Can’t fintech and the banks all just get along?

Damien Jamet, chief digital officer and chief of staff at Societe Generale Securities Services, has renewed calls for fintechs and financial institutions to work together in order to help modernise the whole financial services industry.

While the large banks initially saw fintechs as ‘barbarians at the gates’, and fintechs seemed to be making a direct play for the business of the banks, Jamet hopes that both sides are now starting to see that there is more to be gained from collaboration than competition.

Indeed, the numbers of fintechs seeking to exploit the greyer and less well regulated areas of the industry seem to be waning, while more and more banks are either funding, purchasing, or providing back end support for fintechs that offer them a way to innovate and modernise their consumer and business offerings.

Jamet hopes that this will lead to a period of productive cross-fertilisation that will see traditional services being brought up to date and new offerings developed and with enough support and investment to let them mature and flourish.