Digital Challenger Banks: The Age of Profitability

This report examines the strategic positioning of digital banks in the retail and SME banking industries. It addresses the history of how digital banks entered the market and gained traction, building significant consumer bases by addressing the pain points of large, underserved consumer segments. The report then discusses the general strategies with which digital banks managed to approach profitability and gives case studies of the most successful digital banks across the globe, with insights into how these banks can maintain their profitability. Finally, the report explores the future of digital banking, focusing on the development of super apps and entering non-financial services verticals.

The emergence of digital banks from the mid-2010s onwards dramatically shaped the banking industry in markets across the globe. These challengers were able to acquire core consumer populations through exciting and unique offerings that solved fundamental issues with the traditional banking system. After many years of making large losses, the early 2020s saw a paradigm shift in the performance of digital banks, with competitors across the world posting their first full years of profit.

Scope

• Digital challengers have forged various routes to profitability, with each bank having at least one unique strategic approach. Some banks found success in quickly attracting a large number of non-revenue-generating consumers, while others focused on conservative growth in users that could be monetized from day one.
• Digital challengers achieved success through meeting and shaping the preferences of unbanked and underserved consumers. Each bank targeted a specific group of consumers-users of a certain age, income, financial situation, and even personality type-in order to solve the problems they experienced in their financial lives.
• Securing a digital banking license is necessary to profitability, enabling the bank to take advantage of consumer deposits to lend and generate income through interest margins.

Reasons to Buy

• Understand the growth trajectories of digital banks across the globe.
• Understand the strategies that have led to profitability in different markets.
• Analyze the future of digital banking and what banks must do to remain profitable.