Are banks dying?

Fintechs vs the dinosaurs, a fight to the death!

Welcome to the Fintech Confidential. Another week of Covid headlines is behind us. The US elections are finally over, so I guess we have to start having civilized discussions again.

The best bit this week

Chris Skinner claims to have a crystal ball when he writes Why banks don’t die. The average lifespan of a company has gone from 61 years in 1958 to 18 years in 2011, but the largest banks have been around since before Mozart was born. He may be right about the behemoths, but there are a lot of small to mid-size banks that will be eaten alive in the next 10-20 years. Fintechs will have them for lunch.

Other news

Fintech is as hot as ever. My reading over the past week has included news about a new challenger bank in Africa, Visa’s battle with the DOJ, and a Transferwise competitor by…HSBC? There is also more on SME lending, a hot topic for 2020 no doubt influenced by Covid crises. And finally, Facebook banking is just around the corner, now that Indian regulators have given WhatsApp Pay the official go-ahead while simultaneously handing Google Pay an anti-trust investigation.

Until next time,

Jóhannes