“Make sure you know what’s on their roadmap so that
you know what you need to prep for and what you need to build,” commented fintech
strategist Jas Shah when asked about the ideal stablecoin strategy for brokers during
the FMLS:25.
Shah—a consultant, writer, and frequent voice in
the digital finance space— spoke with Jonathan Fine, Content Strategist at the
Ultimate Group, offering a sharp view of an industry at a crossroads:
technologically agile, but structurally uneven.
He brought strong insights and depth to a conversation that
spanned artificial intelligence, stablecoins, and the ongoing transformation of
digital banking.
Shah has spent nearly two decades building products in
financial services, beginning his career as an engineer before focusing
primarily on product leadership.
Over this time, he has worked at tier 1 financial
institutions, helped launch challenger banks and PFM apps, scaled an SME lender
as Chief Product Officer, and continues to advise and provide hands-on
expertise to organizations developing innovative products. He is also a columnist at Fintech Under the Hood, an online publication with over 6,000 subscribers.
Building Digital Banking in MENA
Much of Shah’s current work, he revealed, revolves
around digital transformation projects in the Middle East, particularly the
challenge of modernizing user experience and payments infrastructure as banks
race to engage younger generations.
Many banks there are striving to attract younger
customers, which requires transitioning from traditional internet banking to
fully developed mobile banking experiences — a shift that’s already commonplace
elsewhere but still in progress across the region.
Stablecoins and the Regulations
The conversation then turned to stablecoins—a topic
that dominated many conversations across the Summit—and how brokers should approach this
evolving space. Shah’s advice was pragmatic: start from first principles.
“You need to know what your customers are doing,” he
said. “Even get them in a room, take them out for dinner, and ask: What do you
know about stablecoins? What are your challenges? What are you thinking about
for next year? Then you can build something meaningful around that.”
Yet optimism was tempered by realism. Regulation,
particularly around KYC, AML, and fund segregation, remains murky. “It’s still
a challenge,” he acknowledged. “But I think the more adoption that happens, the
more regulation will fit around what use cases are across industry. Yeah, we
will wait for clarity. Wait-and-see.”
The Convergence of Banking, Investing and Fintech
Perhaps the most forward-looking part of the
discussion explored the convergence between neobanks and retail investing—a
theme Fine noted as central to the Summit’s evolution. Shah pointed to Revolut as emblematic of this shift,
citing its growth, regulatory licenses, and product strategy.
You may also like: “Prop Isn’t Finished, but If You’re Coming into Prop Now, You Are,” FMLS:25 Takeaways
“Nick approaches product like a finance person with a
tech lens,” said Shah. “I think Revolut maybe will become a bigger part of this
conference. But I think they’re talking about launching their own real estate
investing platform for institutional investors plus retail investors.”
He suggested that leading digital banks—from Monzo to
Starling—will eventually internalize their trading and investment tech stacks,
transforming from platform customers into “investment-as-a-service” providers. “And
once they’ve built the tech, they can license the tech and come here as a, you
know, investment as a service platform like many of the people here.”
Writing Fintech, From Insight to Art
In a lighter turn, Fine lauded Shah’s long-form
writing, particularly his widely read Fintech Under the Hood essays. Asked
about his process, Shah described something closer to an artisan’s craft than a
journalist’s workflow.
“It meanders,” he admitted with a laugh. “I start with
what people should know—what’s happening that isn’t being talked about. Then I
layer structure: intro, background, timeline, closeout. And then I add the
meat.”
Shah’s reflections encapsulated a wider narrative
running through the Summit halls: fintech is no longer a sideshow to retail
investing. It is becoming its infrastructure. As regulation catches up and
neobanks mature, a new generation of digital finance builders is quietly
turning from disruption to construction.
This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.
Source link
