For anyone who hasn’t seen the iconic film Wall Street, it’s definitely worth a watch. It not only captures the yuppie ethos of the 1980s, but Michael Douglas delivers one of cinema’s most infamous lines as the unscrupulous Gordon Gekko: “Greed is good.”
Gekko, as one of Hollywood’s most notorious antiheroes, certainly wasn’t speaking from a place of altruism. His idea of greed was a relentless pursuit of wealth at the expense of others. Yet, despite his questionable ethics, Gekko’s wasn’t entirely wrong. Greed, when harnessed responsibly, can be a powerful force for innovation and progress.
So, let’s caveat that infamous phrase: Greed IS good, when greed DOES good.
The paradox of greed in fintech: driving progress with purpose
In the world of fintech, the pursuit of growth, profit, and market dominance is not a moral flaw—it’s a competitive necessity. But what sets the best fintech companies apart is their ambition to do more than just accumulate wealth. They are also greedy for innovation, for positive disruption, and for making financial services more accessible to people around the globe.
This makes greed something of a paradoxical force. On one hand, it fuels aggressive strategies that push companies to outperform their competitors. On the other, it drives transformative solutions that can democratise finance and empower underserved communities. The key lies in balancing ambition with responsibility.
Greed for innovation: bold thinking and breakthrough solutions
Fintech thrives on a relentless appetite for innovation. In an industry where technology evolves at breakneck speed, standing still means falling behind. This relentless drive leads to bold experimentation and disruptive technologies.
Take the rise of AI-powered financial tools that automate personal finance management, and the blockchain technology redefining secure and transparent transactions. These transformative developments are revolutionising the way we all interact with money.
Greed for change: challenging the status quo
The most successful fintech players aren’t content with minor improvements. They seek to overturn entrenched systems and reshape how financial services are delivered. This greed for change underpins the customer-first thinking that have led to the creation of neobanks, which now outperform legacy institutions in markets where traditional banks have fallen short. In regions with high unbanked populations, mobile-first banking services are providing access to credit, savings, and investments for the first time.
When profit-driven growth is aligned with a mission to improve financial access, the results can be transformative, and fintech’s drive to capture new markets often leads to groundbreaking solutions for unbanked and underbanked populations.
Take a mobile money platform like M-Pesa in Africa, which empowers millions without access to formal banking systems. And in Asia, micro-lending services enable small entrepreneurs to access the capital needed to grow.
Lowering barriers to entry for individuals and small businesses has also been a hallmark of fintech innovation. Robo-advisors making investments more accessible, peer-to-peer lending platforms opening new credit avenues, and digital wallets transforming everyday payments.
But none of this is possible without the money to make it happen. In fintech, when a relentless pursuit for profit is guided by good intentions, it becomes a catalyst for progress. Greed is good, but only when it drives innovation, inclusion, and positive change. Fintechs that embrace this ethos will not only profit—they will change the world.
What we want to know is: what are you greedy for? At SkyParlour we amplify the stories of the fintechs changing the world – will yours be next?