Latin America. Technology plays an important role in the transformation of industries. Recently we have seen how transport, lodging, music among others have been transformed. The financial sector is undergoing the same transformation with the creation of startups of financial companies supported by technology called 'fintech'. Fintechs have found opportunities in the market based on efficiencies, cost reduction, transparency and customer services.
Javier Díaz, Vice President of the Americas of the A3SEC Group, assures that the largest number of fintechs created are oriented to payment services looking for the general public, and electronic deposit companies and "nano credits" or low-cost consumer credits begin to exist, making use of BigData tools and social networks to control non-payment. According to the Financial Superintendence, in Colombia there are more than six entities authorized to be constituted as Sedpes (Specialized Companies in Electronic Payments and Deposits), and more than eight that have requested such authorization of incorporation and operation in the country; which must comply with the regulatory requirements at the level of information security and cybersecurity issued by the Superfinanciera.
Financial institutions see the risk of fintech, but have understood that it is something difficult to control, unlike other industries, the financial sector has initiated processes of strategic transformation, to be able to compete with this threat.
But what do fintechs face?
First to regulatory issues, barriers to integration with financial institutions, the generation of trust, and the competitive environment. In the areas of trust and competitiveness, the strategy they have adopted the most is the generation of intelligence through BigData, in order to react to the risks and opportunities that this business has.
In the approval processes for the operation of 'fintech' in Colombia, the Financial Superintendence has stressed the need to implement Cybersecurity models, this is supported by analytical models where we can correlate internal information of the organization as external. Manage the risks of using cloud technologies, such as containers, microservices, among others.
According to the results of the 'Global Fintech Report 2017', prepared by the consultancy PwC, it highlights that traditional financial institutions to date have sought agreements with fintech, which will continue to increase significantly in the next three and five years, in addition to increasing investment in important aspects such as data analytics and cybersecurity.
The Center for Security and Digital Surveillance (CSVD) of Grupo A3SEC highlights that cybersecurity incidents continue to increase. During 2017, these types of incidents and cyber attacks grew by 24% compared to 2016. For this reason, the CSVD has been supporting the financial sector and the new fintechs to respond in a timely manner through automatic processes (SecDevOps) in the face of the detection of opportunities or risks. This detection is a process in which we collect information from its source, with structure such as databases or Excel files, to unstructured data such as voice and video; and through analytical models (correlation, enrichment, machine learning) to identify what is relevant to the business.
