How is COVID-19 reshaping the fintech work environment – FF News

The coronavirus pandemic is obviously having a major impact on the world economy, and although tech and digital companies, including fintechs may be in the best shape ever, they are still facing the consequences in various ways.

Every nation and every industry has already felt the impact in one way or another. Around the world, “nonessential” businesses are closing their doors, governments are issuing lockdowns, and people are preparing for a changing work environment.

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Though the disruption is certainly hard on many businesses, it will ultimately be the way these companies embrace technology.

The biggest thing that most employees feel with the coronavirus pandemic is companies being forced to rethink the way they work and implement remote working.

Most tech giants, including Google, Twitter and Coinbase, have managed their employees to work from home, and tighten up policies such as business travel to lessen the likelihood of the infection spreading.

Similarly, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), more than 37% of domestic companies are planning to shift to remote work.

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Earlier this month, Curve closed all its offices and ran a “remote test day” to ensure its services remain up should the company be forced to enact a compulsory work from home policy.

Frank Zhou, CEO and founder of Zeux, isn’t too worried about the fintech sector as companies in the field are naturally agile and flexible.

“Fintech companies are traditionally – and necessarily – fast adapters: from adopting paperless and cashless approaches to implementing new software and cloud-based systems, as well as remote working capabilities,” Zhou told Fintech Magazine. “Fintech companies are often built better to withstand impacts that we are seeing sweep across other industries at the moment.”

For Pete Watson, CEO of Atlas Cloud, one of the very few silver linings of the coronavirus is that it also creates plenty of opportunities for reshaping the fintech industry.

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“We have an opportunity here to prove that people can work as productively and securely at home,” Watson told Fintech Magazine. “This is because many people lose hours of their working day every day commuting to work or meetings and carrying sensitive information with them on devices which can be lost and stolen.”

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