Kodak Moment in Financial Services
Fintech Review
April 06, 2021
Business leaders want to avoid their Kodak moment. That is true for the executive teams of traditional financial institutions. Actually, of any established company. A Kodak moment used to signify "an occasion suitable for memorializing with a photograph" but right now it rather means missing an industry shift in a spectacular way. Going from market leader to barely even surviving. This kind of grave failure of leadership that is not particularly good for the future of a business. Are banks having their Kodak moment?
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Business Strategy
How is the International Money Transfer Market Evolving? Interview with Subhash Chander
Fintech Review
March 22, 2021
There is a lot of activity going on in the international money transfer market. Beyond TransferWise rebranding to Wise. International payments was one of the first markets to be targeted by fintechs when the industry boomed a few years ago. Because it was a low-hanging fruit. Really inefficient. Poor customer experience and expensive. A number of companies emerged, and some are absolutely huge now. We asked a few questions to Subhash Chander, founder of the money transfer comparison website WireSmartly. To understand what his company is doing in the space and how the international money transfer market is evolving.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Innovation
Back to Basics: What is a Bank?
Fintech Review
March 15, 2021
Maybe that sounds like a silly question to ask. You know what a bank is, you use their products and services almost every day. Most people – but not everybody – have a bank account. Nonetheless, it’s probably worth breaking it down for a minute. If you want to understand what fintechs are trying to disrupt, it’s probably helpful to get to know how a bank actually works. You can then make the difference between the people that are reinventing small parts from the true innovators.
Back to basics: what is a bank?
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Tags: Blockchain, FinTech, Innovation
21 Women in Blockchain You Should Know About
Fintech Review
March 08, 2021
On International Women’s Day, we are going a bit further than just fintech. To the extent that every company will eventually be a fintech company according to Andreessen Horowitz, we actually are always in fintech territory… We recognise the achievements of business leaders and innovators across a range of industries. What they have in common is their passion and understanding of blockchain technology. We asked them to tell us a bit more about who they are, and what they do with the technology. And on this day, to speak about what it’s like to be a super-achieving woman in blockchain. But it goes beyond their gender. These are 21 thought leaders in blockchain that you should know about.
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Tags: Blockchain, Diversity and Inclusion, FinTech
What's going on with fintech startup exits?
Fintech Review
March 03, 2021
All the SPAC activity around fintechs is kind of normal. The huge amount of money going into fintechs over the years needed an exit of some sort. When VCs give you some cash to build a business, they expect a return. As big as it can be. These exits can be an IPO or being acquired by another company. Sometimes it's good for the investors but bad for the startup. A few big fintech public listings are rumoured for this year, but the process seems to be a bit broken. So what's really going on with fintech startup exits?
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Tags: FinTech, Mergers and Acquisitions, Startups
Venture Capital in Blockchain: Interview with Baptiste Cota
Fintech Review
March 01, 2021
There has been a lot of hype around blockchain technology for years now. What the technology could do that would completely change the world. These days, it is pretty hard to make sense of the real trends with all this noise around cryptocurrencies. However, there are some excellent use cases beyond that. Blockchain technology is much more than just crypto. And a few people know that and are investing in promising blockchain startups. We asked a few question to Baptiste Cota, Founding Partner at LeadBlock Partners, about what it is like to work in venture capital with a focus on blockchain.
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Tags: Blockchain, FinTech
ESG and Fintech: a perfect match made in heaven?
Fintech Review
February 25, 2021
It’s not just Greta. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria are increasingly important in the business world. If you want to be cynical, that’s because it is more and more important for these businesses’ customers. So you need to adapt to continue to sell your stuff. If you feel more positive, it’s because business executives genuinely believe that sustainability is important. Even bank ones. Regardless, it is now evident that people want a clear change when it comes to how companies behave and how money is being invested. It is even more pronounced with the younger generation. They are quite concerned about the world that they are inheriting from their forefathers. Rightly so. ESG and fintech: a perfect match made in heaven?
