or a fixed event that has been approved and locked into place. Each block is then added to the “chain” of events, leading to the methodology’s moniker. Each record is easily verifiable and incorruptible. The network cannot be influenced by a single party nor taken down because it exists in multiple distributed places.  

The MFSA FinTech Strategy proposes to set out six pillars for the MFSA to create a holistic long-term approach to catalyse innovation, growth and competition in the financial services sector, whilst ensuring robust investor protection, market integrity and financial soundness.

Neobanks emerged — young banks licensed (often from a traditional institution) and a modern core banking system that allowed them to operate and scale faster while spending much less on customer service. Neobanks started to grow like startups — building only relevant products, nailing marketing. The rebundling phase was under way.

The next wave currently underway is niche fintech. Due to a dramatic reduction in the cost of launching technology startups (500 times in 20 years), focusing on product group for very specific user personas (teens, retirees, SMEs) became possible. Thanks to their precise relevance, these fintechs enjoy higher customer loyalty and satisfaction.

SimbaPay – a London based digital money transfer provider – today announced the launch of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered chatbot service which now makes International Money Transfer (remittance) possible with only an SMS. The SimbaPay chatbot will also enable 24/7 instant customer service for its customers across Africa and Europe.“We’re thrilled at the prospect of the chatbot service resolving most customer enquiries instantly at any time of day or night” said Daniel Howard, CTO for SimbaPay. “Another major objective we achieved with the chatbot service is that it also works without internet. This means customers with a mobile phone, even a basic phone without internet access, can access the SimbaPay chatbot using SMS”.

Prime Bank, a private bank in Kenya, has partnered with London-based fintech, SimbaPay, to launch an instant international money transfer service via the bank's digital platform, PrimeMobi, according to a press releaseThrough SimbaPay, Prime Bank customers will now be able to instantly and securely send money directly to bank accounts or mobile wallets across 15 countries including Africa, Europe, Asia, India, United Kingdom, China, Germany and Uganda.

Ahmad Hammouda, Co-Founder and CEO at Thndr said Egypt is expected to be the 7th largest economy by 2030 and has more than 100 million people, most of which are young and are looking for a convenient and digital way to invest their money. “That’s why we are excited to bring a new breed of young investors to the market” he added.

Thndr, an Egypt based startup, is now poised to formally launch operation after securing the first new brokerage license granted in the country in over a decade. The startup closed its pre-seed round last December, with investors including Y-Combinator, 4DX Ventures, Endure Capital, The Raba Partnership, and MSA Capital. The startup has just acquired the necessary licensing from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), making it the first company to acquire a brokerage license in Egypt since 2008.

The company is keen to work with companies specialising in the financial technology (fintech) solutions field, to contribute to the development of the Egyptian capital market sector. The most prominent of these partnerships includes a contract with the Egyptian Company for Information Dissemination (EGID). The latter company has been the approved authority for distributing information to EGX listed companies in the country for more than 20 years. “By using technology and introducing an easy-to-use application, we hope to remove all barriers users face, whether by making the account opening process easier or reducing costs,” said Saif Amr, co-founder of Thndr. He added, “We help companies by facilitating dealing in the Egyptian Stock Exchange, but we intend to offer other investment options soon to suit all segments.”

thndr is Egypt's mobile first investment platform with 0% commission, no account minimum, access to real time news, market data and easy account setup and funding processes.

Startup and equities trading platform, Thndr Securities Brokerage, has obtained approval from Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to practice securities brokerage activities.Thndr is the first company in the Middle East to announce the provision of a zero commission on securities trading service.Its activities take place through an advanced electronic platform that enables dealers in the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) to view the latest developments and indicators at zero cost.

At Thndr we believe that everyone should have access to financial services and that means access to different products that can make your money work for you.  That’s why we’ve partnered up with Azimut, one of Europe’s leading independent asset managers to bring you the new Egypt-focused fixed income mutual fund AZ-Savings. AZ Savings is one of the first funds of its kind, where you can invest in daily certificates that you can redeem weekly—no more liquidity worries.

Thndr is aiming to build a Robinhood for the Middle East, helping users invest in stock, bonds and funds commission-free via the company’s free app. Robinhood has taken the US exchanges by storm, but the trend hasn’t hit investors in the Middle East; Thndr is aiming to replicate their success with investors there.