Disruptors

Brad Leimer, venture capitalist and former head of innovation at Santander and Mechanics Bank, shares his top picks.

Disruptive upstarts. Glitches galore. Open banking adoption. Financial institutions are being challenged on multiple fronts — here’s a look at how they’re coping.

Banks are more established organizations that cannot afford to take the same shortcuts and risks as startups do in fintech development, executives said.

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google garner so much attention that they have their own collective shorthand, FAANG. But it was a mostly different set of companies, including Starbucks and Acorns, that were top of mind this week for their financial services moves.

There are so many reasons — the credit cycle, the plight of small banks or competition from Amazon and foreign banks — that the head of JPMorgan could live to regret that statement.