[TechSparks 2020] Amidst a digital boom and constant disruption, how can fintech firms be digitally resilient?

The world is moving at a very fast pace, and India – in the midst of a digital boom – is racing ahead. 

On Day 1 of TechSparks 2020, YourStory's flagship event and India's largest and most influential tech-entrepreneurship conference, Aseem Ahmed, Senior Security Product Manager at Akamai Asia-Pacific and Japan, spoke about how and why Indian companies, particularly fintechs, need to and can become digitally resilient.

In his masterclass on “Building Digital Resilience in the Era of Digital Disruption”, Aseem said COVID-19 had accelerated digital transformation in India, which was digitising faster than most of the other economies. 

According to McKinsey & Company data, India is among the top two countries globally on many key dimensions of digital adoption. The country witnessed 12.3 billion app downloads in 2018, a number that puts it second to China. It also has the second largest number of users (294 million) engaged on social media. 

Aseem said with so much happening, companies not only have to think of digital disruption but also about building digital resilience. 

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“When one thinks of fintech, the first thing that comes to our minds, in relation to technology, specifically, is application programming interfaces (APIs),” Aseem said. 

According to him, three things must be kept in mind when building a digital platform: performance, personalisation, and (data) protection. 

Expanding on the personalisation aspect, he said, many times organisations fail because of their “inability to create hyper-personalised experiences”. He added that organisations must think ahead of their competitors. 

“Thirty-four percent of the users will likely switch to a competitor’s app due to a poor app experience,” he said. 

So, what is the solution? Aseem said everything boils down to “how prepared you are to handle the load if the traffic exceeds the forecast” and “how quickly organisations can implement fixes for bottlenecks”.

Another way of building resilience is to ensure safe and secure engagement because fintech companies are extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks. 

Aseem also presented some concerning numbers that revealed that India was number two on the credential abuse attacks list in the world after the US. He said cyber attacks take place where attackers see an opportunity and India seems to be a good proposition, due to the explosion of digitally connected devices and services.

He highlighted that the current state of API security was half-baked and organisations needed to fill gaps in the existing measures and methods to become digitally resilient. They needed to have a robust security-cum-API strategy to gain the trust of their customers while providing them a great user experience. 

“While customers expect to be safeguarded, they also demand fast, convenient online experiences,” Aseem said. Choosing the right companies to partner with and other factors can help in achieving these goals. 

For more information on TechSparks 2020, check out our TechSparks 2020 website.

TechSparks - YourStory's annual flagship event - has been India's largest and most important technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship summit for over a decade, bringing together entrepreneurs, policymakers, technologists, investors, mentors, and business leaders for stories, conversations, collaborations, and connections that matter. As TechSparks 2020 goes all virtual and global in its 11th edition, we want to thank you for the tremendous support we've received from all of you throughout our journey and give a huge shoutout to our sponsors of TechSparks 2020.