How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing the FinTech Industry: Jaya Vaidhyanathan, Bahwan CyberTek

Digital transformation and modern technologies have impacted every single industry that exists, and the banking industry is no different. In fact, technology has touched upon the banking industry to such a large extent that the union of both has given birth to what is now called ‘FinTech’. In an interview with DataQuest, Jaya Vaidhyanathan, President, Bahwan CyberTek, gives insights on how new age technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and so on are revolutionizing FinTech, and what more consumers can expect on the same in future.

How are new age technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and blockchain transforming the FinTech Space?

Technology has impacted the financial sector in such a massive way that it has brought about the union of two industries calling it - Financial Technology (FinTech). This is a testament on the change it has catalysed. Today, the assimilation of disruptive technologies in financial services has helped in leveraging multi-stakeholder collaboration. Industry 4.0 is driving the quest to enable technological interventions to see transformations resulting in automation of backend business processes which in turn reduces the turnaround time creating a seamless customer experience.

The application of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and blockchain has resulted in the birth of advance smart systems that adapt and learn from surroundings. Each technology has enabled the FinTech industry to evolve and be a better version of itself every day; AI and ML brought in automation to mundane tasks and enables predictive analysis to mitigate risks, blockchain and cloud allows sensitive data to be safe yet accessible at all times, and most importantly all this also enhanced customer experience with chatbots, virtual assistance and assurity that customers’ money is safe.

How can the FinTech industry be beneficial for SMBs in India?

FinTech has revolutionised the business space by providing services to smaller businesses that were previously reserved for large, and corporate clients. Financial institutions are now looking forward to prioritizing building a scalable and digital framework for small and medium sized businesses (SMB).

Digital dis-intermediation has brought customers closer to financial service providers in areas like credit and insurance, through technology solutions covering business origination and credit risk appraisal. This way, Fintech startups have contributed in a big way, to the growth of low-value, high-volume transactions with banking grade security standards.

Fintech solutions provided by Bahwan Cybertek

At Bahwan CyberTek (BCT), we strive to deliver sustainable transformation to customers which allows them to function with agility and create new business models besides being ready for the changes and challenges of the future.

Combining our domain expertise and understanding of industry challenges and regulatory nuances, BCT has developed a suite of digital products and industry solutions that are designed to address business challenges, increase margins, improve customer experience and help organisations seize new growth opportunities by leveraging our experience in analytics, machine learning, AI, IoT and other digital technologies. Our solutions are built in three main areas - Predictive Analytics, Digital Experience and Digital Journey Management.

In the predictive analytics area, BCT specializes in the Risk Management area within the BFSI space – commonly known as Regulatory Technology (Reg-Tech) through the Asymmetrix product suite. Asymmetrix is a comprehensive Risk Management suite spanning across Credit risk (through Early Warning System), Liquidity risk, Model risk and Operational risk. The modular solution suite allows for implementation of each module separately, and empowers banks to be fully compliant with the latest regulatory standards.

In the energy and utilities space, BCT’s Real-time predictive analytics product Cuecent RETINA offers advanced solutions for asset performance enhancement and operations improvement.

In a digital era where customers and other stakeholders expect lively experience to be delivered even by by brands in “serious” industries like banking or manufacturing, BCT’s suite of digital experience solutions comprising DropThought, Pulse, and CueTrack provides a range of solutions like real-time feedback tracking and analytics, social media sentiment analytics and end-to-end case management.

BCT’s Digital journey management suite for Oil and Gas and Supply Chain verticals – CueTrans enables organisations keep internal operations in sync through end-to-end planning, optimization and tracking of logistics operations

Kindly shed some light on the Evolving regulatory landscape for financial institutions and how technology can help in coping with these challenges?

The Banking industry is going through a global transformation. A combination of volatile financial markets and widespread adoption of digital technologies has disrupted business models across financial institutions. While banking has always been heavily regulated, the level and severity of regulations has also increased significantly in the past decade. For instance, In May 2015, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came out with guidelines for implementation of an Early Warning System (EWS), as a measure for effective credit risk and loan fraud management, and several banks in India have started efforts towards implementation of the same.

Financial institutions today should look at adopting predictive analytics solutions allowing them to create an EWS that alerts bankers to indicators of incipient stress in accounts much before they reach the default stage, so that corrective action can be taken, and the loan amount recovered. The industry is also seeing huge interest in financial models for a wide variety of applications from default prediction to stress testing, and FinTech companies are up to the challenge!