Ask HN: Will Fintechs Die?

If you want to do what a bank does, legally, you have to either be a bank or work with banks. A lot of the pain and BS involved w/ banks are legal requirements such as Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering and if somehow activity moves away from banks, governments are going to apply those regulations to whatever replaces them. (e.g. you can't raise taxes in 2019, but you can collect taxes that people owe but not pay -- the pressures for controlling international payments are strong and increasing.)

I don't agree that retail banks are dying. Goldman Sachs is getting into consumer services such as the Apple Card, they have a savings account. I mostly bank at a vibrant regional credit union and I own stock in a regional bank which has done well financially me as an investor as well as for the community, investors, etc. There are many entrepreneurs in retail banking who are doing interesting things as well as large and non-traditional players. (e.g. Ally Bank, which used to be GM's car lending arm)

I agree that Big Tech is getting into the Fintech space. Fintechs won't die though, it's actually a really good thing for Fintechs.

If you've developed anything innovative in Fintech where your product or service is used by banks or financial institutions, you need 1) connections in the banking industry and 2) a long runway rate as they're some of the worst customers out there.

Alternatively, Fintechs can now sell and work with Big Tech that are open to new ideas and efficiency. This can be either as customers or acquisition.

Banks have got to be shitting their pants right now, I imagine they'll be looking at acquisition to spur innovation (hopefully), but in either case, I welcome big tech into the Fintech arena.