From picking potatoes to humanising the digital economy – Fintech Leaders Series

Leaders build companies and create products and inspire teams in large and small organizations in many different sectors around the world. They are the type of people that not only produce great results but attract and retain talent that go on serve as great leaders themselves.

Who are those people in fintech? What drove them to create what they have created? What mistakes did they make and how did they learn and grow from them? How do they balance their dreams and doubts? What are the ingredients needed to create a great fintech leader?

In true Fintech Talents fashion – we aim to find the answer via our community. Here we profile a range of inspiring, experienced and influential FinTech leaders shaping the teams, businesses and directions of our industry.

This week’s fintech leader is…Nick Fahy, Chief Executive Officer, Cynergy Bank

What did you want ‘to be’ when you grew up?

Doctor

Nick Fahy, Chief Executive Officer, Cynergy Bank

What was the worst job you ever had, and why?

Picking potatoes (from 8:00am – 6:00pm) as a teenager.

Has there ever been a moment in your life when you felt your path shifted? What was it and what happened?

Moved from healthcare to financial services

Who has inspired you?

Various lenders and entrepreneurs and Nelson Mandela.

What work project (not personal) have you worked on that you are most proud of?

Acquisition and rebrand of Cynergy Bank

What is one mistake you have made? How did you learn and grow from it?

Rushed decisions – learned to reflect!

What first pops up in your head when someone says the phrase: ‘work/life balance’?

Not enough!

What is one rule you have for yourself when thinking about the job of managing teams?

Deliver certainty, recognition and belonging

What is FinTech missing?

Fintech’s importance has grown enormously in the last few years and the pandemic has only further accelerated the adoption of digital banking. Which is exciting, but I think it is important for us not to lose the human element of our business and within that genuine personalisation. Banks today offer increasingly sophisticated products and services, but in many cases the customer experience fails to reflect the customer’s individual circumstances, choices, or prior communications with the bank.

Banks still have much more to do in order to tailor products, services, and interactions with customers to match their specific wants and needs.  Doing so will help further establish trust and secure their loyalty. Whilst other industries, from retailers to on-demand streaming services, offer highly personalised services, treating customers as individuals rather than account numbers, banks have lagged behind. This is why at Cynergy Bank, we are focused on the growing momentum towards ‘digital plus human’ service offerings.  We want to help rehumanise the digital economy.

The pandemic is over, money and time is no object – where would you fly (or drive or train or walk) off to?

Australia (again!)

Favorite:

TV Show: The Royle Family

Song: Hotel California

Movie: Cinderella Man

What are you working on now?

Cynergy Bank is a digital challenger bank focusing on mid-market companies and entrepreneurs that want to ‘scale-up’ – the driving force of the economy and the type of high-growth firms that will lead the recovery.

We are currently supporting SMEs to digitise, creating a unique ‘human-digital’ model, combining the best of tailored customer relationship management with the full digitisation of traditional banking services

Hear more from Nick at the Fintech Talents Festival as he joins The Big Idea Debate: Everything you think you know about FinTech is false