When it comes to complying with regulations, FinTechs tend to face tons of trouble, be it KYC or AML. According to a survey, FinTechs all over the globe considers KYC and AML compliance one of the biggest challenges to FinTech growth. FinTech companies, regardless of their scale often face trouble with compliance. Let’s discuss all FinTech growth challenges and how they can prepare better.
FinTechs Regulatory Challenges Looking to Enter International Markets
There are a couple of challenges that FinTechs face while trying to enter other markets. Here are the biggest FinTech regulatory global challenges:
1. Expanding Digital Products and Services to Other Countries
FinTech companies such as Robo advisors and automated wealth managers run into lots of trouble while trying to enter new geographical markets. Apart from licensing issues, they also need to analyze and adapt to the needs of customers. This will depend on the customer’s nationality, domicile, and expertise, and will require acquiring knowledge of all customers involved. To do this, FinTech regulatory compliance needs to be followed thoroughly.
2. Offering Credit Cards in Other Countries
What are the requirements for offering free credit cards to a potential customer? There isn’t one perfect rule for all types of customers and every country. The requirements vary from country to country and these FinTech growth challenges. Understanding these rules can be challenging for small to big FinTech businesses.
AML Requirements for Onboarding Global Clients
Just like banks, FinTech needs to monitor and investigate suspicious activities. To make this happen, FinTechs require a robust risk management policy when it comes to onboarding customers from other countries.
Different countries have different AML requirements. One of the best examples can be the UK and Europe before Brexit, UK companies had to follow EU regulations for AML and KYC. With Brexit in place, financial services are now required to follow local rules and regulations for AML and KYC compliance. This is one of the biggest FinTech regulatory challenges.
This has led to the discontinuation of passporting across the EU, new implications for transferring and protecting data, and mandatory compliance with new regulations. If a company based in the UK wants to onboard a new customer in the EU, the company now has to acquire a license in an EU country and comply with the local rules and regulations of every country.
Benefits of Having Regulatory Answers
Regarding regulations, FinTechs have a tougher challenge to overcome compared to other types of startups. FinTechs have to penetrate a highly complicated and regulated market that acts as a hamper for growth. The best part is that there are endless benefits to being prepared to overcome FinTech regulatory compliance.
1. Scale Globally
For FinTech companies that want to enter cross-country markets, understanding the rules and regulations in every country is crucial for facilitating growth. It decreases the number of mistakes, enables the right partnerships, and supports a powerful growth that’s more calculated for growth.
2. Plan Strategically
Consumers will expect FinTech companies to consider and plan out financial regulations for growth. Consumers expect this because regulatory compliance can affect the business model, so it’s important to be strategic and plan. Based on the products and services, it makes sense to expand to one country rather than another.
3. Pick up Speed
One of the biggest FinTech regulatory global challenges is that the responses require a considerable amount of time even when they’re negative. The lengthy procedures reduce time in product development, expansion, and investment plans.
Having the regulation answers ready via enterprise-ready solutions can bring down the time to reduce the market and cost of market entry.
Enhance Brand Value
In the end, it’s all about having solutions for regulatory compliance that decreases the risks of regulatory and reputational damage. Some FinTechs around the world are getting fined for not complying with regulations and it can hurt the brand’s reputation of the company.
The financial technology landscape world is still a new one, which means that the challenge to earning trust is higher. Being regulation-ready allows FinTech companies to stay compliant with KYC and AML regulations around the globe.
Acquiring customers from other countries has plenty of challenges, and dealing with them remains a huge challenge for FinTechs. FinTech companies that aren’t prepared will spend significant time and resources on remaining compliant.
With the right tools and solutions, FinTech companies can use regulation as a stepping stone for global reach.
