Podcast with Wealthify CEO: fintech propositions must remain “distinct”

Originally published on bobsguide.


A new wave of fintech is taking full advantage of the collaborative ecosystem, powered by advances in APIs and encouraged by Open Banking regulation.

At the fore front are the challenger banks seeking to forge partnerships and leverage technology to provide innovative and unique avenues that traditional banks have failed to produce.

But deciding on how to do that is no easy feat – you either go it alone and build your own suite as with Revolut, or you set up a marketplace and/or employ best of breed solutions.

“I think a lot of challengers are going down the marketplace route, though they’re not being very selective with who they include,” says Richard Theo, CEO of Wealthify, “that’s absolutely fine but there’s a danger it will become cluttered with indistinct propositions.”

Wealthify, the investment app backed by Aviva, recently partnered with Starling bank to offer investment services (in the form of ISAs) to Starling account holders.

The Cardiff-based company has been making something of a stir with its low fee investment opportunities and ‘withdraw at any time’ features that are massively appealing to a wealthy and tech savvy millennial market.

On one of his frequent sorties along the M4 to London, Theo met up with David Beach to chat everything from the eventual winners and losers of the challenger landscape to how the company is looking to offer a pension service in the near future.

 

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