Fintech Finance Podcasts: The FF Salon Pilot with Ghela Boskovich

Fintechs are not the same as banks, so we should not compare them as such. They have different cultures and specific ends with the services they provide - what ties them together is their significance to the end-customer. 

Joining us at the FF Salon, we have Ghela Boskovich, the Regional Director and Head of Europe at the Financial Data and Technology Association. Boskovich shreds the idealistic pedestal the fintech industry has been perched on for the past few years and lays bare the real purpose of fintech and why they should exist. 

“Fintech will never be bank-ified. There will be fintechs that have scaled up, and gotten to a particular level where they need to decide what they are,” she explains. “They are not the rebellious, edgy, bleeding-edge thing, but they become part of the institutional landscape” 

Banks and fintechs are distinct, but they must work in tandem with each other to better support the current needs of consumers. Global events such as famine, climate change and recessions will have a catastrophic financial impact on the most vulnerable people, who already have poor access to financial services. There are limits to the power of the fintech industry, but scale-ups prioritising financial education and health could be a step in the right direction in navigating people during this time. 

Fintech is by no means a magic solution to the world's ills, but Boskovich maintains that the industry shows its strengths by sticking to what it is best at. 

On what she expects for the future: “ I would like to see, personally, truly open banking. I would like to see unfettered data access across the board, so that you have a choice as to where your data goes, to get the services that you need.”