Category: Analysis
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Back to Basics: What is a Bank?
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 have a bank account. Unfortunately not everybody. Nonetheless, it’s probably worth breaking it down for a minute. If you want to understand what fintechs are trying to disrupt, it’s…
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What’s going on with fintech startup exits?
All the SPAC activity around fintechs is kind of normal. If you have not followed this new craze, here is a good recap from CB Insights. The huge amount of money going into fintechs needed an exit of some sort. When VCs give you some cash to build a business, they expect a return. As…
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ESG and Fintech: a perfect match made in heaven?
It’s not just Greta. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria are increasingly important in the business world. ESG is therefore more and more important in fintech. 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.…
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Big Tech in Financial Services
Beware, Big Tech is here to eat your lunch. That is today’s equivalent for the financial services industry 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. Some people instead look at FAANG: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Or…
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Hedge Funds, Reddit and GameStop: is Fintech Democratizing Finance?
Quite a fascinating story that unfolded over the past weeks. A finance drama from films like the Big Short. 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…
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Why banks cannot buy their way into innovation
Recent news that BBVA is shutting down neobank Simple, that it had acquired for $117 million a few years ago, is telling us one thing: banks cannot buy their way into innovation. It is a pity because at the time of the acquisition in 2014, Simple was a neobank at the forefront of the US…
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What is going on with Bitcoin?
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 c’mon man, even your grandma has heard of Bitcoin. It is insanely popular these days. Everybody is talking about it. From…
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5 top trends for fintech in 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. This time around, it will be the 2021 trends for fintech. It is actually quite fun…
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2020 Retrospective
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…
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Private banking market: can neobanks crack it?
Is the private banking and wealth management market up for disruption? When the fintech industry first emerged, startups attacked the low-hanging fruits with business and retail payments: the Stripe, GoCardless, etc. These companies are now huge behemoths because this particular fintech segment has quite matured. Fintechs then went after the retail customers, and a bit…