Bankloch

  One of the most frequently used arguments behind the rise of Fintechs and especially neo-banks, is the inability of large incumbent banks to remain agile. Traditional financial institutions often struggle to rapidly adapt to changing customer expectations, evolving regulations, and technological innovation. Fintechs, by contrast, start smaller, carry significantly less historical software legacy, and operate with far less bureaucracy. Decisions are taken faster, teams move quicker, and products evolve continuously. In short: they are more agile . Yet after speaking with many Fintechs and observing numerous start-ups and scale-ups from close by, I increasingly notice a paradox: many young Fintech companies begin to lose their agility surprisingly early, not because of business bureaucracy, but because their IT organization becomes the bottleneck. Ironically, this happens despite hiring highly talented, motivated, and technically excellent engineers. In many start-ups, productivit...