The traditional finance industry continues to explore ways to respond the onslaught of FinTech advancements as tech companies advance into the finance sector and give birth to the concept of TechFin. In reality, both FinTech and TechFin must cooperate closely with each other in order to power the transformation of the industry.
FinTech refers to the provision of new forms of financial services through innovative technologies. Well-known
examples include crowdfunding and third-party payment which are typical startups in FinTech. These innovative
technologies are gradually changing the traditional finance industry.
TechFin, on the other hand, involves large tech companies who use the tools they know best to provide financial
services and go after the existing markets of the finance industry. The rise of TechFin poses stronger impact and
threats on the transformation of the industry.
To promote the domestic FinTech development environment and provide a one-stop Fintech innovation and
resource environment, the Digital Service Innovation Institute (DSI) of the Institute for Information Industry
(III) assisted the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable in the
establishment of the first “FinTechSpace” in Taiwan. The FinTechSpace focuses on the integration of space and
venues, assistance services, and open API for FinTech resources to promote and co-create an ecosphere for
FinTech, accelerate the innovative development of financial institutions, and establish energy for technology
innovation of the finance sector.
In practice, it is impossible for the finance industry to achieve innovation without help. For both tech companies
and financial institutions, it is difficult to have both sufficient data and technology capabilities at the same time.
Cooperation is the only way for them to accelerate development from good ideas to the launch of official
products. It is also the first goal in the development of the FinTechSpace.
FinTechSpace provides physical space for teams to use as well as soft assistance resources including supervision
and diagnosis, regulations consulting services, information security health examinations, startup seminars,
finance and accounting assistance, resource matchmaking, and digital sandbox API services.
The digital sandbox API service is a fault-tolerant environment well-known to the tech industry and it is an
interactive interface that attracts technology professionals into the FinTech sector. The supervision and diagnosis
are supported by the FSC and the competent authority of FinTech periodically operates in the park to provide
compliance consultation and assistance services. The direct communication between the competent authority,
startup teams, and financial institutions also help accelerate operators’ compliance practices and deployment in
individual stages when they enter the market.
When ideas of technology professionals
are implemented in the park, they can
transform from technology professionals
into FinTech professionals. The exchanges
and communication between the competent
authority and operators also facilitate
the establishment of FinTech knowledge,
regulations, and applications.
The
“Innovation Index” is of great importance
in FinTech. The establishment of the
FinTechSpace allows technology professionals to freely experiment and pursue innovation in a one-stop platform
environment with comprehensive assistance resources from ideas to product verification and actual launch. They
accumulate FinTech innovation capacity in the “empirical verification” process and become FinTech professionals
that lead innovation in the finance industry in Taiwan.