THE RISE OF FINTECH AND ITS ROLE IN THE POST-PANDEMIC WORLD

Financial technologies (or Fintech) have come a long way since their "inception" in the late 19th century.

- Gabriel Pe

Yes, Fintech is that old, but not for the reasons you might think.

Fintech is typically defined as the technology to improve financial and banking services. Ever since the development of banks, Fintech has technically existed.

History of Banking and Fintech

Banking has its roots in ancient Mesopotamia. Historians point out that as early as 2000 BCE, there were prototype banks that loaned grain to farmers in the Assyrian civilization. There were also prototype banks among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and many other civilizations. There are stories of a "banking" system used by the Templars Knights to aid pilgrims in their journey to the Holy Lands in medieval times.

However, the consensus is that the modern banking system has its roots in the merchant banks of renaissance Italy, where wealthy merchant families started lending money and offering loans. This persisted until the 15th century, when the English created banknotes and, later, the Bank of England, one of the first central banks in the world.

But if we speak of Fintech, its root would be in the 19th century, when the first transatlantic cables enabled electronic fund transfer using the telegraph or morse codes. Fintech would boom from the late 1960s with the arrival of the first ATM in 1967 and the founding of NASDAQ (the first digital stock exchange) and SWIFT (a communication protocol for financial institutions) in the 1970s.