The premise of portability has transformed how we conduct ourselves in our daily lives and how we interact with the real-time changes influencing the banking and finance industries that are integral to our contemporary way of life. The impact of financial technology (FinTech) on this continues to advance and develop, with portability impressing the virtual world of digitisation and cloud-based products and services.
The revolution of financial portability had its genesis in the telecommunications (Telco) industry. From its disruption to the Telco ecosystem, portability became ubiquitous to FinTech and cloud-based products and services, advancing and developing ‘as-a-service’ incantations from IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Each ‘as-a-service’ acronym is integral to the administration and management of numerical, financial, and banking portability, compounding the significance of how FinTech has reshaped the landscape of legacy banking and financial institutions, a testament of how digitalisation, virtualisation, and the cloud have impacted the industry.
As cloud-based technologies advance and more businesses and consumers migrate to cloud-based products and services, it is crucial to realise the ongoing trends permeating the industry and that the premise of portability is integral to the socioeconomic construct of contemporary society, and the infrastructure of banking, finance, FinTech, health, hospitality, insurance, retail, telecommunications, and Telcos.
This blog will unpack the origination of numerical number portability, its progression to fiscal money portability and banking portability, and how these developments continue to impact FinTech and the societal infrastructure of modern society.
Number Portability: The Catalysts for Change.
With the advent of the telecommunications revolution, contentious issues surrounded the industry, the main point of conjecture being competition. Competing Telcos complicated the simplicity of maintaining one’s phone number, instead making customers change their existing number if they were to switch providers, at their the customers inconvenience.
However, number portability, also known as mobile number portability (MNP), identified this unnecessary disruption by enabling users to retain their prevailing number when switching their network provider. MNP’s simple innovation was foundational for more transformations in the telecommunication industry and Telcos, laying the foundation for changes and transferences to be introduced into the banking and financial industry, FinTechs, health, hospitality, insurance, and retail, introducing user-centric mobility in an interconnected and interoperable transferable portability.
Money Portability: Empowering Financial Transactions.
The premise of money portability is it is the ability to move money seamlessly between banking and financial platforms, providers, and services while maintaining and retaining your existing and personal bank account details.
Money portability evolved from the success of numerical portability, its advancement, and sector permeation developing with the proliferation of the digital wallet, peer-to-peer (P2P) payment applications (apps), and the adoption of Open Banking initiatives and standards. Combined, these make it easier for individuals to send and receive money without being tied to a singular and specific bank or financial institution. Furthermore, the compliances and regulations of Open Banking require traditional banks and financial institutions to open their application programming interfaces (APIs). This process enables third-party banking and financial service providers access to customer data, subsequently allowing them to offer them competitive and innovative financial solutions, which fosters competition while encouraging legacy banks and financial institutions to improve their products and services to retain, maintain, and sustain their current and exisiting client base.
These centric initiatives have initiated money portability into becoming an uncomplicated convenience, creating the ability for the consumer to split bills, share expenses, and make transactions with a tap on their Smartphone or a click of their mouse on any or their connected devices.
Ultimately, money portability created a cognitive shift in consumer behavior, leading to further advancements and initiatives in banking, finance, FinTech, health, hospitality, insurance, retail, telecommunications, and Telcos.
Banking Portability: FinTech’s Emerging Frontier.
The successful growth and initiatives of numerical and fiscal portability, the acceptance, integration, and mainstreaming of the digital wallet and Open Banking have resulted in the banking and financial industries embracing and incorporating banking portability into their DNA.
Banking portability expands upon numerical and money portability precepts by enabling their customers to shift their entire banking and financial institutional relationship, including their accounts, credit scores, and transactional history, to different, and often competing, banks and financial institutions.
In essence, banking portability gives consumers true financial freedom. Portability gives them personal a choice, the capacity to choose banks and financial service providers that are based on their individual and unique demands, needs, preferences, and requirements. This personalisation offers them products and services that intensify competition between banks and financial institutions, a competition which leads to more innovative products and services that are consumer and product-centric, with competitive interest rates and improved customer service, as well as offering enhanced security, a safety bolstered as banks and financial institutions compete to provide the most convenient, simple, and secure customer experience.
Challenges and Considerations.
The transference from numerical to fiscal to banking portability is successful. The shared premises give the industry much room for expansion and innovation. However, some challenges need consideration.
The fluidity of digitalisation and virtualisation causes concerns about privacy and security issues that must be addressed regularly to assure and ensure that the customer’s personal financial data is safe and secure from cyberattacks, fraud, or malpractice. Regulatory compliance and frameworks must be adapted and adopted to the ever-changing fluidity of the banking, finance, FinTech, telecommunications, and Telco industries to protest consumer rights, maintain market integrity, and adhere to industry standards.
In Conclusion, with Portability and Youtap.
Number portability paved the way forward for money portability, and today, banking portability is poised to revolutionise the banking and financial industries, FinTechs, Telcos, telecommunications, retail, hospitality, health, and insurance. These portability concepts empower consumers with options of choice and flexibility, with personal freedom and financial personalisation. Consumers can choose the best for them banking and financial services and products for all of their banking demands and requirements while fostering innovation and promoting healthy competition throughout modern society’s socioeconomic construct. As these combined industries evolve, consumers have a more customer-centric, flexible, and personalised financial future.
Pioneering FinTech Youtap has an established presence in the FinTech industrial complex. Their toolbox includes a robust and secure digital wallet complemented by a personalised loyalty and rewards program tailored for forward-thinking banking and financial institutions focusing on providing their customer’s wants, needs, and demands.
Youtap’s products harness the power of their software with unique payment features, APIs, embedded finance, and Open Banking. These attributes complement steamlined software that enables their clients to have P2P payment apps, easy access to their accounts, real-time payments, and customised loyalty and reward programs. Youtap and its advanced and innovative cloud-based systems are logical solutions in this emerging era of banking portability. Their products and services remind you that their industry experience, knowledge, and history will enable you, the customer, to confidently move forward into the next generation of banking and finance: banking portability.
