What I Heard at NY Fintech Week

What I Heard at NY Fintech Week

April 29, 2025

Last week was NY Fintech Week. For those who don’t know what that means, NY Fintech Week is 1 week each year (perfectly placed at the beginning of spring) in which fintech operators, investors, and bank innovators descend on New York City for a collection of events and meetups focused on innovation in financial services. This year, CCG Catalyst hosted one of these events, in collaboration with CFO Consulting Partners.

Winning in a New World: Investing in the Future of Banking, a half-day session, hosted at The New York Times Building, centered on how bankers can prepare for the future. Louis Hernandez, founder and CEO of Black Dragon Capital, kicked off the day with a keynote that highlighted the disruptive moment banking faces. As he explained, banks do not need to become fintechs, but they do need to change — we need a new version of banking for the digital age. He was followed by three panels that looked at investing in the future through distinct lenses: venture investment, M&A, and infrastructure modernization.

Here are three key points I gathered from the discussions:

Banks should think about venture investment to create strategic value. While investing in a fintech-focused fund can be a good way to use your balance sheet, that’s not all it’s about. As Jake Fuchs, investor at BankTech Ventures, explained, banks don’t come to BankTech Ventures purely for financial returns, they are looking to benefit strategically from exposure to and influence on the future of bank technology. Hernandez of Black Dragon and Kelsey Landau, investor at Alloy Labs, who also participated, echoed these thoughts, emphasizing how important it is to leverage insights and pain points from bank investors in investment strategies.
Bank consolidation will continue. While we may continue to see increased de novo activity as well as more creative M&A activity (such as fintechs buying banks) under the current administration, panelists agreed the prevailing M&A trend of traditional bank consolidation is still the one to watch. According to Bill Clarkin, managing director at RSM, we’ve seen the number of banks drop by nearly 50% since 2010; we could see that happen again if we continue the current trajectory.

Technology investment is — and should be — a function of strategy. While it is exciting to talk about tech — especially in the age of AI and open banking — jumping on the bandwagon is not the way to go. Our panelists were emphatic that strategy should drive technology investments, not the other way around. Starting with strategy allows a bank to identify its unique proposition and its unique challenges before thinking about infrastructure. Infrastructure should then ultimately support that strategy. As Jesse Honigberg, EVP of products and platforms at Customers Bank, put it, you’ve got to know what kind of bank you want to be and solve for that.

The big takeaway from the day, in my opinion, is that we’ve got to start thinking more creatively about the future. Investment can mean a lot of things — why not try more than one approach? Why not diversify your efforts? Of course, though, all of that must happen under a cohesive strategic vision. Determining your bank’s secret sauce, and what ingredients that sauce needs to keep it tasting delicious in 5 years, is step one.

What I Heard at NY Fintech Week

What I Heard at NY Fintech Week

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