Finance Monthly September 2019 Edition

48 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCIAL INNOVATION & FINTECH - FINTECH PARTNERSHIPS FINTECH PARTNERSHIPS: STOP, COLLABORATE & LISTEN In 2019 collaboration has finally caught the attention of the financial services industry as competition is intensifying, and tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon are all taking steps to break into the financial sector. Partnerships are critical for incumbent banks and financial services companies to stay ahead in a crowded market. Collaboration allows them to upgrade their technological capabilities and their digital customer experience faster - and at a lower cost – so they don’t lose out to new players in the market. Viktoria Ruubel, Chief Product Officer at IPF Digital, looks at the ways that partnerships can be a win-win-win situation: for the bank, the FinTech and ultimately, the customer. BUILDING SYNERGIES AROUND PRODUCT, TECHNOLOGY, OR TALENT ACCESS One way that banks and other financial institutions are collaborating is through licensing technology or software from other businesses in the form of a white-label. This provides financial organisations with immediate access to the latest, state-of-the-art technology stack, gives access to new products and speeds up time to market. Meanwhile the FinTech start-ups, that are often providers of the technology, get access to consistent revenues streams, and the software providers have the opportunity to invest in adding new capabilities to their portfolio of services. There are many examples of this type of partnership including Mambu and N2, Starling Bank and Raisin. At a time where there is a battle for top talent across multiple industries, the financial services industry is not exempt from the challenge of finding talented engineers, scientists, and other skilled employees to design, build and serve new digital platforms, products and offerings. It is therefore not surprising that many companies partner with specialised service providers to tap into the world’s best expertise. A good example of this is the partnership between Discover Financial Services and Zest finance, which are leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) software for underwriting. They announced a partnership Viktoria Ruubel, Chief Product Officer, IPF Digital www.ipfin.co.uk