Fintech has been part of financial services for several years, but it remains surprisingly rare to see employees of incumbent banks take prominent positions at fintech firms.
This may be a path that is becoming more common, according to Matthew C. Meade, product management leader focused on fixed income pricing products at Bloomberg and author of ‘Wisdom on the Way to Wall Street: 22 Steps to Navigate Your Road to Success’.
Having previously worked at JPMorgan, where he built out the Volcker risk framework and automated processes to reduce operational risk and increase efficiency, Meade sees himself as someone who has made this transition from banking to fintech.
“I’m not the first and I certainly won’t be the last. I think we will see a lot more people taking the journey from banking to fintech,” Meade tells Finextra Research.
“Over time, as tech matures financial services companies are becoming more aware of how innovative products can improve the bottom line, and streamline processes, giving employees more time for strategic thinking and capturing client use cases.”
One of the appeals for Meade was the increased flexibility afforded in the fintech sphere, working with multiple different financial institutions, an opportunity that was not always there in banking.
"Now I have access to big data and work with numerous clients within financial services which affords a macro industry benefit,” he says.
“I get to see from a bird's eye view what the industry is doing across many different banks and buy-side firms, so I think there’s certainly a lot more flexibility.”
This would in turn help to make colleagues more rounded and versatile, able to turn their hand to a number of tasks and projects, which would present a healthy competitive edge to a firm, as they would be able to service clients in a much broader way.
“People in banking circles appreciate that fintech has arrived, so many are now trying to reskill to stay ahead of it. Through a mix of bringing in new talent and reskilling existing talent, banks strike a great balance of keeping people who know the legacy process and culture but also people with a fresh industry perspective. This is a great value add.”
The companies that will lead the way in financial services in the years ahead, according to Meade, are those that can offer a wider range of digital products and alternatives to help nurture self-service for clients.
“Now’s not the time to be too specialised,” he sums up.
“You need to have a broader sense of how you’re going to attain clients, their information and their data because if they don’t get it from you, they’re going to get it from someone else.”