Fernando Torres Figueiredo, a highly likeable and highly knowledgeable Partner at the consulting behemoth McKinsey & Company, took time out from his first FMLS to speak with me and share some interesting insights on the state of the Fintech scene, as well as share some invaluable advice on how to launch and scale up a neobank.

Fernando has been with McKinsey & Company since 2015, starting as a Digital Expert, and has a wealth of experience consulting with some of Europe's biggest fintech companies.

Adapting to a Fast-Paced Fintech World

After explaining what his job as a Partner at McKinsey & Company involves: he helps large organisations and start-ups "really overcome some of their biggest challenges by applying digital technology in new ways to actually operate," Fernando then went on to describe how McKinsey, approaching its 100-year anniversary, has adapted to today's fast-paced fintech Fintech Financial Technology (fintech) is defined as ay technology that is geared towards automating and enhancing the delivery and application of financial services. The origin of the term fintechs can be traced back to the 1990s where it was primarily used as a back-end system technology for renowned financial institutions. However, it has since grown outside the business sector with an increased focus upon consumer services.What Purpose Do Fintechs Serve?The main purpose of fintechs would be to suppl Financial Technology (fintech) is defined as ay technology that is geared towards automating and enhancing the delivery and application of financial services. The origin of the term fintechs can be traced back to the 1990s where it was primarily used as a back-end system technology for renowned financial institutions. However, it has since grown outside the business sector with an increased focus upon consumer services.What Purpose Do Fintechs Serve?The main purpose of fintechs would be to suppl Read this Term world: "What we're trying to think about is how can we actually help drive growth for organizations that look and feel different."

Fernando was critical of the traditional banks not embracing Fintech technology much earlier: "We don't see large organizations in the last, maybe for the last 10 years being very strategic about and very purposeful in the way they are actually focusing their investment."

Talk moved from the past and present issues facing the fintech world, Fernando spoke of what banks need to do in the next five years, which essentially boiled down to two things: "adopting more of the technology providers' infrastructure," and "improving their products."

The topic moved to challenger banks and neobanks. "The one thing that they have really well is to focus on the customer and that has allowed them to win some interesting space."

Neobanks in Focus

However, after detailing what the neobanks have been doing right, Fernando explained what he thought they have been doing wrong: "The one thing they haven't done as much is to really focus on the revenue generation and value creation out of that customer experience."

The talk then moved to the impact of the pandemic and Fernando spoke optimistically of the fintech scene over the next five years: "banks will be much more ready to absorb innovation than they are today" before giving advice on how a new challenger bank can succeed:

"You need to really understand what is your path for scale how are you going to get to your first 100,000 customers to your second 200,00 customers how do you get to five countries and how do you get to a million customers?" he stated, extrapolating a bit further before ending an enjoyable interview and disappearing into the FMLS crowd.

Catch the rest of my interviews at FMLS here.