RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Not every fintech is successful. A CEO of a growing startup and seller of another shared some wisdom with listeners at the CED’s virtual Connect Summit this week.

Lisa Shields, founder and CEO at FISPAN, who also founded and led Hyperwallet prior to selling it, said one key in structuring a venture is to never assume that a bank will change its processes or its technology in order to work with your company.

“That’s just not going to happen,” she said.  “If you can position your fintech in partnership with the bank, to work around their technical limitations and historical platforms – with your engineers and your work – that makes it tenable to do business with them.”

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The advances in financial technology are likely to lead to a new evolution of banking and financial services companies, she added.

“What I like most about this new evolution of fintech is that it is going to allow banks of all sizes to have different strategies,” she said.  “And to actually activate those strategies through bespoke partnerships.

“I am an optimist, but the industry should recognize that the realistic place to bring true changes in equitable lending, and in wealth transfers, is going to come from fintech, and that the realistic role from banks is that we should ask them to be willing to partner.

Soon, banks will be able to “adopt a strategy and pick from an ever-increasing flowering partner to address that strategy,” said Shields.

That’s where fintech companies can play a role—as a partner—where regardless of their size, the length of time their company has been operational, the volume of transactions, or the assets under management, they assist institutions to access and execute their strategy.