Fintech companies: A paradigm of the new banking industry?

The debate was presented by the members of the CUNEF Alumni board of directors, financial expert Rocío Reynolds, and moderated by Juan Díaz-Andreu, who is a specialist in the Search for Executive Talent in Technology. It also benefited from the input of a panel of experts from Fintech companies from various sectors.

Jorge Antón, Co-founder and CEO of MytripleA, Mireia Badía, CEO of Grow.ly and Grégorie de Lestapis, CEO of Lendix España represented crowdlending platforms. Attendees also heard from Asier Uribeechebarría, founder and CEO of the robo-advisor Finanbest.

The debate started with a welcome from Rocío Reynolds on behalf of the CUNEF Alumni Association who then handed over to Paula De Biase, co-ordinator of the Financial Services practice area at Pérez-Llorca and legal expert on the subject, who outlined different regulatory initiatives related to the Fintech sector, such as the recent creation of a Fintech Portal by the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (National Securities Market Commission, CNMV) as an open channel for communication and queries with the regulator, and the publication of a report by the joint committee of European regulators on “automated advice”, which analyses its advantages, risks and whether specific regulation is needed.

Moderator Juan Díaz-Andreu then took the floor, and gave an introduction to the Fintech sector and its possible future evolution as an alternative to traditional financial service providers. He discussed the new mode of operation of more than 200 companies who, with creative talent and in an agile and innovative way, currently provide services in the areas of collections and payments, financing, investment, direct debits etc. Díaz-Andreu then posed a series of questions to the other members of the panel. Grégorie de Lestapis, CEO of Lendix España, added that “Fintech technology is here to stay”, and that “the digital disruption caused by technology is forcing a change in the way of providing services to clients”.

Jorge Antón, ofMytripleA, noted that “there is a tendency to compare crowdlending with banks, but in reality crowdlending is a very specific service compared with a bank’s services, as it offers financing to companies and individuals as well as channelling investor money to the former, creating a new type of asset for investment”.

Mireia Badía, CEO of Growly, added that “the Spanish market for crowdlending and Fintech in general is very attractive and but it is also a virgin market when compared to other countries where it is more established, like the United States or the United Kingdom, where crowdlending is tried and tested”. He also spoke of the importance of these platforms being subject to transparency rules with respect to users e.g. in terms of delinquency rates.

Lastly, Asier Uribeechebarria, CEO of Finanbest, spoke of the advantages of the robo-advisor model, which “enables the transfer of an efficient investment model to the retail client over the internet cheaply”.

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