INTRODUCTION

Tech finance or Finance technology however you like to put it is an area with widespread applicability but very few people have knowledge about the workings of this industry. Essentially every financial transaction you do must have been handled by some sort of technological instrument or the other. Easy examples are your transactions at an ATM or Western Union transfers.

Recent surveys have shown an astronomical rise in the market share and fortunes of Tech Finance firms and this in turn has provoked a necessary wave of regulations, issues and cases.

For the sake of clarity, we will attempt to define all the words separately and then attempt a combined definition of the term.

Technology is defined as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.”

Finance is defined as “the monetary resources and affairs of a state, organization, or person.”

Law is loosely defined as “the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members...”

There is hardly an agreed definition of the term ‘Fintech’–this is used in the alternative to the term Tech Finance. What we can do however is to delineate the area of its applicability and then force an understanding of the subject in that regard. A major reason for this is that the activities of Fintech companies are usually defined singly by the regulatory organs that seek to regulate them. There are however some common denominators that we would note in this article.

Fintech covers every aspect of financial transactions provided by any related service provider. Essentially, Fintech firms combine financial service delivery with modern, innovative technologies, covering the entire gamut of online lending, wealth management technologies, financial account aggregators, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, and new payment models. Law on the other hand seeks to regulate the interaction of these Fintech firms with society; setting down rules, obligations and benefits for all the parties in a financial transaction system.

Finance and technology are not necessarily strange bedfellows. Finance firms supply the capital to fund technological developments/advancements and eventually incorporate these technologies into their finance business in most cases.

The ease of accessibility of Fintech credit has led to the promulgation of several legislations; And this has led to a lot of issues, arising mainly from the fact that Fintechs have traditionally enjoyed some insulation from policy legislation.

This work in due course is set to probe the extent of regulation of the Fintech industry by available legislation and regulatory agencies. This is merely an Introductory Part.

Did I miss anything?

Feel free to ask questions or make comments in the comment section. I’d be happy to oblige.