Such systems lack flexibility and scalability, resulting in a major operational disadvantage that can lead to a months-long (if not years’ long) launch process. Integrating modern tools and APIs with legacy systems can be incredibly challenging and time-consuming, drawing an institution’s team efforts away from product creation to troubleshoot problems within their outdated banking solution.
The complexity of product development only increases when trying to launch new products in dynamic markets, like those seen in Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Maintaining a home-built system diverts essential resources away from product development, making it more difficult to respond to the specific demands of emerging markets and their consumers.
At Oradian, we offer a modern alternative to legacy systems with our cloud-based core banking solution. Rather than requiring months of tedious work, Oradian’s Instafin platform enables financial institutions to build and launch new products in a matter of weeks.
The critical importance of a fast time-to-market
Launching new financial products quickly can be the key to attracting clients interested in the latest technological innovations in banking.
For emerging markets, a fast product launch can also be critical to cementing an institution’s presence in a region and ensuring it can compete. These markets are characterised by rapid growth, making speed a necessary component for establishing an institution into the financial fabric of a specific region.
However, emerging markets can present unique challenges that require a tailored approach. Unbanked populations need financial products that are intuitive to use and match their preferences.
A swift time to market allows institutions to gather feedback earlier, enabling iterative improvements and better alignment with local preferences. This agility helps financial institutions to navigate the dynamic regulatory environments of emerging markets.
Looking at the Philippines as an example, McKinsey reports that Philippine banks invest less than 10% of revenue into IT, compared to an average of 15% across the Asia-Pacific. Underinvestment in digital offerings in the Philippines carves out an opportunity for financial institutions to enter the market and offer businesses and consumers alike the digital products they want but do not yet have access to.
McKinsey further states:
“Recognizing that fostering fintech innovation will be vital to achieve their ambitious goals for financial inclusion, regulators are laying the necessary groundwork for digital financial services and digital-first business models.”
Salmon, a financial institution in the Philippines, implemented Oradian to rapidly launched credit line products while seamlessly integrating with local systems. Read the case study now.
The ongoing evolution of banking solutions
Earlier decades witnessed an intense dedication to innovation among financial institutions, with many developing and launching new products impressively fast to remain competitive.
Yet, in recent years, we’ve seen this focus on innovation falter as spending on technology has outpaced banking revenue. While banking technology spending has increased at a rate of roughly 9% per year, revenue growth has stagnated at around 4%. Banks are also struggling to demonstrate their competitive differentiation, as more spending does not always equate to a competitive advantage.
So, what does build a competitive advantage in the current financial and technology environments?
To answer this question, we need to look at the technologies and solutions leading the charge forward:
Cloud-native platforms
Cloud-native platforms are a necessity for enabling a fast time-to-market for new banking products. These platforms allow financial institutions to deploy new products seamlessly and easily integrate their systems with modern tools, all while reducing the cost of maintaining a core banking infrastructure. For example, the African microfinance bank FairMoney uses Oradian’s API-first, cloud-native core banking platform to launch products quickly and secure the institution’s role as a top digital bank in Africa (read the FairMoney x Oradian case study).
Extensible banking
Extensible banking solutions offer modular architectures that adapt to the constantly changing needs of financial institutions. With extensible banking, an organization can add new features and functions easily without the need for additional developmental efforts. Offering near-infinite API connectivity, an extensible banking core gives financial institutions the flexibility to develop tailored products with tremendous speed.
Tailored SMB products
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are often underserved by traditional banks, especially those operating in emerging markets where financial and banking resources are already limited. Financial institutions offering products tailored to specific markets can unlock new revenue streams by addressing precise problems faced by businesses in their target regions rather than developing products designed for well-established economies.
How Oradian’s Instafin Core Banking System simplifies product development
Instafin, Oradian’s core banking platform, makes it possible for financial institutions to create new financial products and launch them in record time in emerging and dynamic markets.
New products can be created using Oradian in a matter of hours, drastically reducing the amount of time and resources an institution needs to spend on product development. Though launch times can vary depending on additional factors and quality checks, financial institutions using Oradian’s Instafin platform can reduce their launch timelines from several months to just one to two weeks.
Oradian’s system enables greater operational agility among financial institutions expanding into emerging markets, allowing them to experiment and test new products on a more regular basis. This type of agility is deeply vital to remaining competitive in the current banking climate in which ratings trump loyalty, making it all the more important to stay on the cutting edge of banking solutions.
With Oradian, financial institutions gain the benefits of:
An API-first approach that enables financial institutions to link their banking cores to both advanced third-party applications and legacy systems.
Simple and intuitive configurations, including the option of a low-code methodology that allows for key functional improvements without a hefty engineering burden.
The elimination of complex engineering work and data restructuring when developing and launching new products in any market.
Oradian’s core banking solution ensures your platform is always online and always up-to-date, giving you the confidence to explore new product ideas freely without worrying about your operational integrity.
Want to find out how Oradian can transform your approach to financial product development?
