Commercial banks and fintech companies in the digital transformation: challenges for the future

Abstract

Innovations in technologies are changing consumers’ behaviour and their understanding of financial services’ great importance for the financial industry today. It is a great challenge for “traditional” banking to stay on track by understanding and accepting this change when there is no way back. Banking is no longer a place you go, but something you do (King, 2013). Many researchers and industry experts are discussing the future of FinTech companies and the threat that they may possibly replace banks. As Annika Falkengren (2015), CEO of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, has said, “They look like banks, they talk like banks, but are not regulated like banks.”

The research problem of the present research is formulated as follows: ‘will non-banking entities be able to generate competition to such an extent that the lines of business which are traditionally considered to belong to banks will no longer be their privilege?’

The aim of the research is to investigate, evaluate and compare the interaction between FinTech and commercial banks and the development trend of commercial banking, taking into consideration the influence of FinTech companies on traditional business models.

Research methods applied:
- Review of the literature and secondary data;
- Primary data collected by survey and interviews;
- Analysis of gathered data and analysis of financial parameters of FinTech companies, such as investments made in these companies by international banks.

Research questions:
RQ1: What is the substance of FinTech, what kind of services are offered by FinTech, and to what extent are customers aware of FinTech?
RQ2: Are banks investing in FinTech and which of the FinTech business areas are most attractive for investors?

Research limitations
This research has limitations related to the collection of both primary and secondary data. The pool of survey respondents and experts is limited and does not cover worldwide locations, being from Baltic countries, Sweden and Finland. In total 231 respondents participated in the survey.