Tech giants leave banks playing catch up 

The fintech movement becomes particularly tangible when giants such as Amazon, Alibaba and Tecent move into areas that have previously been run solemnly by bricks and mortar banks.

What is happening is that these tech-heavy global companies are changing the way corporates deal with working capital.

Amazon acquires to break new ground

This year, Amazon have made three key acquisitions: insurance disruptor Acko, digital finance company Capital Fload and the online payment fintech Tonetag, according to The Corporate Treasurer.

These new type of funding engines affect both short-term funding and financial providers. Therefore, actors in this space must be agile to cope with the new structure that is taking shape.

Chinese titans aggressively invest in India 

Alibaba and Tecent have entered the intense battle to gain space in India’s fintech area. The forementioned actor have spent more than 2 billion USD since 2015. To this day, Aliaba withhold a strong position in the Indian digital market, running 40 percent of mobile payments, 15 percent of e-commerce and 38 percent of mobile browsers, all done through spin-outs or acquired companies under their umbrella.

Tecent have made large investments in Flipkart, an e-commerce disruptor and Ola, a ride sharing service.

Banks lagging in the race for digital

With these data heavy actors leading for digital transformation, their huge access to data, provides them with deep knowledge of companies’ funding needs. They can always stay one step ahead, which leave banks playing catchup, The Corporate Treasurer argues.

“The only solution for banks is a peer online digital subsidiary: trying to move the whole damn paper analogue past is too hard,”, stated Paul Schulte of Schulte Research to The Corporate Treasurer.