In this ApacheCon Fineract and FinTech track, panelists Ed Cable, Javier Borkenztain, James Dailey and Michael Vorburger discuss Fineract’s progression from inception to present, the vision, community, challenges, and opportunities behind Fineract. Read on to find out how Fineract is rapidly revolutionizing the financial industry.
From brick and mortar to digital
Fineract started out as an open-source core banking platform to manage the back offices of traditional microfinance institutions. Today, with the continued evolution of Fineract, its integration with real time payment systems and its suite of interfaces that allow omni-channel banking experiences, both FinTechs and traditional financial institutions use Fineract as their open-source core banking platform to manage end-to-end operations at a high level.
Unleashing innovation
A decade ago, establishing a financial institution required an investment of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in technology. Before Fineract, making any changes in core banking was expensive and time consuming. Testing was costly.
Through Fineract, establishing a financial institution is realized at a fraction of the cost. This in turn has unleashed a great deal of innovation in the financial space, opening the door for innovators and entrepreneurs. FinTechs and startups now use Fineract as a platform which allows them to level the playing field with their competition.
Diverse community, one vision
The open-source community is a vibrant community, with people from all over the world and from all walks of life contributing to the platform. The variety of backgrounds, perspectives and experience, the geographic diversity, and the longevity of the Apache Fineract project sets it apart from other open-source initiatives. The entire community joining forces around one vision creates a unique dynamic within the project.
Reignited community
While the Fineract community has always been active, there is a noticeable surge in new members and community involvement in the past 12 months; more contributors are bringing on more contributors. The energy created by a flux of new people joining has led to increased synergy within the community.
As more businesses choose Fineract, the demand for understanding how to get started with Apache and open source has also increased, bringing more people into the community for guidance and support.
The relationship with the Mifos initiative
The Mifos Initiative contributed the code to Apache, which then became Fineract. Mifos still retains a set of user interfaces, a community app and an Android app that sit on top of Fineract. At the organizational level, one of Mifos’ main goals is to huddle organizations and companies around the roadmap to discuss the future of the product.
At the individual level, Mifos aims to provide that gateway and onboarding experience for developers, new commercial companies and new volunteers who need a bit more handholding and education on the mission overall. Additionally, Mifos aims to provide some air coverage about how Fineract can be used.
Mifos has set out to be the mediating marketplace and Secretariat hub that connects use cases with solutions, helps individuals from the Fineract community identify how they can contribute to these solutions, and clarifies where people can find solutions they can deploy. In order to achieve these goals, Mifos maintains a suite of user interfaces and reference solutions that demonstrate the capabilities and possibilities with Fineract APIs.
Code and the community challenges
There main challenges pertaining to the code and community, are as follows:
- Continuous reinvigoration of the community: With the growing number of FinTechs and financial institutions implementing Fineract and using Mifos as a core banking application, there is a natural increase in implementation questions which in turn increases the need for the community to stay active and provide support, education and handholding.
- From Atlas to all: for the community to truly flourish, it needs to continue to grow through the introduction of multiple diverse contributors, moving from an Atlas model in which key supporters hold up the community to a model of diverse companies and individuals who give back in different ways whether economically, financially, or with code.
- Encouraging upstream development: Getting the commercial players and members of the ecosystem who build everyday solutions on top of Fineract to contribute back to the upstream development is key for the continued growth and sustainability of the community. This would enable a virtuous cycle where everybody benefits from innovation, thereby reducing the overall cost of maintaining, building, and developing innovation on top of the software.
- Making Fineract more well-known: The FinTech space is on fire right now, and Fineract is at its forefront. Now is therefore the right time to increase awareness regarding this viable open-source platform, that is accessible to all, and built on the most modern technologies. Demonstrating the use cases Fineract can be used for will make more people aware of this valuable asset and the great community that comes with it.
For more information on how Apache Fineract can take your business to the next level, contact us at https://fiter.io/contact-us
