The popularity of financial technology (fintech) is growing rapidly as it continues to revolutionize the financial industry.
Fintech is a fast-changing landscape that constantly introduces cutting-edge ideas and developments. Some of the advancements include core banking systems, digital assets and tokenization.
While these fintech developments are exciting, the entire sector is also filled with jargon and acronyms that are difficult to decipher.
As of 2023, Statista revealed that there are roughly 5.62 billion fintech users worldwide, with the majority of users (4.4 billion) using digital payments.
With the fintech sector expected to grow at an impressive rate, it will be useful for interested parties to understand the language.
TechRepublic Premium has created a quick glossary of 75 key concepts to help people understand what is going on.
This exclusive resource decodes the lively world of fintech, offering clarity on terms such as blockchain as a service, which is a service model offered by third-party vendors to help businesses enhance existing blockchain technologies and transactions. BaaS enables businesses to meet compliance and transparency requirements by securely completing transactions and data transfers over a blockchain.
It’s often in the news, but people may not know that cryptocurrency refers to a decentralized form of digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. It offers new ways of transferring value and operating transactions. Examples include Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.
What’s more, the resource throws light on the distributed ledger. This is a decentralized and digital record-keeping scheme that depends on consensus operations and cryptographic techniques. This ensures transactions’ accuracy, security and transparency across a network of participants.
The glossary explains microfinance, a term that refers to banking or financial services that are provided for individuals and organizations from economically disadvantaged communities. A lot of microfinance institutions aim to extend credit through reasonable, small loans.
This resource will also let you dive into the realm of tokens which are digital assets that are produced and controlled on blockchain technology. It represents various forms of value, ownership or access rights within the financial landscape. These can be used to represent real-world assets, enable specific functionalities or serve as a form of digital currency.
Elsewhere in the glossary, the concepts of decentralized finance, personal finance, smart contracts and Islamic finance are explained.
For those wishing to get a deeper understanding of fintech, the 14-page quick glossary can be downloaded for $19 at TechRepublic Premium.
