Swipe right: Here’s what banks need to know before choosing a fintech partner

More and more banks are turning to fintech firms to help them transform their businesses into competitive and efficient digital enterprises. Partnerships with start-ups can certainly accelerate a bank’s digital transformation but collaboration is not always easy.

Banks once viewed fintech firms as unruly upstarts set on disrupting their businesses and snatching their customers. Now, they’re more likely to see them as potential partners who can help them navigate their way into a future dominated by digital technologies.

“The narrative has changed a lot,” says Roberto Ferrari, the Lead at Qorus' Digital Reinvention Community. Some of the conditions that triggered the rise of fintech start-ups more than a decade ago, such as legacy technology, entrenched corporate cultures and strong regulatory controls, still persist. However, the spread of increasingly powerful digital technologies, the emergence of open banking and embedded finance and shifts in consumer behaviour have prompted banks to change their stance.

“Fintech firms are not so much trying to disrupt and compete against banks. Instead, they’re working with banks to help them renovate and reinvent their businesses,” says Ferrari. New business opportunities such as mobile wallets, digital lending and account aggregation are also encouraging co-operation.

But what sort of start-up makes a good fintech partner? What are the marks of a successful fintech partnership? And what should banks do to make sure they’re attractive partnership candidates?

To answer these questions, we invited two banks and their fintech partner to share their experiences of working together. Representatives from OTP banka Srbija, Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) and fintech firm NF Innova discussed what makes a successful partnership, at an online event hosted by the Digital Reinvention Community.