The Power of Fintechs

Understandably, headlines this week were basically 100% coronavirus, 100% of the time.

The bad — even devastating — news is clear, and there’s no shortage of it. The eternal optimist in us wanted to come out of this week with a few glasses that looked half full. 

We found some good vibes for fintech in this piece from Penny Crosman at American Banker. Amidst the extreme warriness, the current reality of the world is “also shining a spotlight on the power of fintechs,” she wrote. “They seem to be responding to the sudden challenge, though uncertainties lie ahead.”

Crosman, who we named as one of the 200 revolutionists in fintech earlier this year, wrote about the role tech companies are playing in supporting the rapid shift to remote working. She highlighted how Symphony, a secure and compliant collaboration platform for financial services firms, is making remote work possible for one of the most regulated industries in the world. Its CEO and founder is David Gurle.

“Customers have reached out and said this is a mission-critical time for us, you are an essential part of our value chain, and we want to make sure that you’re going to be able to sustain your services,” Gurle said. “The market is crazy. And some of our customers have said, we do not want you to have any challenge to your infrastructure for the next 30 days. We want you to keep everything, and we don't want to have any potential risk. Keep it up and running. There is a real focus and worry that the value chain of the infrastructure for communication is in place and it's anchored.” 

Even the New York Stock Exchange is going remote, so to speak, starting Monday. Although it has closed at times over the years, this will be the first time the NYSE temporarily closes its floor independently while moving to electronic trading.

This week we also saw the role that fintechs are playing in lending. Some, like Blend, are helping people apply for mortgages while social distancing. And small business lender Kabbage is helping businesses gain access to income now by launching a website for gift certificate purchases. The idea is to get money into the pockets of small businesses today, while encouraging customer traffic once the pandemic passes, says co-founder and CEO Rob Frohwein, who we interviewed late last year.

Like you, we’re attuned to the serious impact the current crisis is having on real businesses and real people. Without belittling that reality, we hope we can find some silver linings in the coming weeks that can be some welcome bits of positivity during this uncertain time.