Today's

top partner

for CFD

Business

Crypto

Finance

Growth

At the Finance Magnates London Summit 2025, a panel titled
“How Neo Banks Go Wealth” explored the role of digital challengers in wealth
management. The discussion highlighted how Europe’s £30 trillion wealth market
is shifting from traditional advice to digital platforms, creating
opportunities for neo banks to expand their presence in savings, investment,
and asset management.

The session was moderated by Andy Russell, CEO of Project
Arnaud at 11:FS, and featured Mushegh Tovmasyan, Chairman of Zenus Bank; Stefan
Lucas, Founding CEO of FinTech Armenia; and Rachel Przybylski, Chief Product
Officer at SIGMA AI. The panel examined how neo banks, fintech hubs, and
AI-driven platforms are reshaping the industry.

Market Opportunity

The moderator framed the opportunity in stark terms:
Europe’s wealth market is expanding at roughly five percent annually, while the
gap widens between digitally engaged younger investors and high-net-worth
clients relying on traditional advice.

At the same time, a significant
intergenerational transfer of assets is underway, prompting the industry to
rethink how wealth is delivered. Neo banks view this transition as a natural
extension of their existing payments business.

Neo Banks as Infrastructure Front-Ends

Tovmasyan described neo banks as the “front end of financial
services,” built on infrastructure that quietly manages payments, custody, and
investment behind the scenes. “Stablecoins and crypto are a big trend,
especially under the new US administration,” he said, pointing to faster
cross-border settlement, decentralised finance, and new yield models as drivers
of change.

Zenus, he added, now powers money movement for digital brands that
want to add wealth without building full banking stacks themselves.

Strategic Expansion and Growth

From a market strategy perspective, Lucas said the push into
wealth is driven by both regulatory and strategic considerations, with firms
increasingly focused on profit growth and the accumulation of assets under
management.

He pointed to forecasts that place the neo banking market at about
two trillion dollars by the end of the decade, while wealth management
represents a three-trillion-dollar opportunity with far larger projected AUM
overall. By contrast, he said: “a CFD, spread-betting or forex broker—or a neo
bank operating only in payments across a handful of countries—remains
structurally limited in its growth.”

Expanding into wealth, he added, reflects
the broader convergence now under way, with “traditional banks going digital,
digital banks moving into traditional markets,” and crypto wallets increasingly
intersecting with both.

Client Expectations and AI

Przybylski focused on client behaviour rather than balance
sheets. Younger investors, she said, expect personalised, data-driven, and fast
investment tools. “They want to make their own investment decisions and want
the data to support that,” she told the audience. Firms with AI-native
platforms, she added, will hold a structural advantage as competition
accelerates.

Super-App Competition

The panel agreed that the industry is entering what
Tovmasyan called a “super-app arms race,” as payments firms add investments,
crypto platforms seek banking licences, and brokers move into payments. The
strategic value, he argued, is shifting away from proprietary technology toward
audience access and speed to market.

Yet the fragmentation of today’s wealth landscape may not
last. Russell warned that while entry-level investing has already become an
add-on feature across apps, deeper disruption is likely to strike the private
banking middle, where efficiency and consolidation pressures are rising.

Regulatory Landscape

Regulation remains a moving target. Przybylski said most
existing frameworks already cover much of today’s activity, but governance
around artificial intelligence will be critical. Lucas pointed to a resurgence
of regulatory sandboxes, including stablecoin trials under the UK’s Financial
Conduct Authority and controlled fintech experimentation in Armenia.

Crypto and Generational Change

The sharpest generational divide surfaced during questions
on crypto and custody. Tovmasyan said some younger wealthy clients now reject
paper contracts altogether. “They just connect a wallet and trade,” he said,
adding that regulators are increasingly focused on controlling fiat on-ramps
and off-ramps through KYC and AML. “Once funds are on-chain, control becomes
much harder. The change is already here.”

Long-Term Outlook

Despite the risks, the panel’s long-term outlook was broadly
optimistic. Neo banks, Lucas argued, already have trust, data, and scale among
middle-aged users. As products mature and older assets gradually change hands,
wealth could become their most significant frontier yet.

This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

—

— CONTENT NOT MODERATED BY G6

— Please be careful with this content. If you don’t think it should be here, please get in touch with us at [email protected]