Last week Vital4 had an excellent time at FinTech South, learning about all of the technological growth happening here in Georgia. The collaboration amongst all the companies was refreshing, and it was amazing to meet so many new innovative founders. As a woman-owned business, we loved the focus on diversity and inclusion throughout the conference, and it was so nice to see the number of badass women presenters.
If you weren’t able to attend, here are a few important things we’ve learned at the conference!
Technology is Key
Financial Institutions are still dealing with issues from bolted together systems, legacy systems, and outdated thinking. Now is the perfect time for FI’s to start looking for ways to solve these problems. Luckily, several emerging technology providers can fix these issues, some even presented their advanced solutions at the conference.
Cybersecurity is still a hot topic and will remain as such for years to come. The main topic covered was data protection and tokenization, and this sparked several conversations about insider risks and ways to reduce them. There wasn’t much discussion about ways to monitor employees for tips and leads into nefarious behavior. Still, we paid close attention, listening for any valuable tips since we know it has been a growing concern for many of our clients.
Equifax had a solid presentation around the move to digital and how covid was instrumental in creating an accelerated pace of innovation and solutions. They discussed how trust on the part of the consumer is more critical than ever, as highlighted by Brad Wiskirchen, SVP & GM of Kount, an Equifax company, and Mark Luber from Equifax in The next normal, Trust is the new currency track.
Data Security is an important part of mitigating risk and building trust.
In the era of data breaches and increased levels of fraud, gaining consumers’ trust is rapidly becoming more and more valuable. Consumers are becoming more concerned about the security of their personal information since most of today’s transactions are becoming digital and more instant. Companies are still trying to figure out ways to leverage trust in the eyes of their customers to increase brand loyalty and customer retention.
Payment processors are now looking for new ways to reduce risk when transactions are processed. It was highlighted that knowing the nature of the merchant (particularly those in a “high risk” category) within the chain of the transaction is critical. It is vital for the processor, the issuing bank, and the acquiring bank to understand the business nature and the merchant’s identity to reduce the risk of fraud, money laundering, or transaction compromises.
