Jul 30, 2024 - Last Updated: Jul 30, 2024
If it seems like there are a lot of industry changes coming at fintech CTOs these days, it’s because there are. And no matter how much you speak up, it can be hard to get your wider organization to fully wrap its head around the scope, breadth, and pace of digital transformation that is arriving at your doorstep en masse.
Depending on your business, some of these changes may be opportunities. Others may be existential threats. And all of them are competing for finite resources. Indeed, they may be competing with the priority development projects already on your own product roadmap.
The pressure is on to be more adaptable to meet the needs of the moment, more innovative to seize the opportunities of the future, and more efficient to operate at an immense and widening scale.
Does this mean that technology departments will get many more resources from the rest of the organization? Not necessarily.
So what’s a CTO to do with the limited resources at your disposal?
(Impatient? Jump to our suggested approach below)
A Shortlist of Digital Transformation Challenges Facing CTOs Today
There was a time when “digital transformation” seemed like a single hurdle. A one-time thing. An episode that could come and go — and now it’s still here and not going anywhere.
Digital transformation doesn’t stop. One digital transformation necessitates another. Waves coming so fast they start to pass each other, amplify each other. A perfect storm of challenge and opportunity.
Here’s a short list topics — there are more, of course — that may be coming to your team’s agenda in in the next year or so.
- T+1 implementation, and the potential future of T+0
T+1, the next-day settlement cycle has required a massive jump in efficiency behind the scenes for a wide variety of industry players. But whenever the time comes for T+0, same-day/ real-time settlement will be a different challenge. One that will require infrastructure that can be nimble at an entirely new level.So the question is, how do you start getting ahead of this. (Here’s a place to start.) - Investor expectations moving from “market hours” to “24/7/365”
The rise of retail investing worldwide means clients are no longer content with the limits of New York trading hours. Maybe they never were. But now the pressure is on to deliver timely data and useful tools in real-time, at all hours of the day.How do you build 24/7 capabilities into the next products? (Here’s a place to start.) - New DTCC ACATS protocols will require modern infrastructure
Build or buy? That’s the question with the updated protocols prioritizing the use of APIs and modernized messaging formats in the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS) processes with the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).Here’s our suggestion on where to start your thinking on ACATS. - Expanding U.S.-market access to serve foreign investors
The U.S. Market is still #1 for foreign direct investments1. In a digital world, it’s easier to reach these investors. But engaging these audiences comes with infrastructure challenges ranging from serving multiple languages to addressing fraud and anti-money-laundering Know Your Customer (KYC) concerns.This global view informed many of the decisions that went into our new Apex Ascend™ infrastructure. - Cloud migrations or cloud-native from the get-go
The discussion of cloud capabilities long ago shifted from “why do it” to “how do we get there from here?” What can be migrated? What should be cloud-native? How much lift is actually involved here.This is a major reason we built Apex Ascend real-time cloud-native investment infrastructure. - Key-person risks with legacy solutions in a time of rising talent costs
Legacy platforms often rely on lots of custom code that only a small handful of in-house developers really understand. What was once a “powerful custom solution” can eventually become a limitation implementing new solutions, or even maintaining existing ones.These key-person risks can affect build/buy decisions. So what does a more future-ready approach look like? - Marginable impacts of exploring new markets
So many of the choices about which opportunities to pursue are ultimately a conversation of “is the juice worth the squeeze?” So the math changes when the squeeze gets much easier.Lowering the technology lift required to launch new products and reach new audiences is a big reason why we built Apex Ascend. - UX and UI modernization doesn’t stop
Expectations of your user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) keep advancing. Trends often start in unrelated consumer apps and quickly become areas for fintech to differentiate (or fall behind).So the question is both “how do we make our tools feel more intuitive right now” and “how can our infrastructure make it simpler for us to improve our experience again and again?” This is part of what we call “Build Nimble,” and it’s an essential element of the new Apex Ascend infrastructure. - Transforming into a “headless” world
The shift to the cloud is also a shift to a “headless,” more modular way, of approaching back-end infrastructure. It can be more efficient to build a bespoke solution out of existing building blocks than starting from scratch.And it can be simpler to bring a new product or capability to market when you don’t have to rebuild your underlying platform every time. Yes, this too is a main reason we offer Apex Ascend.
Addressing this short-list of issues one at a time can be a daunting proposition. Fintech CTOs are now firmly in the two-birds-one-stone business. Or ideally, the one-solution-that-addresses-several-challenges-at-once business. That’s where Apex Ascend comes in.
Meet Apex Ascend
Apex Ascend is real-time, cloud-native, investing infrastructure from Apex Fintech Solutions that can help accelerate the launch and efficiency of brokerage and wealth management solutions.
Have it both ways. Build nimble, run vast.
Get the tools, flexibility, and real-time data you need to get your product off the ground. And also get the ability to operate more efficiently and better navigate risk on a global scale.
Key elements include:
- Real-time ledger
- Cloud data and business intelligence
- Modern developer experience
Curious? Jump over to our developer portal to check it out for yourself.
1U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Remains World’s Top Destination for Foreign Direct Investment for 12th Consecutive Year. April 4, 2024. https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2024/04/us-remains-worlds-top-destination-foreign-direct-investment-12th-consecutive-year