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INTERVIEW A new kind of marketplace
Fidor is a name associated with more than just banking. As the platformification narrative goes into overdrive, Sophie Guibaud, managing director for Europe, talks to IBS Journal about how diversity will be the watchword of the next few years
Senior Fintech Reporter Alex Hamilton
F
idor Bank is perhaps a name that flies under the radar of the ordinary banking user, at least in the UK. The German neobank, founded in 2009, started making forays into the
UK market in 2015, and currently operates two personal banking accounts. The bank was bought up by French Banking giant Groupe BPCE in 2016, but has been operating under its own name.
The bank recently made inroads into France, and the firm’s managing director for Europe, Sophie Guibaud, says that the market is one ripe for the type of innovation Fidor is offering, to both customers and to SMEs and other financial institutions. “France will be part of our European platform development strategy. We’ll be launching a platform which will be more credit-orientated and in the second stage we’ll be bringing in current accounts and open bank accounts. There is a space in the market in France. We don’t see any proposition like ours – a community-driven banking service.”
Fidor offers a marketplace, which has been live in Germany for some time, but will now be firing up in both France and the UK. Guibaud says that there are already a number of partners on board who have been operating on it “for some time now”. The firm is also opening up distribution to B2B clients.
“When we started the marketplace we understood that as a relatively small company in the space we couldn’t do everything but we still wanted to provide our clients with the best experiences possible and create a ‘one-stop shop’,” says Guibaud. “Integrating fintechs on the platform was a way to actually provide this in a meaningful way and ensure that Fidor can continue to do what it does best – banking, loans and community feel.”
The application process is a two-way street, with both Fidor going out and finding promising start-ups and those same firms coming to Fidor in turn. “We have a registration that gives fintechs a chance
market in France. We don’t see any proposition like ours – a community-driven banking service
“
to tell us about them,” says Guibaud. “Then we can on-board them following due diligence.” Fidor also aims to bring on multiple fintechs per market area, to offer clients choice rather than force- feed them a preferred start-up: “We are a curator that believes in competition.”
IBS Journal spoke to Guibaud at Money20/20 Europe, where the subject of platformification and collaboration between fintechs and banks was ever present. So, has the narrative that fintechs are only out there to steal business away from banks finally died out?
“Our B2B clients want nothing more than to work with us, and we’re the same with them,” says Guibard. Being replaced by fintechs was never really the threat, she adds, so it’s about time that banks wake up to how fintechs and start-ups can help them diversify their businesses and better serve their customers.
Of course, there will be some areas where fintechs will replace traditional facets of the banking industry. Guibard points to advisors, who are arguably being replaced by algorithmic recommendations provided by machine learning solutions. But it was the lethargy of legacy banks that caused the shift in thought, not a sudden onrush of job-hungry robots. At the end of the day, the client will always decide what they want, and banks should be ready to provide that, even if it means handing over control to a fintech partner.
There is a space in the
www.ibsintelligence.com | © IBS Intelligence 2018
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