“Some fintechs will aggressively go it alone and challenge the legacy banks in their most lucrative markets. And recent rule changes in Europe, which force banks to transfer closely guarded customer information to fintechs upon customer request, will add new momentum to the upstarts.”

“To put this into context, TransferWise — London’s undisputed fintech darling and on some features a direct competitor to Revolut — recently announced $280 million in Series D investment, giving the company a reported post-money valuation of $1.6 billion. The difference? It took TransferWise seven years compared to Revolut’s three. That’s testament to how much value investors are now placing on bank-disrupting fintech or perhaps signs of a fintech bubble. Or both. It is also worth remembering that these are private valuations with neither company yet to float on the public markets, even if TransferWise looks increasingly a candidate to do so.”

“RBS is moving in on challenger bank territory. The Royal Bank of Scotland reportedly plans to launch a mobile, digital-only banking platform in a beta testing phase in the third quarter. The experience is being designed as a “marketplace” for financial services that would recommend different financial products to customers, whether they’re from RBS or partner companies, which is similar to what Goldman Sachs’ Marcus and Citibank are planning with their mobile banking apps.”