Fintech lessons 2022: Insights from FinregE, Mojaloop, Provide Finance, Prove & Gresham

This month at Fintech Times our focus turns to reflection as we look back at developments over the past 12 months. 2022 has certainly been a challenging year for anyone with global economic activity experiencing a severe slowdown, with inflation higher than in decades.

What lessons have we learned in the last 12 months? Executives at FinregE, Provide Finance, Prove, Gresham Technologies and the Mojaloop Foundation reveal all.

Rohini Gupta, FinregE

FinregEdirector and leading regulatory advisor, Rohini Gupta, has over 15 years’ experience in capital and asset management, investment banking and the personal market.

She says there have been some lessons learned from 2022 that she will take into 2023 and beyond.

“This year I have learned:

• To never waste an opportunity discovered. Once you’ve identified a problem, success often comes from recognizing an opportunity to serve an untapped segment or problem.
• Instead of developing a product you think is brilliant, develop a product solution that provides services or creates a better or unique experience, which is more efficient, user-friendly or engaging than other solutions or no solution on the market
• That persistence is key – keep going if you really believe in your product and you know you’re capitalizing on an opportunity. Persistence always pays off.
• To continue to learn and grow from more opportunities. Your product can always be faulty. You can always make it a better experience, or expand it to fill additional market opportunities or gaps.
• Listening to your customers – they are the key to your success. Focus on customer needs.”

Miranda Khadr, Give finance

Founder and CEO of Provide Finance, Miranda Khadr, has worked with debt structuring for more than 15 years. She says that through running a fintech company she has learned that standing still is not an option if “we are to remain relevant and robust”.

“To this end, I have spent a lot of time this year monitoring our systems and making sure they have the digital capacity we need to respond to our customers’ needs. In addition, cyber threats have been a concern, so I have invested in digital security measures to limit our exposure should we be attacked. I am increasingly aware of how vulnerable small fintechs are, so building resilience in 2022 has been a key focus.

When it comes to my personal development, every day is a day to learn and try new things. I have many ideas for Provide Finance, but sometimes the fear of taking a chance has been an obstacle for me. There are days when I have had to push past the fear barrier and be brave, and most of the time my ideas have worked. And even with the ones that haven’t quite paid off, I’ve been resilient and learned from them.”

Paula Hunter, Mojaloop Foundation

As someone who leads an international organization, 2022 made that very clear to Paula Hunter, managing director i Mojaloop Foundationthat having local capacity, skills and technical resources around the world continues to be a major challenge.

She says: “It slows down your ability to move a project forward if you can’t find the talent on the ground in the countries and regions where you’re looking for them. I’m sure everyone can relate to this.

“Solving this problem will require more investment in training and education and encouraging university systems to steer students towards fintech.

“There are endless opportunities for people coming out of college with these IT and finance skills. We can also leverage hackathons and boot-camps sponsored around the world to tackle some of these issues and give students real-world experience with commercial players.

“But it is not enough to have the new workforce based from Silicon Valley or New York or London: we need them in places like Tanzania and Rwanda, because remote work is not always efficient, and local deployments also need continuous maintenance and operational support, best done local.”

Roger Desai, proof

Prove used by businesses to enable their customers to prove identities with just a phone call. The company is used by more than 1,000 businesses across diversified industries, including banks and financial institutions.

Roger DesaiCEO and co-founder of Prove, says that for payment providers – it’s all about the customer experience, specifically removing friction to facilitate seamless transactions.

“We live in a world where the average consumer expects speed of purchase – whether it’s retail, banking, games, subscriptions or any digital service that requires payment.

“The best way to keep customers engaged is to make sure the experience is so simple that they never even think about the backend technology that facilitates it.

“This seamless brand experience should extend from the first point of contact (website, physical location, social media ad, etc.) through to payment.”

Ian Manocha, Gresham Technologies

The most important lesson we have learned in 2022 is around employee satisfaction says Ian Manocha, CEO of reconciliation software company Gresham Technologies. He says employees want to feel fulfilled and stretched in the work they do.

He adds: “However, consider this – there is a significant burden on asset managers operating across different jurisdictions that is already being felt in the middle and back office – where regulatory reporting requirements are increasing as deglobalization in financial markets accelerates. The more UK regulators diverge from their European counterparts, the more time must be spent focusing on repetitive but important reporting tasks.

“Looking at it against the backdrop of ‘The Great Resignation’, where employees want to feel challenged, it’s hard to see how the operations teams will maintain stability from a staffing perspective. Operations teams don’t want to be solely focused on these types of tasks – they want room to grow. Financial institutions must address this issue. Unless they can find a way to strengthen the operations staff, the effect will be felt in the back office.”