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Tags: Diversity and Inclusion, FinTech, Sustainability
Behavioural finance and Fintech: Interview with Julien Revelle
Fintech Review
February 16, 2021
What is really great about fintech, is that it is here to solve problems. That is the ultimate premise. Take broken things in financial services, and turn them into something much better. But can investor risk assessment be fun? That seems like a tall order. Can you change that and make it better? That’s when Neuroprofiler comes in. Where behavioural finance meets fintech. We have asked a few questions to Julien Revelle, CTO and Co-founder of the fintech startup.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Risk Management
Big Tech in Financial Services
Fintech Review
February 11, 2021
Beware, Big Tech is here to eat your lunch. That is today’s equivalent of the great communist threat during the Cold War. What’s behind “Big Tech” then? Usually, we mean FAMGA: Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon. FAMGA represents the five largest stocks in the Nasdaq-100 with c.40% of the index of the 100 largest Nasdaq companies. Hence, the Big in Big Tech. They are steadily more active in fintech through patent approvals, partnerships, and investment activity. Banks should be worried. And so should be fintechs. Their eastern cousins, the BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) have been active in financial services for years and are considered pioneers in most aspect. Let’s see… Big Tech in Financial Services: so what?
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Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Disruption, FinTech
Hedge Funds, Reddit and GameStop: is Fintech Democratizing Finance?
Fintech Review
February 03, 2021
Quite a fascinating story that unfolded over the past weeks. A finance drama from films like the Big Short (ad). David vs Goliath in the trading world with a “Rich against poor” vibe. An amazing saga to start 2021. Here is a quick recap if you have not followed. Which is particularly hard since everybody is talking about it. Also, why it actually matters for fintech. In a nutshell, a group on the social media platform Reddit is taking on hedge funds. It is called WallStreetBets, and it is not a couple of guys in their mom’s basement. More like 6 million retail investors. This story could have remained on the fringes of the financial world like many things do. But it ended up catching everybody’s attention. It is a telling story because it shows how fintech is clearly not done with transforming financial services. Is fintech democratizing finance?
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Startups
Female business leader in Blockchain: Interview with Sukhi Jutla
Fintech Review
February 01, 2021
Finance remains a male-dominated industry. That is in spite of some excellent initiatives around the world. And it is not better for fintech and blockchain. It is rare to find a blockchain entrepreneur who is a woman. However, there are a few notable exceptions. The kind that are raising the hopes that things can and do change. We can have more successful female entrepreneurs. Role models for future generations. Greater equity and inclusion is within reach. We therefore wanted to start off the year with a positive story. We asked a few questions to Sukhi Jutla, Co-founder and COO of MarketOrders. She is a blockchain entrepreneur who can be very much defined as a fintech veteran.
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Tags: Blockchain, FinTech, Diversity and Inclusion
Why Banks Cannot Buy Their Way into Innovation
Fintech Review
January 26, 2021
Recent news that BBVA is shutting down neobank Simple is telling us one thing: banks cannot buy their way into innovation. As we have said before, partnerships between banks and fintechs can be a good idea. But that’s not the same thing as an acquisition though. The execution is slightly more complicated with the latter. Instead, banks need to build these innovation muscles. To change the way they are set up to be better at it. Because one day a startup will emerge, refuse to be bought and eat your lunch.
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Tags: FinTech, Innovation, Mergers and Acquisitions
What's going on with Bitcoin?
Fintech Review
January 21, 2021
What is Bitcoin? Obviously joking here. If you are not familiar with the most popular cryptocurrency, you must be quite disconnected from the world. Which is not a bad thing in all fairness. But even your grandma has heard of Bitcoin. It is crazily popular these days. Everybody is talking about it. From TikTok teenagers (and their bad personal advice) to BlackRock executives. You cannot just ignore it any more. For those of us that have been close to the crypto markets since the early days, it has been a dramatic rise. Even more dramatic if you were here when Bitcoin was below $100 and did not buy into it. But is that worse than having bought into it and losing access to your wallet? That’s debatable. But maybe with the recent price rally, you are just wondering: what’s going on with Bitcoin?
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Tags: Cryptocurrency, Digital Disruption, FinTech
Top 5 trends for Fintech in 2021
Fintech Review
January 14, 2021
It is this time of the year. No, not the Mariah Carey's "All I want For Christmas Is You" time of the year. The moment just after that, when the year starts and everybody is trying to make predictions. It is actually quite fun to stare at your crystal ball and figure out what will happen. At least try to. And then look back and see if you have been completely wrong. Or not. A year ago, the world was a very different place. A pandemic happened in the meantime. So what will be the top 5 trends for fintech in 2021?
