Fintech

BFSI, or Fintech in general, is the largest user of Information Technology. It is a highly regulated sector by nature. The stakes are high, and mistakes are costly. On the other hand, the way we usually do software development leaves a lot of room open for errors.

Fintech companies typically recruit programmers with a Fintech background, and give them detailed training, so that they get it right. In other words, their risk mitigation strategy is more driven by the HR angle. In this era of specialization, it is tough to get people who are good at both programming and finance nitti-gritties, and it is tougher to retain them if you get them. Hence the over-reliance on HR operations has an inherent compromise involved – done willingly or not. These compromises result in costly mistakes – sometimes threatening the very existence of the financial institutions.

At Acism, we place more emphasis on the collaboration between the domain experts and programmers. This collaboration is tech-enabled – based on the X-flowcharts. Programmers do not need to understand all the nitti-gritties of Fintech. They need to understand those only in context of the component at hand. Thus, both the programmers and domain experts can operate in their areas of expertise, and their collaboration drives successful creation of the software.

Acism’s model works better also for the long term, over which these products need to be served. In the long term, team changes are inevitable. The existing people-centric model therefore has a risk of going wrong somewhere along the way. Acism’s model stays strong, because the team changes are accounted for. Recruitment is easy, as we do not need to look for in-depth finance domain expertise in good programmers.

Pain Points in Fintech

1. Regulatory Compliance & Auditability

Compliance-heavy sector (RBI, SEBI, global standards like PCI-DSS - FINRA). Being compliant with standards is very important.
Pain: Off-the-shelf solutions may be written with a particular philosophy in mind, and they may not adapt to institution-specific working style → risk of non-compliance.
Position: Modular software ensures that the working logic is transparent. Further, these changes are reflected in the design before they are coded, and that gives an opportunity to get them validated from finance domain experts. The up-to-date visual model can help in functionality audit and security audit. Being based on industry standards, moving the application from one platform to another, as a result of changes in requirements, is also easy.

2. Rapid Changes

Constant changes in regulations. Changes in the working style to stay competitive. Fast creation of financial instruments (such as insurance plans, banking facilities) is a hallmark of the industry.
Pain: Off-the-shelf solutions rarely adapt quickly → risk of falling behind.
Position: Modular nature of the software we make ensures that it can evolve rapidly and accurately while maintaining compliance. The changes reflect in the design before they are coded, and that gives an opportunity to get them validated by finance domain experts. The up-to-date visual model can help in functionality audit and security audit.

3. Data Security & Fraud Prevention

Fintech handles sensitive customer data & money → prime target for hackers.
Pain: Security patching, transaction monitoring, anomaly detection is complex.
Position: Acism can build secure-by-design apps with domain-specific controls. The explicit definition of control flow ensures that the entry points of the functionalities can be gated for authorized users only more effectively. The explicit definition of data flow can help one monitor how the data flows throughout the application.

4. Integration with Legacy & Banking Systems

Banks still use legacy core systems (COBOL, mainframes).
Pain: APIs are inconsistent, downtime risks are high.
Position: Acism can quickly create integrators that connect modern applications with the legacy applications. Over time, Acism can help in modernizing these legacy applications to modern technologies – part by part or all-out.

5. Scalability for Transactions & Users

Fintech startups often grow fast → transaction volume explodes.
Pain: Ready-made tools choke or get costly.
Position: Acism tends to use mature and scalable technologies such as Java for making applications. Our tech differentiator ensures that microservices may be separated out easily as per requirement at a later stage. This ensures that you have a scalable architecture that can scale up as per the growing needs of the organization.

6. User Experience & Trust

Consumers drop fintech apps if they’re clunky.
Pain: Off-the-shelf UI doesn’t match brand, workflows, or trust expectations.
Position: Tailor-made UX → smooth onboarding, high trust, fewer drop-offs.