The challenges and pathways for “fintech” companies to break the traditional financial model
The aim of the Finth Spain courses, whose third meeting entitled Fintech & held in the BBVA Innovation Center in Madrid, is to promote technological and financial culture. This is a meeting of experts to debate the latest and most disruptive technologies in the financial sector.
Pablo Blasco, director of Finth Spain, highlighted that there are basically three challenges facing fintech companies today: security, time, and trust. Fernando Alamillo, founder of Kainve, fintech companies today: security, time, and trust. Fernando Alamillo, founder of Kainve, focused on the historic evolution of payment systems from the very beginnings of barter, through coins, bills, transactions, loans… He explained that bills when they first arrived were widely mistrusted before gradually becoming accepted. This mistrust was repeated with the arrival of online payments, although we're currently seeing a genuine revolution in the options available, such as for example “paying with a selfie".
Jonathan Hayes, creator of Dinube, pointed out that “a flimsy piece of plastic with a logo is the widely-used way of paying for things in 2016”, and explained that Dinube is a “new payment channel created completely from scratch. What we do is we transfer the money from your bank account to the business's bankaccount in real time without the need for anything other than a cellphone –or any device connected to Internet, which could also be a connected car. He added: “The fact is that 95% of transactions still take place in physical stores –that's where the action is. Dinube is designed with much more security than a just a logo”, he stressed. His payment method is currently available in 300 establishments in Catalonia.
Jonathan Hayes, creator of Dinube, pointed out that “a flimsy piece of plastic with a logo is the widely-used way of paying for things in 2016”
David Pombar, CEO of SetPay, also noted that “although cards are on their way out, they still have years of life left in them, they still have appeal”. Pombar replaces the payment terminal with a small card reader and a cellphone. According to Pombar, “42% of small businesses in Europe don’t accept payment by card”. Setparty “offers small businesses the opportunity to compete one-on-one with the big players”. They created a card reader “without maintenance costs like terminal readers, without a minimum payment, and with a fixed rate (1.99% which is gradually reduced until 2,000 euros)”.
Another speaker, Fernando Cabello-Astolfi, explained that Aplázame " gives instat credit for online purchases”. Cabello- Astolfi highlighted that these are “very transparent credits; the screen clearly shows you the initial payment, loan and interest. We show the interest because we want to give credit, but we're also keen for people to act responsibly, and for them to know the cost of the service as a whole. We don't hide the AER”.
Pedro Campañó, from Nimble Payments, said that that “entering credit card numbers is the unsexiest in the world”. Nimble Payments, a BBVA product, “ is intended to be a payment gateway for businesses to save them having to go to a branch”. Campañó explained that Nimble “provides an instant payment gateway, and apart from accepting payments, it allows people to open a bank account tailored to the consumption needs of small and medium-sized businesses. It integrates payment and bank account functionalities for management by the stores”.