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Innovation
2020 Retrospective - Fintech Review
Fintech Review
January 07, 2021
At the beginning of last year, everybody made a few predictions for what 2020 would mean for the fintech industry. Obviously, at that point in time, Covid-19 was only a problem in Wuhan, China. You could see it in the distance, and it appeared well under control. That slightly changed in the following months, and the first lockdowns a bit everywhere. And the second. And the third, so forth and so on. Here we are today. It has been undoubtedly a challenging year for many around the world. However, it was not all bad, particularly for Fintech. What about Fintech Review’s top 5 trends for fintech in 2020? Did any materialise or did we get it completely wrong? Let’s look back and have a brief retrospective.
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Tags: Blockchain, Digital Disruption, FinTech
What is FinTel?
Fintech Review
December 29, 2020
Everybody hopes that 2021 will be slightly better than the year we have just had. Not that everything was bad, especially for fintech that has proven resilient. Fintechs were not wiped out in numbers by the pandemic. Good startups managed to raise big funding rounds and products hit the market at pace. But before we head off to what could be another record year for the fintech industry, we asked a few questions to Andy Hallam, UK CEO of mobile network To The Moon Mobile. They have just launched an innovative mobile fintech service in the UK. It is a first-to-market combination of super flexible tariffs and built-in crypto wallet: FinTel, if you love acronyms.
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Tags: Cryptocurrency, Digital Disruption, FinTech
Private Banking Market: Can Neobanks Crack It?
Fintech Review
December 18, 2020
If you're the Queen banking with Coutts, you're surely not going to let it go for a Revolut Metal. Neobanks are still trying to crack private banking though...
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Innovation
Are Fintechs Better at Lending Than Banks?
Fintech Review
December 14, 2020
Big banks have been lending for a long, long time. Hundreds of years. Are the new kids on the block, fintechs, better at lending than banks?
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Tags: Business Strategy, FinTech, Risk Management
What can you do with AI in Financial Services?
Fintech Review
December 06, 2020
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is probably the biggest buzzword in the business and finance world. Yes, even more than blockchain. AI is not particularly new and can trace its roots back to the mid 1950s. However, it is true that developments in computing over the past 20 years have led the field to progress tremendously. It also helped to move AI from the academia to the business world. This has happened through practical applications, including in financial services. It is often misused and confused with simple rules-based mechanisms. However, there are plenty of use cases for AI in financial services. The applications are almost endless but let’s have a look at the most developed and popular ones.
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Tags: AI, FinTech, Innovation
5 Finance Skills to Better Understand Fintech
Fintech Review
November 27, 2020
It’s very true that Fintech is a lot about tech, as per the little war for talent happening in the industry. So it’s obviously helpful if you have tech skills like coding. However, let’s not forget that we are talking about finance here. Without finance, there is no financial technology. Maybe it seems obvious, but it is worth noting that more often than not, people put a stronger emphasis on the technology side of things when talking about Fintech. Although very important, remember that technology is deployed to support financial services, and therefore the finance journey is central. Knowledge of finance is key to understand the big picture. If you need to pick a few, what are the 5 finance skills to better understand fintech? But not only, the top skills and principles that will more generally help you thrive with your personal and business finances?
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Tags: Business Strategy, FinTech, Innovation
Can Fintech help with financial inclusion?
Fintech Review
November 20, 2020
One of the biggest premise of fintech, perhaps somehow implied, is that it would change banking for the better. You know the story: the year is 2009, greedy banks have created a massive mess. And that’s an understatement, just watch The Big Short for a quick recap. In the following years, fintechs will emerge as a credible alternative to the old banking system across much of financial services. One of the most visible part being retail banking and consumer finance, with the likes of Revolut, Monzo or Chime. Fintechs have risen on the hopes that they would do things differently and truly improve people’s life. But are fintechs just traditional financial services with a shiny paint – lipstick on a pig – or do they actually care about people’s financial well-being? For instance, can fintech help with financial inclusion?
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Tags: Diversity and Inclusion, FinTech, Innovation
Is Covid-19 really killing Cash?
Fintech Review
November 04, 2020
Everybody has heard the motto “Cash is King” right? But is it really? Or is it slowly dying and Covid-19 will be its final blow? The King is dead, long live the King. It depends on the kind of cash we are actually talking about. There are two types of cash. Firstly, you have cash as an asset class and secondly, physical cash as a form of payment.
