When I talk to bankers and start-up executives, it is clear that there are differing views of the world. The difference is not as clear-cut as nimble innovator versus dinosaur incumbent, which is how many portray it, but it exists nonetheless. In fact, it is a radical difference in thinking, perhaps best summed up by one banker who said to me recently: “Surely this is techfin rather than fintech?”
I thought about what he meant and realised that this is the subtle difference between the innovator and the incumbent. An innovator thinks of financial innovation as fintech: taking financial processes and applying technology. Incumbents think of this as techfin: taking technology to work with financial processes. This difference in thinking, although subtle, does create a very different thought process and output in terms of the way in which technology is used, and so I thought I would delve a little deeper, as this is key to seeing how the world differs between the eyes of innovators and incumbents.
