Insights: Are Neobanks replacing private banking?

**Maia Bittner** (0:00)
Howdy, shoppers.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:00)
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**Matthew Ford** (0:08)
That's a dog.

**Maia Bittner** (0:09)
You will not have to lift a finger.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
Bobby and Connie hard-launch their relationship. Now that we're dating, it's important your parents know I'm a man. And the alley guys are, well, they're still the alley guys.

**Maia Bittner** (0:20)
Yep.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:21)
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**Ross Gallagher** (0:44)
Hello and welcome to Fintech Insider Insights. I'm Ross Gallagher, the Head of Consulting here at 11FS. For the last decade, Neobanks have challenged traditional banks with better apps, lower fees and simpler customer experiences. And by almost every measure, they've been a huge success. Leading players like Revolut, Monzo, Neobank and Chime have attracted millions of customers, achieved profitability and become many customers' primary banking relationship. At the same time, companies like Robinhood and Kleiner are expanding beyond their original propositions, signaling that the race to become consumers' primary financial partner is no longer just a battle between what we would have traditionally considered banks.
But now the biggest challengers appear to be entering a new phase.
Rather than simply replacing your bank account, they're expanding into investing, financial planning, AI-powered advice, lifestyle services, and premium experiences. In doing so, they're beginning to break down the traditional boundaries between retail banking, wealth management, and private banking. So today we're asking, are the traditional battle lines in financial services being redrawn, and what then does that mean for the future of the industry? Now, to discuss this really interesting topic, I'm joined by a great panel of guests. First, we have a very welcome return to the show for Maia Bittner, the investment partner at XFactor Ventures. Maia, lovely to be back behind the mic together so soon. Great to have you. Maybe you can just, I know you've been on quite recently, but you can just remind our listeners a little bit about yourself, reintroduce yourself.

**Maia Bittner** (2:21)
Yes, of course, Ross. I have an entrepreneurial background, but big news on my side, I recently wrapped up eight years working at Time. So I really got to see Time rise from being an ambitious challenger to operating at massive, massive scale. Then as you mentioned, I'm now focused on investing and spending a lot of time on Twitter. So excited to chat about today's topic from all those angles.

**Ross Gallagher** (2:47)
Yeah, excited to have you, Maia, as always. I think given all of your experiences and insights, I think you'll definitely lend a lot to today's topic as well. So thanks for jumping on and sharing that with us.
Also joining us and another very welcome return back to the show, Ayelen Denovitzer, the head of operations at Formance. Ayelen, it's great to see you. Obviously, we did a show together at Money 2020, which was really, really enjoyable. Maybe you can again just remind our listeners a little bit about yourself and maybe some of the things you've been up to since then.

**Ayelen Denovitzer** (3:19)
Of course. Yeah, thanks for having me. That was a really fun show. Yeah, quick recap. I'm head of operations at Formance, where essentially we provide financial infrastructure layer to a lot of fintechs and financial services companies that surely are on the listening side today.
Essentially, the core of our product is a program of ledger that powers money movement for these companies.

**Ross Gallagher** (3:47)
Love it.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Ayelen, for jumping back on with us. Then another old friend of the show, Matthew Ford, just back from paternity leave. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Again, it's great to see you as always. Maybe you can just reintroduce yourself to our listeners and maybe give a little bit of background to Sidekick and what you guys are up to.

**Matthew Ford** (4:13)
Great to be on the show as always. I'm the founder of Sidekick. We're a premium wealth manager. We're trying to take a lot of those products and services that a traditional private bank would offer and digitize those, drive cost out of those, and open those up to a much broader segment. A lot of the intro, Ross, that you're giving around how things are changing is very much top of mind for us because we're hopefully very much at the forefront of the financial advice, AI question, we're spending a huge amount of time there. We offer a variety of different wealth products, so everything from private markets through to much more customized, personalized investment products.