How bunq is revolutionizing banking
Ali Niknam, the CEO of bunq, shared his insights on the future of banking and the role of neo banks in an interview with Fincog. He believes that incumbent banks are too internally focused, whereas neo banks like bunq focus on what consumers want. Niknam emphasizes the importance of keeping technology simple and scalable, and recommends that startups understand what their users expect and work backwards from there. Finally, Niknam predicts that neo banks will become banks and incumbent banks will become obsolete due to their inefficiency and lack of user-centricity. Read more
How to design the operating model of a digital bank
Operating models are an integral part of every bank’s business and if not properly designed, a bank can suffer critical consequences such as high operational cost, increased time-to-market cycles, elevated compliance risk and slowed decision making. In this blog article, we want to help you better understand how to avoid these pitfalls and show what it takes to design a comprehensive and successful operating model. Read more
How to choose the right IT Vendor for your digital bank
IT Vendors and digital solution providers have experienced a growing spur during Covid-19 bringing with them various options and driving countless new banking technology solutions. Along with the growing number of IT providers, banks now have a large pool of solutions to choose from. However, making the right choices is crucial and can ultimately determine the success or failure of the organization. Based on our experience, we have put together the major steps to take when choosing an IT Vendor for your digital bank. Read more
Digital Banking in Latin America
The Latin American region is currently undergoing one of the largest digital transformations in the world. It continues to stabilise a high level of digital adoption, while also ensuring financial inclusion to the unbanked population. This report investigates the current digital banking landscape of the region, summarizes propositions and strategies of various selected players and provides a list of carefully assessed action points and imperatives to enter the market and establish your digital bank. Read more
The Rise of Digital SME Lending
Despite being a key operational concern, the largest business segment of the European economy struggles to adequately access financing. Capitalizing on this mismatch, a number of new digital players have stepped up, revamping the lending process to develop accessible propositions that are tailored to SMEs. We take a closer look at these new digital lending propositions as well as the challenges that they must address. Read more
Four Things Incumbents Can Learn From Neobanks
In the last 5 years, we’ve seen the number of digital banks grow at a terrific speed. Their modernized services, unrelenting approach to customer-centricity, and innovative tech stack have taken the banking industry by storm, encouraging the entire industry to rethink how financial services are done. We put together four of the main lessons incumbents can learn from the new digital banks. Read more
Performance of neo banks in times of COVID-19
In recent years, we have witnessed the steady rise of digital challenger banks, also referred to as neo banks. It seemed that the only way was up, but COVID-19 halted the growth. We analysed neo-banks’ performance using our Fincog Challenger Bank Index, across various categories, regions and even for individual neo banks. Read more
How Challenger Banks can get on The Path to Profitability
We previously highlighted that the challenger bank’s revenue and profitability have generally not yet matched expectations. We have performed another benchmark on leading international challenger banks. While it’s a mixture of players, they share that they are all profitable. Our benchmark provides interesting learnings for success. While the path to future profitability differs per player, we have defined four strategic initiatives that challenger banks can undertake to drive revenue and become profitable. Read more
Why challenger banks struggle with profitability
There has been a strong growth of challenger banks in recent years. Despite their strong growth, however, their revenue and profitability are lagging behind. We have benchmarked some of the leading international players on their propositions and financial results. Overall, a less-active customer base combined with a limited product portfolio at lower margins, leaves many challengers with low income per customer and often negative profitability. Read more
How Neobanks Are Setting the Benchmark in Banking
Over the past years we have witnessed a steady rise of challenger banks, or neobanks, in Europe. These newly established retail- and SME banks are competing with (or ‘challenging’) the established banks with modern banking propositions tailored to the digital world. Read more