How Can Banks Innovate?

Why can’t banks innovate like start-ups? It’s a question that’s been asked a thousand times and has many answers. It’s certainly true that financial firms face a more stringent regulatory environment than most other industries. And they tend to have a more conservative nature than other businesses that tend to take fewer risks.

But a big part of it is that banks don’t have an ingrained “start-up culture.” The idea of “failing fast” is foreign to banks; in fact, they don’t want to fail at ANY speed. But these hurdles can be overcome little by little. One op-ed argues banks need to embrace the idea of containment—that is, to put in place tools and protocols that allow teams to mitigate the impact of failure while still moving quickly and learning. It’s a very “startup-y” notion; would banks go for it? We don’t know how many will embrace the idea, but the smart ones are most likely already putting something similar in place.