Banks vs Fintech: A Coronastory

Downloads of challenger bank apps have declined from their pre-Covid levels.

In industry after industry, digital is gobbling up market share. In wine for example, US online sales gained over 20 points of share within two weeks of lockdown. What it took grocery in the UK 20 years to achieve, US wine did in 21 days. And fintechs offer many of the same benefits – speed, innovation and digital distribution.

Meanwhile, when it comes to digital distribution, incumbent banks are catching up. BBVA announced that between January and March nearly two-thirds of its sales were completed digitally, up from prior periods. Citigroup tripled the number of accounts it opened digitally in March compared with same month last year.