Kalin Radev: Technology Is Becoming a Main Factor in the Transformation of the Financial Sector

Kalin Radev is the founder and CEO of Software Group. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in information technology, most of which in the field of improving the access to financial services, in the banking and microfinance sector. 

Digital transformation facilitates processes in the financial sector and because of this products and services can become cheaper. The access to funding is significantly facilitated and enables more people to establish their own businesses and earn steady income. New technologies will continue to lead to the emergence of new jobs, with some of the old ones gradually disappearing. We are about to see a tendency for mediation specialists to be replaced sooner or later by platforms that will do their job instead.

Software Group develops technologies for the financial sector. Innovations allow around 95% of the banking services to be provided from a distance, which is

More Convenient and Cheaper

Digital banks have already emerged. Banks are in an ever stronger competition with each other, but are also in a race with other leading companies and telecoms, which are also starting to provide financial services.  The risk for well-established players, including banks, to take away a share of the market of other banks is, in my opinion, much greater than the risk for young fintech companies that start from scratch to make a rapid technological breakthrough and replace them. According to statistics, only 0.2% of the start-ups in the financial sector survive. Another risk is the introduction of telecoms on this market. One of the potential options for banks to maintain leadership positions is by acquiring fintech start-ups, so that they can use their know-how.

Modernization Continues

No one can tell for sure how the financial sector will look like in 5-10 years. But it is certain that players who have invested and created flexible and fast adaptive platforms will remain on the market. We think we know the market well. That is why, at our discretion, we create the developments and the end products that we offer. Since last year, we have started our activity on the Bulgarian market as well. This happened after we were convinced that the financial institutions here had huge needs, which we could meet with the same solutions.

The trend is for the financial world to offer more and more utilities and even greater opportunities. Services will be easier and faster, products will be more flexible. Systems will become more automated. Banks are entering

A New Stage of Development

Digitalization in this sector has been going on for more than 20 years now, but many of the bank systems are not integrated and do not "communicate" with each other. Some of these systems are related to risk management, which can also be done in a more efficient way.

In 2001, I started working with the World Council of Credit Unions, which helps microfinance organizations in many countries. Microfinancing is may be the only method of supporting the economies of developing countries in a sustainable way, without leading to misuses that happen when financial aid is granted. It encourages the good practice in which people with an entrepreneurial spirit who have received similar funding become financially stable and create a small business. Thus, microfinancing supports the establishment of a stable economy.

In Africa, we have an interesting project that provides loans for agricultural purposes. Data is collected and the system is constantly trying to find dependencies between people's data and the project's success rate. Farmers who send their children to school are found to be doing better in business and paying more easily their loans. The artificial intelligence of the system has brought out this dependency on its own.

Automation

has long become an irreversible process of replacing ineffective activities with more efficient ones. I will give two examples of how information technology is finding a wider application. IT colleagues develop software for managing tractors and combines. It offers an opportunity for optimization that allows you to save about a meter from the overlap when the machines plough, sow, reap. This saves fuel, human labour, machine depreciation, and efficiency increases by about 15%. Another company uses drones that fly over large crop fields and photograph them, and thus humidity, crop diseases and other processes are being automatically monitored.

There Are Many Concerns

about the introduction of artificial intelligence and data protection, but the world is changing. Gradually, solutions to the emerging issues will be found. Technologies will develop no matter if we want it or not. Processes must be under control, as the dangers are numerous. There is always someone who starts using technology created for noble purposes not as intended.

Development does not require businesses to constantly buy the latest systems that come out, if they rely on the right choice, which will allow these systems to serve for a long time after making the necessary adjustments. A well-informed choice is very important and it prevents from sudden changes in the field of information technology.

Company profile

Software Group is a global technology company established in 2009 with its seat in Sofia. The company's team consists of nearly 400 people. Up to now, the company has implemented more than 450 projects in more than 65 countries. Its main area of activity is the development of innovative software products that facilitate the access to financial services and increase the efficiency of financial institutions. Software Group provides solutions for alternative delivery channels, including agent network management software with offline option for tablets and phones, mobile portfolio, payment system, integration platform, applications that enable employees of financial institutions to reach clients in remote regions.