Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Are banks and fintechs partners, competitors or suppliers?

Chris Skinner Author Avatar
by

Over the past decade+ we have seen thousands of fintechs arise. Many are challenging and disrupting, whilst many more are providing and supplying. What is the role of a fintech?

My advice is that fintechs are there to fix the things that banks do badly and offer service to those who banks don’t serve. The unbanked and underbanked is a huge market where fintechs are making a difference. The online processes of checkout and trading is where fintechs are making a difference.

Payments, lending, savings, investments and more are massively transformed by fintechs. Thisis why it is such a greatly transformational space.

Yet, given all of this, there is a debate that started recently about whether fintechs are competing with banks, disrupting banks, partnering with banks or are just suppliers to banks.

I’m not sure I buy into this debate tbh, as I think it is all of those things. We wouldn’t have 30,000 start-ups worldwide, and hundreds of unicorns in the fintech space, if it wasn’t transformational.

Nevertheless, there are a few interesting insights out there and, as often is the case, Ron Shevlin sparked a debate about whether fintechs are partners with banks or just suppliers.

2024: The Beginning Of The End Of Bank-Fintech ‘Partnerships’ (forbes.com)

Ron claims that “many bank-fintech partnerships aren’t really partnerships—they’re client-vendor relationships”.

That’s an interesting view. We talk about ecosystems, platforms and open banking, and my claim is that banks need to curate this system to deliver the best customer experience. I said that years ago and maintain the core role of a bank’s technology structure is curating the partners involved in delivering the best that they can be.

The big four drivers of the bank of the future

So yes, many fintechs are the new software providers to banks. Instead of offering core systems and integrated systems, they offer APIs and apps to improve banks capabilities to deliver.

Nevertheless, there’s an interesting report that just dropped from Bain & Company. If you don’t know Bain, they’re all about customer experience …

What's your focus: customer or profit?

… and are a firm that I have worked with for years. Their new report …

United We Thrive: The Untapped Power of Bank-Fintech Partnerships | Bain & Company

… is interesting. The main headlines include:

  • As banks look to move faster on digital product design, time to market, and security, partnerships with fintechs have become increasingly attractive.
  • But realizing the full value of partnerships has been elusive for most participants.
  • Common pitfalls include vague definition of the business need, unclear performance metrics, and opaque decision-making processes.
  • Success in this area entails looking beyond the technological issues to focus more on partnerships rather than providing solutions.

The main theme in the report is the build versus buy option which, in context, would clearly position a fintech-bank partnership as a supplier-buyer relationship.

Build or Buy or Build and Die?

#pointmade

Oh, and just by the by, fintechs are partners, competitors and suppliers.

 

Chris Skinner Author Avatar

Chris M Skinner

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...

Intelligent Money: Our Future Is Where We Do Not Think About Money, As Our Money Thinks For Us

What is the future?

Learn more

Learn more about Chris

About Chris Skinner

The Past, Present And Future Of Banking, Finance And Technology

Fintech expert Chris Skinner: countries need digital transformation to remain competitive

Join me on Linkedin

Follow Me on X!

Hire Chris Skinner for dinners, workshops and more

Learn directly from from one of the most influential people in technology, gain insights from the world's most innovative companies, and build a global network.

Chris’s latest book

Order now

Chris Skinner’s ‘Intelligent Money’ Book Launch Event

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Finance 2024

Global Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award

Global 100 - 2024 Winner

Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023

Best Financial Markets Advisor of the Year 2023

30 Best Regtech Blogs and Websites 2023

Kids creating the future bank | TEDxAthens

Captain Cake and the Candy Crew

Captain Cake Winner of a Golden Mom’s Choice Award

TWO-TIME WINNER OF A MOM’S CHOICE GOLD AWARD!

Alex at the Financial Services

Gaping Void's Hugh MacLeod worked with the Finanser