are startups like chime, current, varo, step, etc actually innovating?
first of all: i'm not hating on the companies or the employees there. chime is probably a rocketship and going to pop on IPO. with that being said; are these fintech-style online-only bank companies really innovating? to me they just seem like 💩 wrapped in nice gift wrap are they not just greendot visa cards wrapped in cute little mobile frontends? tc: 290k
Same old financial backend wrapped with new/different UI. And sometimes they look juvenile to attract certain demographics.
You need to also consider how broken the current banking system is. These companies are making banking easier for millions of Americans and solving a huge problem.
Bank of America charges outrageous account maintenance fees, overdraft fees, credit card interest, etc. All of the big banks have poor in-app experience. I don’t use BofA but I don’t know if they have all these features: -Get paycheck two days early -Send money to anyone with a bank account -Send a physical check from the mobile app -Fee free secured credit cards -Competitive interest rates
I think the issue is that BofA and Chase isn't available to ppl in low income areas, so Varo and Chime are definitely catering to that issue
There’s not much new under the sun, especially in financial services. “Innovation” means doing something against the spirit of regulation while toeing the line. Most financial services companies are built off exploiting the working poor or skirting KYC regulations to be able to serve illegal immigrants. That’s all the “new” “banking” services do too
Sounds like Michael Scott Paper Company. Consultant: “Why do you think the banks charge such high fees?” Michael Scott: “Corporate greed?”
It was actually Pam who said that, get your facts straight!
Regulations are definitely something all financial service companies have to work with regardless of old banks or so called fintech now. Ignoring them will likely get you warning and/or panalty. There are so many have tried and failed, including SoFi. It is just not something you should take lightly. Yet many newbies think this build fast, fail fast thing would work in finance like most other tech startups. The only way to fundamentally change how the system works should start from the regulators, but most of them are too archaic to even understand what these new companies are trying to do.
Yup ^. I work in Fin Crime space - being onboarded to chime shortly. They’re ramping up compliance tech a ton it seems
Who cares as long as you are getting paid enough and treated respectfully. 99% of companies don't innovate they just implement what's already implemented elsewhere. Finance is a big market. Even a small pie of that is enough to become a big publicly traded company.
Not innovative. But almost nothing is nowadays. We're just in a massive VC bubble and honestly I can't wait to see it pop
Others feel the same as affirm. Just an installation plan with low enough interest/ margin, by burning the investors' money. Any credit card bank can do that, if they don't care customer's default and fed keeps low rate forever.
My TC is 800 because of stock growth so idc