5 Fintech Terms You Should Know
Tips / 19.05.2017
Fintech Terms Every Business Owner Should Know
Are you struggling to keep up to date with all Fintech terms that are rapidly becoming a part of our everyday language? Do you feel overwhelmed with the new words and phrases used in finance?
Undoubtedly, Fintech is changing the way we live, we pay and we do business. It’s becoming indispensable part of our lives. For this reason, it’s essential for business owners to be familiar with the most used Fintech terms and properly acknowledge the technology behind them, so they can use it to their best advantage.
In this article, we want to shed some light on the most popular Fintech terms. Read on to find out more!
Let’s start off with what’s Fintech!
Fintech is a contraction of two words: finance and technology. According to the National Digital Research Center in Dublin, Fintech is “innovation in financial services”. If we want to be more specific we should say that Fintech companies use cutting-edge technologies and software to make the financial services we know way more efficient, and offer new tech-driven financial solutions.
Now when you know what Fintech is, let’s move on with the rest of the most widely used Fintech terms.
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Tokenization
Tokenization is the process of substituting of sensitive data (like PAN numbers and other credit and debit card details) with series of randomly-generated and unique strings of symbols, called tokens. The main purpose of tokenization is to protect merchants against costly data breaches and to increase security around processing payment card data.
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NFC (near-field communication)
This is the technology behind the Tap & Go (also known as contactless) payments, which are gaining increasing popularity in the last number of years. Simply put, NFC is a set of data protocols which provide wireless connection and allow two-way communication between two devices in close proximity. Thanks to the NFC technology, people can quickly and effortlessly pay with their smartphones on POS terminals like myPOS card reading machines, for instance.
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API
Application Programming Interface, or API for short, is a set of commands, protocols, functions, etc. that govern how software components interact and communicate with each other or with external systems.
In the Fintech field, API-s are a powerful drive, fueling technology disruption and opening up endless opportunities for Fintech companies to collaborate and shape the future of the financial services.
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PCI DSS Compliance
The Payment Card Industry Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of technical and operational requirements, rules and procedures, grouped in 6 groups. They’re created with the goal to ensure secure and safe card payments and minimize the risk of fraudulent activity.
Each entity processing, transmitting and storing cardholder information (i.e. accepting card payments) is required to comply with PCI DSS. For example, myPOS is certified and our clients can fully trust us with the PCI compliance and any other security-related matters.
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Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is a digital or also virtual currency, using cryptography for security and anti-counterfeiting measures. Unlike most traditional currencies which are controlled by a centralized authority, cryptocurrencies are open-source and rely on peer-to-peer networks. The first form of cryptocurrency the world has known is Bitcoin, which was launched in 2008.
If you still don’t feel comfortable enough with Fintech, reach out to our team.
The people working with myPOS are experts in Fintech and we take pride in helping our clients keep abreast of the latest technological advancements. Get in touch with us today and we’ll make sure to offer you an efficient payment solution to suit your individual business needs.