The Role of Fintech Consulting in Software Development
In this post, we explore the benefits (and necessity) of quality fintech consulting, especially for small- to mid-sized companies that lack resources to dedicate to in-house fintech departments. Regulatory compliance, strategic planning, and continuous improvement each benefit from working with a group of fintech consultants who are well-versed in the rapidly evolving fintech landscape and capable of quickly absorbing, evaluating, and improving your company’s existing processes, assets, and pain points.
What Is Financial Technology Consulting?
Fintech, which is simply shorthand for “ financial technology,” was once the domain of major industry players. Now, though, fintech consulting is part of every business ecosystem — even for small- and mid-sized companies. Fintech is generally expected to grow three times as fast as the banking industry as a whole over the next four years, and while industry giants have the resources for dedicated in-house fintech teams, smaller enterprises often don’t. For those smaller companies, a fintech consultant helps them level the playing field by analyzing organizational goals, evaluating market position, and seeking unleveraged opportunities in the competitive landscape. Effective fintech consulting can provide a customized plan to align business goals with available technical solutions as efficiently as possible, empowering companies in the fight to scale up in an ever-tightening business landscape.
Fintech Consultants Assist With Regulatory Compliance
When it comes to regulatory compliance, the stakes are too high to be learning on the fly — the risk of costly legal issues and serious reputational damage are omnipresent and dangerous. By working with a fintech consulting group, companies free up bandwidth they would otherwise spend on compliance by outsourcing it to professionals who are already immersed in the minutiae, staying up-to-date on the latest regulatory changes and best practices for software development.
Legal and Regulatory
Although fintech plays a role in almost every company, the industry is still relatively new, with the first regulations introduced in 2015. The regulatory environment is rapidly evolving as governments and regulatory bodies work quickly to determine which rules are relevant or need to be created for fintech. Additionally, a global economy is driven primarily by digital transactions that often cross multiple jurisdictions — or even continents — each with its own specific fintech regulatory requirements. GDPR, PCI DSS — acronyms abound and new rules proliferate, each a potential landmine for any business.
Data Security and Privacy
Malicious actors are constantly probing financial systems for weaknesses. Combating them requires more than one-time adoption of robust security protocols; because methods of attack are always changing (and major hits often bring new regulations to the field), it can be difficult to find time to stay abreast of what’s happening in things like encryption, authentication, and effective UI design. In addition to the loss of consumer trust that follows a data breach, fines for violating data security regulations — intentionally or not — can be staggering. Google, Meta, Amazon, and other industry giants have been fined billions of dollars for violating the same data security regulations that smaller companies are also liable for.
Trust and Confidence
Customers want a company they can trust with their information, whether it’s financial, medical, or something else. This is made doubly important by the fact that fintech companies and vendors aren’t technically banks — yet many consumers mistakenly assume they somehow are. Potential clients and business partners are looking for indicators that establish confidence. For companies that don’t yet have an in-house fintech department, fintech consulting is the most efficient way to earn that trust.
Fintech consultants handle key steps necessary for trust and compliance — monitoring regulatory changes, evaluating compliance, conducting risk assessments, implementing best practices, managing internal audits, and more.
Fintech Consultants Simplify Strategic Planning
A great company is one that has a great idea. A great product is one that solves a great pain point. For most companies, neither of those things are even remotely tangential to fintech — yet fintech is necessary for your company or product to exist effectively in a crowded marketplace.
Fintech consulting solves this with strategic planning, creating a roadmap to implement software development initiatives logically, strategically, and efficiently. Typically, this involves thorough assessment of existing systems and processes, the challenges and pain points felt by both the company and their customers, and opportunities for leverage against established competitors.
Once the landscape is mapped — both where the company currently stands and what the desired outcomes look like — fintech consultants determine and deploy the optimal tech stacks and protocols to move forward efficiently and safely, even for those notorious fuzzy problems that require deep understanding of what currently exists and what’s possible moving forward.
Achieve Continuous Improvement With a Fintech Consultant
The market never stops — no matter what market you’re in. If you’re lucky enough to work each day on solving problems that matter to you and your customers, you know how much time and effort you spend on simply keeping up with current conditions and mapping new opportunities for growth.
There simply isn’t enough time to do that with your core products and keep up with what’s happening in fintech. Whether it’s new database options, new programming languages, new cloud services, or something else no one has invented yet, fintech consultants help the companies they serve to constantly push forward at the edges of what’s possible. They also ensure that new developments don’t have an adverse impact on scalability, security, or compatibility with existing systems.
Learn More
Book a meeting with an experienced fintech consultant at DBA today, and let us improve your existent systems, recommend new approaches, and simplify your life.