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Tags: COVID19, FinTech, Innovation
Top 5 Books to Learn More about Finance
Fintech Review
October 30, 2020
If you want to learn more about finance in order to better understand Fintech, there are a few books that are must-reads. Even though Fintech is actually a lot ‘tech’, you cannot really forget that it is finance after all. So understanding basic concepts is quite key, especially if you are considering working in the industry.
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Tags: FinTech, Innovation, Leadership
Are low interest rates any good for Banks and Fintechs?
Fintech Review
October 23, 2020
As the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic takes its toll on economies around the world, central banks are cutting their base rates (or discount rates) to new lows. This is the rate at which a commercial bank can borrow from a central bank, like the Fed in the USA or the ECB in the Eurozone, when it needs to. These rates were already significantly lower than before the Great Financial Crisis. Some central banks are even going negative, which is particularly uncommon. A monetary policy experiments from economics books. Are low interest rates any good for banks and fintechs? Or is a low interest rate environment negatively impacting financial services?
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Tags: Business Strategy, FinTech, Risk Management
Fintech funding reaches new records
Fintech Review
October 15, 2020
It seems that when it comes to funding for fintech startups, sky is the limit… According to data released by consultancy KPMG, fintech companies in the UK have attracted $48.5bn (£37.4bn) of investment in 2019, up 91 per cent from $25.4bn a year earlier. That’s quite a big jump, even in the Fintech world. Volumes were also up, as the number of deals reached a six-year-high. You can see similar trends across other European countries, Asia, and the USA.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Startups
What it's like to work in Fintech today
Fintech Review
October 05, 2020
Fintech is much more ‘Tech’ than it is ‘Fin’. It should actually be called ‘Techfin’ and not Fintech. Maybe not as brandable. As you must know now, it is about deploying technology to facilitate the delivery of financial services. Therefore, there is a big focus on technology.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, HR
Why Santander spinning off Innoventures is interesting?
Fintech Review
September 20, 2020
Santander, the Spanish banking giant, announced in September that from now on, Innoventures would operate as a separate entity. It is the bank’s Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) unit, set up in 2014 and responsible for investing into promising startups. It will be called Mouro Capital and have $400 million under management. Not too bad to get started.
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Tags: Business Strategy, Digital Disruption, FinTech
Will Fintechs be wiped out by Coronavirus?
Fintech Review
September 01, 2020
The Coronavirus outbreak is disrupting lives across the world and is having a significant impact on the global economy. The damages are expected to be long-lasting, and the recovery very slow, most likely over a number of years. It could accelerate the death of cash. By some accounts, it could be the worst economic crisis in 300 years. This would mean a much bigger impact on businesses around the globe than the Great Financial Crisis or even World War II. Fintech was born out of the last economic crisis, but how is this crisis going to impact Fintech? Will fintechs be wiped out by Coronavirus or will they come out stronger?
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Tags: Business Strategy, Digital Disruption, FinTech
Blockchain and crypto, know the difference!
Fintech Review
August 15, 2020
Let’s clear a common mistake. Probably the biggest misconception in technology and finance that there is nowadays. There tends to be lots of confusion between blockchain and crypto (abbreviation of cryptocurrency). The confusion stems from the fact that the former powers the latter. You need to know the difference though: many people use these two terms interchangeably, which is absolutely wrong!
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Tags: Blockchain, FinTech, Innovation
Is Stripe's latest funding round really surprising?
Fintech Review
July 10, 2020
Stripe, the payments’ processing company, added $600 million to its Series G funding round in April 2020. Yes, Series G is a long way down from a Series A. Venture Capital heavyweights Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, GV, and Sequoia all participated in the fundraising. You kind of have to, given the size of the round. The funding comes on top of an already huge $250 million round announced in September 2019, and values Stripe at a staggering $36 billion.
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Tags: Business Strategy, Digital Disruption, FinTech
What is Regulatory Technology or RegTech?
Fintech Review
July 05, 2020
The demand in terms of compliance is ever-increasing within the financial services industry. As a classic example of efficient market dynamics, it means that a number of innovative RegTech startups, such as Pichain, seized this opportunity and started to flourish to meet those demands. To put it simply, RegtTech is a combination of the words regulatory and technology. Quite similar to the way that FinTech came about. It describes technology used to enhance regulatory process, but more broadly help with compliance in financial services. But what is RegTech? Is it the next big thing in FinTech? Or is it going to disappear as fast as it appeared?
