Soul Htite: technology can let banks serve everybody

Banks are at risk of becoming mere infrastructure and losing their most profitable businesses – because, says Soul Htite, new and emerging customers have already turned into internet customers, not banking customers.

Htite is founder of China’s Dianrong and, previously, of U.S.-based Lending Club. Speaking at the AMTD-Lendit Global Fintech Investment Summit, of which DigFin was a media partner, Htite explains how technology “offers banks a way to come back”.

He says the future of finance will not be decided by banks’ existing, wealthy customers, nor by people unhappy with how they are being serviced.

Instead, tomorrow’s industry winners will be determined by customers that are already digital, even if they are not being served by the finance industry. (See also our video from the same event featuring Dennis Wu of Futu Securities, discussing the leading role of data for winning business.)

Htite’s advice to banks in the video below: don’t focus on today’s customers. Focus on the vast majority of under-served or unbanked, using technology to reach them.