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@TolgaTavlas:

TY for the Quora question - strangely, Quora didn't auto-display it when I wrote my question. I went thru' the answers. They're a mixed bag, with some attributing revenues to Ads, others to API license fees and still others saying no revenues. I'll also check out the other articles you've hyperlinked. Thanks.

Yet another neobank claiming innovation with plastic card!

OIC @TolgaTavlas! TY for your estimate of Google Maps API revenues. I also thought of posting a question on Quora about it. I'll update this post if I get an authentic-sounding reply. 

Walmart didn't compete with Sears by gaining access to the transaction data of Sears' customers. Amazon didn't compete with Walmart by gaining access the transaction data of Walmart's customers. MINT didn't compete with traditional banks even AFTER getting access to transaction data of traditional banks' customers.

Ergo I don't understand this quaint notion that fintechs can compete with traditional banks only by gaining access to transaction data of traditional banks' customers.

IMO Innovative Fintechs Don’t Need No PSD2 Regulation and, if that does not work, Open Banking Needs A Blockchain Boost.

@Souvik Das: 

TY for your reply.

In a recent interview with SLATE, the exiting CEO of Simple, arguably the most successful neobank, noted, "There’s a lot more competition out there, but the reality is that most millennials, like most Americans, bank at the top four banks."

Now, according to you, an overwhelming majority (80%) of Monzo customers uses a traditional bank for its primary banking needs. 

Any idea why the performance of neobanks has been so underwhelming? Is it because 100% digital onboarding has been overrated OR because customers do want brick-and-mortar presence of an institution they trust their money with OR something else? 

LOL not so long ago these neobanks and challenger banks used to claim that mobile wallet to replace plastic cards was innovative. Now they're claiming that changing the orientation of plastic card from landscape to portrait mode as innovative! At least, they're finally on the right track!!

As long as a Bank even uses a 20 year old CBS, it's technically possible to get a Single Customer View and fetch and prefill details of all products from that bank owned by a given customer. If that's not happening today, the reasons are as much about technology as business. Due to customer preference, privacy, politics and other business reasons, customer info - and a lot of other info - are not shared across different SBUs of any large company, including a Bank. Deep Learning won't help.

Media wants to be tech; tech wants to be finserv; in this brave new world, everybody wants to get into everybody else's business. As a result, companies are a bit wary about sharing their customer info with third parties. Not surprisingly, companies take the extra efforts to do KYC themselves. We saw this with India's largest ride share company Ola for its Ola Wallet and with all prepaid mobile wallets for whom full KYC became mandatory a couple of months ago. Unsurprisingly, bank-provided KYC as a service / e-identity initiatives have not taken off in a big way despite people talking about their advantages for quite a while.

Talking about potential to make money by providing API access - or INBOUND as you call it - any idea how much revenues Google earns by providing Google Maps API access to Uber, Grab, Lyft, PostMate, DoorDash, Dunzo and dozens of other rideshare and delivery companies?

Nice post. Do you know of any research around the persona of the customer who prefers to open a new bank account 100% digitally? More than demographics, I'm interested in usage pattern viz. (1) Is it their first ever bank account? (2) Does their paycheck go into that account? (3) How far is the nearest branch from their home / office?  

Sweden is definitely an outlier. Cash in circulation is rising in many other countries. That said, the growth of cash can be kept in check if payment stakeholders did what it takes To Really Kill Cash and adopted these Five Ways To Boost Credit Card Use.