The Tribune

By NATARIO MCKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMAS-based Fintech firm is aiming to accelerate the inclusion of the "under-banked and unbanked" across The Bahamas via a platform which will unite all financial services into a singular platform, its founder and chief executive revealing plans to launch an initial coin offering (ICO) in late November.

Fintegic, The Bahamas-based corporation whose majority shareholders are millennial entrepreneurs, has designed a system which tracks all financial activities and combines that with decentralised database technology to show the level of creditworthiness a user possesses.

Fintegic Group founder and chief executive, Tevin Wilkinson, explained: "Our proprietary micro-credit algorithms and processes can extrapolate a user's purchase history and behavioural habits to forecast their true financial abilities in a moment by moment basis. Most financial activities do not count for a standard credit score.

"The FICO system does not work around the world. A change is needed for global consumers to have access to products and services they desire.

"Fintegic empowers the under-banked communities by providing financial tools for them to build credit, send money, participate in e-commerce and elevate out of a cash only environment. Fintegic will drive change and betterment for Bahamian culture through the massive social impact the banking platform and mobile app can have on a culture that lacks trust in traditional banking systems. The platform not only provides ways to participate in secure financial transactions, build credit and provide remittance services but also gain access to entertainment and shopping services that were once out of reach because of a banking status."

He added: "There are a number of remittance companies, bill pay companies as well as micro-credit companies out there but no one has put them all together, no one is building a platform or a marketplace where you can actually gamify an entire process of paying your bills, sending money and getting rewarded for it. The platform we have created will unite all services into one the same way the smartphone united GPS, cameras and computers all into one item. We are uniting all financial products into one platform that's easy simple to understand and empowers the user."

Wilkinson noted one of the main issues when dealing with an underbanked population is collecting the appropriate information and documentation.

'Most, if not all, will be able to provide enough information to get them started with a very small account, giving them the ability to transact with a limited amount of money. In the case of not being able to collect much information, users can be limited to 10s of dollars or a couple of hundred dollars. which would be enough to pay a couple of bills or remit a small amount of money to a family member," said Wilkinson.

"As users get more comfortable and wish to transact more money through the system, we can simply guide them through a process to collect more information. As they get more comfortable with the platform - and we collect more information - more doors open up to them in terms of services and allowed monetary amounts."

According to Wilkinson, the company narrowed down its choice of ways by which to create a user base as well as raising funds.

"A public crowdsale via an initial coin offering (ICO) was the mechanism of choice for Fintegic based on our use of blockchain being intertwined with the core of our financial services platform and the creation of the finch coins token," he said.

"The crowdsale is allowing us to reach participants around the world who have provided channels for future partnership for the platform itself which would not have happened if we went the traditional venture capital route."

The ICO is aiming to launch on November 30.