FinTech: rethinking financial intermediation. Innovation, markets, and regulation

FinTech is often described as the application of technology to finance. This definition, while widespread, is misleading. FinTech is not about technology itself. FinTech is about rethinking financial services starting from users’ needs and using technology as an enabling tool to design more effective solutions. When we shift the focus from money to needs, we begin to dismantle many of the traditional assumptions of finance. This does not mean rejecting traditional finance, but rather reinterpreting it. From this perspective, technology is not the objective, but the enabler; financial services are not products, but solutions to needs; innovation is not incremental, but architectural. This idea represents the underlying thread of the entire book. Across twelve chapters, the book examines digital payments, digital lending, credit risk modelling and decision systems, blockchain and crypto-assets, wealth management, supply chain finance, and sustainable finance, concluding with the governance of artificial intelligence under the AI Act and digital operational resilience under DORA. Case studies and evidence drawn from European banking portfolios show how these transformations affect risk, capital requirements, and regulation in practice. The book offers students, practitioners, journalists, entrepreneurs, and investors a framework for rethinking financial intermediation and designing new solutions.