Trusting the Disruptors: Why Secure, Compliant Fintech Partnerships are Key to Bank Resilience
Contents
Written by
Mike Newman
In my work as Commercial Director at Company Watch, I speak with senior banking professionals frequently. From heads of credit to frontline relationship managers, the conversations are remarkably aligned.
Everyone is managing risk under pressure and trying to balance regulatory expectations with the need to deliver better customer outcomes.
What I often hear is not a lack of strategy or ambition. It is a frustration with execution. The risk function wants better visibility. Commercial teams want quicker answers. Boards want assurance that controls are watertight. These are not competing goals, but they do create friction.
In banking, partnerships matter. And increasingly, banks are turning to fintechs. Not as disruptors, but as collaborators. The relationship is changing.
Are fintechs still fringe, or are they now core infrastructure?
Ten years ago, a fintech was something you trialled on the side. Today, fintech partnerships in banking are infrastructure. Many banks I speak with have formal frameworks in place for evaluating, onboarding and overseeing fintechs. In some cases, the governance around third-party tools rivals that of internal systems.
More than anything, that shift has been driven by regulatory pressure and customer demand. The Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority have both made it clear that banks remain fully accountable for the actions of their third-party vendors. At the end of the day, you absolutely cannot outsource responsibility.
Vendor risk management is no longer about procurement checklists, it is about resilience. Boards need to understand how external tools affect exposure, compliance, and operational continuity.
Fintechs are now part of the core.
Can compliance actually speed things up?
In the past, compliance in fintech partnerships was treated as a blocker. A barrier to moving quickly. But the more mature institutions now see it as a connector. It creates shared expectations and reduces friction downstream.
Some of the best bank-fintech collaborations I’ve seen are built around joint compliance frameworks. Shared audit logs. Agreed responsibilities. Clear documentation. That level of clarity not only satisfies regulatory scrutiny but also speeds up delivery.
The banking sector wants to innovate, sure, but not at the cost of repeat work when it ends up in front of the regulator. This is where striking the right balance becomes crucial. Speed, with defensibility.
Serving the frontline
This is not just a boardroom issue. Relationship managers are often the ones fielding urgent requests, handling sensitive clients, and making decisions with incomplete data. They need tools that simplify, not complicate.
I have seen teams split by segment: one looking after SMEs, another focused on mid-sized firms with turnover around £15 million. Each with its own pressures. What both need are tools that give clear and reliable insights, quickly.
That could be an alert when a borrower’s financial position deteriorates. Or, a snapshot of group structure, showing exactly who owns what. Or, the ability to check whether a director is linked to other distressed entities. These are small details that carry weight in credit discussions.
Tools like our H-Score®, Enhanced Directorships, and Vigilance™ reporting are designed with that in mind. They give risk professionals and relationship teams a way to spot emerging issues early. And when used well, they avoid the need for reactive cleanup later.
What are the banks getting right?
Larger banks have already embedded this thinking. Take HSBC, for example. Their use of external fintech tools in financial crime has transformed how they monitor for fraud and suspicious activity. Public reporting shows they now process over 900 million transactions a month through machine-learning models. That scale would be impossible manually.
What makes it work is not just the technology. It is the governance. HSBC have put in place clear oversight, risk ownership, and feedback loops. They treat fintech partnerships as part of their overall controls framework, not as standalone tools. It is a model others are increasingly following.
The same applies in credit risk. I recently spoke to a regional credit head who said they no longer sign off on high-value cases unless the data includes a clear view of related parties and historical risk markers. Evidently, defensible, third-party evidence is not just a preference. It is becoming standard practice.
Seeing the whole picture
In risk analysis, partial information creates vulnerability. A business might look stable on paper, but without knowing who it banks with, whether it holds a commercial mortgage, or how it is linked to other entities, the picture is incomplete.
Fintech partnerships help bridge those gaps. A good platform will surface unexpected connections, identify changes in control, and track key data points over time. The output needs to be clear, consistent, and exportable. As scrutiny increases, so does the need for audit-ready analysis.
This is where compliance and technology align. If the information can be trusted, used across teams, and backed by evidence, then decisions become faster and stronger.
Standards must be shared
Secure fintech solutions are only valuable if they meet the same standards banks apply to their own systems. That includes encryption, data access controls, incident response, and third-party certification. But it also includes softer requirements: responsive support, transparent methodologies, and clear documentation.
The trend we are seeing is towards convergence. Many fintechs now build their compliance processes to mirror their banking partners. They know it is the price of entry. And when that alignment is in place, it enables faster onboarding, lower risk, and a stronger working relationship.
The same applies to ongoing oversight. A fintech should expect to be audited and asked to explain outputs. That is not a sign of mistrust, it is how robust partnerships work. Governance in fintech ecosystems is no different to any other part of the business.
What should you be asking of a fintech partner right now?
Fintech partnerships are becoming a central pillar of risk and service delivery. Based on what I hear from the market, here are four things that make those partnerships work:
- Make compliance collaborative.
Build shared frameworks, agree on responsibilities early, and ensure both teams speak the same regulatory language.
- Prioritise data you can defend.
Every insight used in credit, onboarding, or monitoring should trace back to source. Make auditability a requirement, not an afterthought.
- Focus on tools that help the frontline.
Whether it’s group structure visibility or early-warning alerts, tools must serve the people making day-to-day decisions.
- Treat fintechs like critical infrastructure.
Apply the same governance you would for internal systems. If the output matters, so does the oversight.
These are not just operational preferences. They are building blocks of resilience.
The regulatory bar is high and customer expectations are higher. The volume and complexity of work is certainly not slowing down. In that context, banks cannot afford to treat fintech partnerships as secondary.
The institutions that are adapting best are the ones that choose their fintech partners carefully, hold them to the same standards as internal teams, and build relationships on shared accountability. That is what resilience looks like.
Fintechs that meet those expectations are not distractions. They are part of the solution. They help banks move faster, serve better, and sleep easier knowing their decisions will stand up to scrutiny.
Mike Newman
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