Navigating the Waves: Exploring Fintech Investment Trends in Asia

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, expert associate partner at Bain & Company and Jeff Tijssen, partner and global head of Fintech, Bain & Company are joined by an all-Bain lineup, Karim Ahmad, expert partner, Mike Smith, expert partner, and Tevia Segovia, partner to discuss what will be the top Fintech trends of 2025.Timestamps:03:13 Looking Ahead: What Are the Top Trends for Fintech in 202509:42 Has a stable environment materialised over the last year?14:19 Fintech investment15:46 Impact of the election on private markets18:28 What excites you in the FS ecosystem in 2025?20:47 What's caught your eye in the world of payments?24:05 PSD regulations27:11 Stripe & becoming processor agnostic29:39 How will stablecoins affect the market in 2025?31:18 Is Klarna's IPO valuation vindication for the BNPL model?33:17 How will the election affect fintech & FS endeavours going into 2025?34:49 Pre-election crypto promises38:32 Growth in valuations for tier 1 players42:26 AI use case break throughs44:32 How can digital banks stand out to investors in 2025?47:43 FS predictions for 2025Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Jeff Tijssen hereYou can find Mike Smith hereYou can find Tevia Segovia hereYou can find Karim Ahmad hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Jeff Tijssen, partner and global head of Fintech, Bain & Company, is joined by Kelvin Tan, chief executive officer, Audax and Rishi Sethi, head of Fintech, Torch Partners to discuss Fintech investment trends in Asia.Timestamps:03:30 Why is Asia such an exciting Fintech market?07:13 Upcoming Fintech trends11:57 What does the current Fintech investment landscape look like in Asia?17:18 How has the Fintech ecosystem in Asia evolved in recent years?20:50 What challenges do Asian Fintechs face looking to expand across the region?24:24 How will the Asian FinTech landscape evolve over the next 2-3 years?27:08 How can the region attract more investments?29:32 How can the government create an environment for Fintechs to thrive?33:23 Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs building in AsiaPlease subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Jeff Tijssen hereYou can find Kelvin Tan hereYou can find Rishi Sethi hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, host Jeff Tijssen, partner and global head of Fintech, Bain & Company, is joined by Mike Cashman, partner at Bain & Company, Nik Milanović, founder of This Week in Fintech and general partner at The Fintech Fund and Clara Jackson, director of investments at TA Associates, to discuss if we're about to witness the great Fintech rebound.Timestamps:04:36 From Turbulence to Triumph: Are We About to Witness the Great Fintech Rebound?06:24 Are there any changes to how Fintech companies are being evaluated for investments?08:01 How have growth investors and private equity firms been looking at the industry?09:04 Early stage venture capital11:02 Fintech funding in 202412:50 What's giving companies confidence in pushing for IPOs?15:52 Interesting sub sectors in the current market20:28 What makes a great Fintech company to invest in?24:30 Are there any particular countries where Fintech is flourishing?26:25 Outlook for 202530:34 One piece of advice for investorsPlease subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Jeff Tijssen hereYou can find Mike Cashman hereYou can find Nik Milanović hereYou can find Clara Jackson hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, expert associate partner at Bain & Company, is joined by Chris Kuiper, Director of Research at Fidelity Digital Assets, Edward Woodford, CEO at Zero Hash and Jeremy Fox-Geen, CFO at Circle to discuss whether crypto has crossed the institutional and consumer chasm.Timestamps:06:22 Has crypto crossed the institutional and consumer chasm?09:41 What's underpinned this crypto bull run over the last 12 months?12:56 How do Bitcoin ETFs differ from other ETFs?15:11 Regulatory hurdles with Bitcoin ETFs17:21 Is there a correlation between user adoption and ETF approvals?18:57 Bitcoin: Will the use cases grow, or is it just a store of value?23:16 Which other crypto assets could go through this regulatory process in the near future?25:23 The future of stablecoins32:52 What are the blockers stopping widescale adoption of stablecoins?42:59 How has crypto influenced global culture and society?48:37 What role will crypto play in Financial Services once it has fully matured?Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Chris Kuiper hereYou can find Edward Woodford hereYou can find Jeremy Fox-Geen hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, recorded live from Money20/20 Europe, host Adam Davis, Bain associate partner, is joined by Jeff Tijssen, Bain partner and global head of fintech, Ronit Ghose, Citi Future of Finance global head of banks research and cohead of fintech and Anthony Craufurd, Visa Europe director of ventures and startup engagement, to discuss which transformative technologies will shape the future of Fintech.Timestamps:04:46 Betting on Fintech: Which transformative technologies will shape the future?09:48 Practical applications of new technologies in financial services13:50 How is the research at Citi translated into investment and product decisions?16:12 Dividing up ventures from a tech perspective18:09 Integrating investments back and driving revenue19:22 Overhyped technologies22:59 Proof points when looking at companies pioneering new technologies24:58 Money 2020 takeawaysPlease subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Jeff Tijssen hereYou can find Ronit Ghose hereYou can find Anthony Craufurd hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, expert associate partner at Bain & Company, is joined by Erin McCune, expert partner at Bain & Company, Ed McLaughlin, President and Chief Technology Officer at MasterCard, Sladjana Jovanovic, Chief Information Officer for the Canadian Personal Business Banking at BMO Financial Group, and Daragh Morrissey, director of AI at Microsoft Worldwide Financial Services, to discuss if the world is ready for AI and quantum's impact on payments.Timestamps:06:06 AI and Quantum: Is the World Ready for the Impact on Payments?12:19 Based on Bain's surveys on AI, are those expectations realistic? And what timeframe are we looking at?15:29 How will AI transform our experience with payments?18:32 How is Mastercard implementing AI to meet future expectations?21:05 How does the growth and maturation of accountability change as AI models develop?26:27 What are the most interesting use cases of AI?31:48 Quantum computing: What is it? And how will it impact us?37:01 How will quantum computing impact fraud?40:46 Who will be the biggest benefactors of quantum?45:36 How have partnerships effected POCs & go-to-market solutions?Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Erin McCune hereYou can find Ed McLaughlin hereYou can find Sladjana Jovanovic hereYou can find Daragh Morrissey hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, expert associate partner at Bain & Company, is joined by Wendy Redshaw, Chief Digital Information Officer at NatWest, and Jason Maude, chief technology advocate of Starling Bank, to discuss if there is still a technology gap between incumbents vs challengers.Timestamps:04:15 Incumbents vs Challengers – is there still a technology gap?05:24 How would you explain the technology gap previously between large tier 1s and neobanks?09:57 What are the key differences between a challenger stack and an incumbent stack?12:31 How have Starling maintained a simple / flexible architecture through the launch of new products and the scaling of your customer base?15:24 Occasional vs repeatable releases16:02 Centralisation efforts that have happened with NatWest’s tech estate over recent times19:36 Is the money banks spend on IT transformation programmes worth it?21:33 Do you believe the combination of ML / AI and Generative AI, alongside exclusive Cloud deployment, will level the playing field?25:15 What underpins the culture you want to see at your organizations, and how do you encourage it?29:57 How do you keep up with Futurology and trends, and does any of that thinking feature in your tech roadmaps?34:30 What is your one prediction for tech trends into 2024?Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Wendy Redshaw hereYou can find Jason Maude hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, expert associate partner at Bain & Company, is joined by Erin McCune, expert partner at Bain & Company, Manish Kohli, head of global payments solutions at HSBC, and Thierry Chilosi, chief strategy officer at Swift, to discuss what’s at stake in the world of Wholesale Payments.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction04:07 What’s at stake in the world of Wholesale Payments?08:06 Why are wholesale payments so important?10:05 From the FI's perspective, what are the profit pools and ways of making money within wholesale payments?14:51 How have wholesale payments changed in the last 10 years? What's driving innovation?23:39 Will real-time payment networks lower the barrier to entry for new payment products?29:00 What are the effects on working capital and liquidity with real-time infrastructures working 24/7?33:48 Swift's modernisation journey - from telex to the new XML standards36:57 How will Swift's new collaborations with Visa and Wise serve businesses and banks going forward?38:38 What makes a successful partnership in the fintech space?42:19 What will the wholesale payments industry look like in 15 years?You can read more about Bain’s POV on Wholesale Payments in the recently published brief: The Fragmentation of Wholesale Payments Calls for Banks to Remake Their ApproachPlease subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Erin McCune hereYou can find Manish Kohli hereYou can find Thierry Chilosi hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, Associate Partner at Bain & Co, is joined by Aman Narain, Global Head of Platforms and Embedded Banking, HSBC, to discuss the topic of embedded finance.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction02:42 Embedded finance use cases05:08 Maturity of integrated, insightful & instant in embedded finance06:09 Integrated definition & use cases07:06 Building a proposition inside HSBC10:14 Biggest business challenges in embedded finance11:38 Who will disrupt embedded finance in the future?13:56 Embedded finance sales plays for non-FIs16:05 Working capital17:47 Is gen AI overhyped?19:04 Given $10M to start a fintech - what would you do?19:40 Advice to your younger self about banking and the FS industryPlease subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Aman Narain hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website

In this episode of Deciphered, Adam Davis, Associate Partner at Bain & Co, is joined by Jeff Tijssen, Expert Partner and Global Head of FinTech, Bain & Co, Christina Riechers, General Manager, Square Banking and Richard Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Allica Bank, to discuss SMB: Is there still a growth opportunity, or are they now over-served?Timestamps:00:00 Introduction07:37 SMB: Still a growth opportunity, or now over-served?12:52 Strategy of Square banking & what is your remit?15:27 Differentiating Square banking & gaining autonomy17:40 Success factors at Allica Bank19:33 Have SMB margins held for providers through the cost of living crisis/rising interest rates?23:52 How much share should fintechs take from incumbent FIs and banks?27:46 How hard is it to capture ongoing SMB engagement without a full integrated banking offering?29:53 What new products are Square and Allica Bank looking to provide?34:15 Jobs for small businesses: What are they, and how are they effected by technology?39:55 What are the differences in serving increasingly larger businesses, and how do jobs change with this?44:47 Should we expect consolidation in facets of SMB? And who's competitive in the space?Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review if you enjoy the show!You can find Adam Davis hereYou can find Jeff Tijssen hereYou can find Christina Riechers hereYou can find Richard Davies hereFor more insights from the Deciphered podcast, visit the page on Bain’s website