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Tags: Business Strategy, Digital Transformation, FinTech
Is P2P lending facing a reckoning?
Fintech Review
June 06, 2020
Peer-to-peer lending has boomed in recent years, particularly in the US and the UK. And so has the funding funnelled to these companies. The VCs taking a particular interest in fintechs operating in the space. It had been also quite popular in China between 2011 and 2015, because lending there was really ripe for disruption. Until we realised that most Chinese P2P lenders were in fact Ponzi schemes, which led to the market collapsing almost entirely.
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Tags: Business Strategy, FinTech, Risk Management
Do you know the top European startups in Fintech?
Fintech Review
June 01, 2020
If you want to work in Fintech today, you will have to choose if you want to work for a bank, perhaps modernizing their tech stack, or at a Fintech company. However, the latter does not mean startup like most people think. Maybe you are not looking for a job, and you just want to follow the industry. So let’s have a look at the top European startups in Fintech.
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Tags: FinTech, Innovation, Startups
Is Blockchain a revolution in Financial Services?
Fintech Review
April 16, 2020
There is a lot of hype around blockchain technology. Some of it is driven by cryptocurrency, and most notably Bitcoin (if you have not heard about it yet, you are living in a bubble). Some of the hype comes from the potential applications of the technology in several industries. However, these two things are quite different. So is blockchain a revolution for financial services?
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Tags: Blockchain, FinTech, Innovation
Who are top Venture Capitalists in Fintech?
Fintech Review
March 30, 2020
If you want to assess how important the Fintech industry is, follow the money. Huge investments by banks and a growing pile of cash being poured into Fintech startups. And if you want to follow the money, follow the guys with the money. One notable group who is investing a lot into Fintech is Venture Capital firms. So let’s have a look at the top VCs investing in Fintech.
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Tags: FinTech, Innovation, Startups
Fintechs go to war for tech talent
Fintech Review
March 28, 2020
It seems that a war for talent is brewing in London, as reported by Sifted. Not any kind of talent, tech talent. And this is not only happening in London, it is also the case in other Fintech hubs like Singapore or Amsterdam. We already know that software engineers and software developers are high in demand in banks and fintech startups. Because fintech is more “tech” than it is “fin”, it makes sense that startups are in need of talent to develop their solutions.
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Tags: FinTech, HR, Startups
Top 5 trends for Fintech in 2020
Fintech Review
January 07, 2020
To understand the growing importance of Fintech, you need to follow the money. According to estimates by KPMG, over $52 billion was invested in Fintech initiatives globally in 2018. The number is most certainly going to be even higher for 2019. No doubt that 2020 should also be another record year for Fintech.
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Tags: AI, Blockchain, FinTech
What is Financial Technology aka Fintech?
Fintech Review
January 05, 2020
Let’s start from the beginning. What do we really mean when we talk about Fintech? You will have obviously noticed that it is a very trendy topic these days. You will have read all about it in the press or elsewhere for sure. So, what is Fintech then? Fintech is the combination of the words Financial (Fin) and Technology (Tech). As straightforward as that. We use it to broadly describe technology that improves or automates the delivery of financial services. It is a very broad topic indeed, although not so complex when broken down.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Innovation
Top Fintech Hubs in The World
Fintech Review
November 12, 2019
By now, you should know who are the top European startups (more like big companies actually) in fintech. And you probably have heard of a few other well-known fintechs outside Europe like Stripe or the gigantic Ant Group (that is or is not going to have the biggest IPO of all time, the mystery remains). Where do they tend to be based or start off from? Where are the top fintech hubs in the world?
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Innovation
Are partnerships between banks and fintechs a good idea?
Fintech Review
November 06, 2019
When Fintech first really emerged as an industry 15 years ago, it was all about how it would replace banking and existing financial services. As an aside, “really emerged” meaning that in the purest sense, technology has been deployed in financial services for a while. Post-crisis, the new kids on the block were here for disruption. It was Banks vs Fintechs. Us against them. However, the great replacement never happened, and so began the era of collaboration and partnerships. But are partnerships between banks and fintechs really a good idea?
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Tags: Digital Disruption, FinTech, Innovation
Audencia Alumni
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Fintech Review
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FinTech North International FinTech Showcase Manchester
Audencia Business School International Day 2018
Fintech
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