Finacle is tracking technology trends that will change the business of banking. Some areas that we are keenly observing are emerging database technologies, apps and digital currency.
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Database Strategies
For several years, Finacle has supported Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS), mainly Oracle RDBMS, IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL server for its various modules. In the past few years, the software industry has increasingly adopted several other database technologies. Discussing a few:
In-Memory Databases
Instead of relying on main memory for computer data storage, accessing data in-memory eliminates seek time when querying the data facilitating faster and more predictable performance than disk. The promise is a faster system, especially in the analytics space, eliminating the need for aggregates.
NoSQL Databases
A NoSQL database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modelled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases allowing simplicity of design, horizontal scaling, and finer control over availability. The data structures used by NoSQL databases helps make some operations faster in NoSQL and others faster in relational databases. The particular suitability of a given NoSQL database depends on the problem it must solve.
Object-Oriented Databases
Object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS) combine database capabilities with object-oriented programming language capabilities, allowing programmers to develop the product, store them as objects, and replicate or modify existing objects to make new objects within the OODBMS. The programmer can maintain consistency within one environment, in that both the OODBMS and the programming language will use the same model of representation.
Hadoop Open Source Ecosystem
Apache Hadoop is an open-source software framework for distributed storage and distributed processing of very large data sets on computer clusters built from commodity hardware. All the modules in Hadoop are designed in such a way that hardware failures would be automatically handled in software by the framework. Besides, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) stores data on commodity machines, providing very high aggregate bandwidth across the cluster. Another component of the Hadoop eco-system, Apache Hive, provides an SQL-like language called HiveQL with schema on read, which transparently converts queries to map/reduce, Apache Tez and in the future Spark jobs. To accelerate queries, it provides indexes, including bitmap indexes.
Real-Time Data Processing
Applied wisely, real time data processing could prevent finance-related issues like risky trades or stock exchange meltdowns.
- Finacle’s strategy is to take advantage of these new features opportunistically for our customer’s benefit and to ensure, that changes between database technologies happen technically in the background and do not affect or disrupt the front end of the application
- Finacle is looking at an RDBMS database which also provides in-memory capabilities, and not any in-Memory only dB (like SAP Hana)
- By utilizing in-memory computing facilities within Oracle 12c, we can configure a certain table to store its data in-memory, and achieve several times higher performance than running a query on a conventional database table. Similarly, office accounts stored within Finacle which represent various G/L subheads could be leveraged to understand how a product has been performing. We could have a section of the transactions table stored in this manner and create a dashboard of how many transactions have been posted today, from a channel or branches, the average transaction amount and so on.
- Finacle is also planning to leverage such facilities to produce several kinds of reports, which depend on traditional enterprise data warehouses today. This would mean availability of much more digested and analyzed information presented to bank employees at their fingertips.
- Finacle supports the Hadoop ecosystem in building analytical applications, and utilizes Apache Spark for in-memory computing, enabling humongous analytical computations using the memory and CPU power provided by commodity hardware e.g. customer attrition, customer profitability, customer life time value, NPA (non-performing assets) analysis, ATM usage, etc.
API and APP Economy
People need banking services, but do they need banks? Are Banks ready to deal with digital innovation? More than half the banks surveyed said they believed their banks were only “minimally” or “somewhat” equipped to deal with the technological challenges associated with the wave of digital innovation.” We at Finacle need to be the disruptors not the disrupted, to help our customers “Jump the chasm”. The Mobile revolution is driving the App economy; APIs are behind the application in the mobile revolution. APIs are one of the fundamental building blocks for the Internet of Things. App economy refers to the range of economic activity surrounding mobile applications (Mobile/Tablet, etc). The app economy encompasses the sale of apps, ad revenue or public relations generated by free apps and the hardware devices on which apps are designed to run. Apps are affecting a shift for online businesses, which are often accessed through a mobile device
Finacle has a rich set up interfaces via the Finacle integrator but these require a deep understanding of the interworking’s of the software. Simple, easy to find, easy to consume banking services are needed. We are working closely with industry forums BIAN, EFMA, IFX, and others on Industry standards. Banking APIs to consume banking services are starting to emerge: Findor Bank OS, Seed and the Open Bank Project. API management features are built on-top of Finacle Integrator (FI) and are not a replacement for FI capabilities. These APIs need to be available in the cloud and outside the firewall of the company – but still resilient and secure.
Finacle is developing API management backbone—that is, a platform to:
- Create, govern, and deploy APIs: versioning, discoverability, and clarity of scope and purpose
- Secure, monitor, and optimize usage: access control, security policy enforcement, routing, caching, throttling (rate limits and quotas), instrumentation, and analytics
- Market, support, and monetize assets: manage sales, pricing, metering, billing, and key or token provisioning
Cryptocurrency and Blockchains
The nature of money is changing. Digital currencies are now the norm. A frictionless (easy, secure, low transaction cost) form of value exchange. The disruption these digital currencies bring is that they can be traded with each other in exchange for traditional currency or goods and services, without the need for a bank. This is the future. So what do they actually mean?
A medium of exchange, a peer-to-peer (P2P) system where users can transact directly without needing an intermediary (bank). Transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger (for bitcoin this is the Blockchain). The system works without a central repository or single administrator.
Distributed ledger: For an asset to function as a medium of exchange there needs to be a secure way of transferring that asset — a payment system - and a means of recording the values stored— a ledger. A distributed ledger is a transaction database shared by all nodes participating in a system. A full copy of a currency's distributed ledger contains every transaction ever executed in the currency.
Digital wallet: A place to store the digital credentials for your holdings
Exchanges: Digital currency exchangers (DCEs) are businesses that allow customers to trade digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional money or different digital currencies. They charge fees or take the bid/ask spreads as transaction commissions for their services.
VALUEWEB: A place where value instruments can be exchanged anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.
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FINTECH: An economic industry composed of companies that use technology to make financial systems more efficient. FinTech companies are generally startups founded with the purpose of disrupting incumbent financial systems and corporations.