Abstract
Digital transformation disrupts businesses, changes customer behaviours and innovates solutions to impact consumers' day-to-day lives. Payment has played a significant role in this transformation, and its business models are continuously evolving due to endless opportunities in the ecosystem. This thesis starts with a retrospective analysis of the author's publications in the fields of Digital Transformation, Payments Innovation, Open Banking, Open Finance, and their impact on financial inclusion. Then, a comprehensive view of the global payments landscape and various initiatives, the adoption of Open Banking, the potential of Open Finance, and its challenges in adoption is provided. The author establishes the requirement and basis of an innovative product and investigates the current financial products and services, awareness, and utilisation of the financial products, including the need for a new framework and business model in the market.This thesis covers that the current published literature and current products do not offer a solution that addresses major pain points. Authors publications and innovative product created are offering a better product. This thesis offers an analysis of the current global payments landscape, identifies challenges, and offers an innovative product as a potential solution to address significant pain points in the payments industry. The innovative business framework is validated by the open banking framework, industry experts, and venture capitalists by approving funding and a regulatory body's (Financial Conduct Authority) approval to carry out business post regulatory and compliances approval. This innovative approach and product fill a significant gap in the market by providing fair value to consumers and inculcating good financial behaviour in the people and society.
Moreover, this research leads to the practical implementation of an innovative product to help people and households rely on higher interest rate products and help them out of debt cycles. Currently, in its beta stage, it has won an award at the Singapore Fintech Festival for Payments Innovation and successfully attracted investments of £2 million, with projections of a one million customer base in the first 18 months.
| Date of Award | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Shikun Zhou (Supervisor) |