Fintechs are anticipating a boom: What that means for banks

The trend: After a year of regulatory reckoning, the fintech market is experiencing some big wins—and expects a resurgence in 2025. 

The details: The fintech industry feels a sense of optimism following Donald Trump’s victory, banking on his likely relaxation of financial regulations. Here are three signs, according to Sardine writer Simon Taylor:

• Bitcoin nearly hit $100,000, up almost $30,000 in less than one month, per Coindesk data.
• Revolut is now considering applying for a US banking charter.
• Robinhood bought portfolio management platform TradePMR, laying the groundwork for its expansion into wealth management, particularly with young, tech-savvy consumers, per Yahoo Finance.

Growing friction with banks: While some banking leaders have celebrated the likely relaxed regulations ahead, the shift may further complicate their relationships with fintechs.

• Fintech leaders are excited about the enhanced access to customer data under the new open banking rule—and the personalization and innovation they believe will follow. They expect the rule to hold under the new president, per Fintech Futures. 
• But banks aren’t happy about the rule’s surprisingly wide scope and have expressed concerns about consumers’ data security if they’re forced to share data with third parties.
• Banks have lobbied for stricter requirements for fintechs under this rule.

What this means for banks: Fintechs that grow under more relaxed compliance rules will pose even greater competition to traditional financial institutions (FIs).

• Gen Zers are slowly leaving big traditional banks for their digital competitors, making fintechs an existential threat to banks.

To protect their bottom line, FIs must lean in to what differentiates them from their (mostly) charterless competitors, including:

• Deposit insurance, which means their customers lose their life savings like those affected by the Synapse collapse.
• Excellent customer service at the branch, which most fintechs don’t have.

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