Criteria for this elite job will include a passion for discussing the finer nuances of SWIFT Message Types, ISO 20022 standard and different types of Blockchains (permissioned vs permissionless, Altcoin vs Sidechains).

Before laughing at the question, consider the fact the world has already seen a geeky transaction banker as CEO – John Reed of Citibank who we profiled here.

This new CEO of a mega Fintech dressed like a Bank will explain to the Board that:

ISO 20022 “describes a metadata repository containing descriptions of messages and business processes, and a maintenance process for the repository content.”

As he watches the bored incomprehension of the Board members, he will also explain that the only way to reach scale in Fintech and the only way to build a moat against the the Fintechs that want to “eat our lunch” is to build a platform that Fintech innovators use. That will probably get their attention.

That platform could be called a Bank or a Fintech – the label is unimportant. What matters is quality of revenue and barriers against disruption.

I should have written he or she above, but the chances of such a double revolution in a bank  (woman who is techie and becomes CEO of a big bank) is too implausible. That is the subject of a future post.

One hears that the only transformative innovation created by a Banker in recent years was the ATM (created by John Reed). I think that is unfair. I would add Securitization (pioneered by Salomon Brothers around the same time). However, much more innovation is coming from Fintech startups today. Only a geeky Transaction Banker who becomes CEO of a big global bank can change that.

By Bernard Lunn