Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

What are Sinefine Founding Partner Yasmine Lacaillade’s thoughts on neobanks?

5 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Yasmine Lacaillade, founding partner at Sinefine, is asked about the potential impact of neobanks such as Brex and Mercury on the broader banking infrastructure for tech companies, specifically whether they could fill the void left by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Lacaillade argues that traditional banks—regional banks and mid‑market specialists—are more likely to step into that role. She cites capital adequacy requirements, regulatory hurdles, and the need for extensive lending infrastructure as barriers that neobanks face, which established banks already possess. She suggests that a fintech investor would be a better source for deeper insight, but her assessment emphasizes the structural advantages of legacy institutions over tech‑focused neobanks.

Chapters

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on how you think the neobanks like Brex and Mercury will have an impact on like the broader banking rails within tech. Like, do you think one of those could end up filling the space that SVB left?
I actually think it's going to be more like traditional banks than the tech startups because— and this is where it goes beyond my pay grade and we should talk, you should the next call you should make is to like a fintech investor, right? Yeah. But I think that the amount of like, whether it's like the capital balance ratios they need or just the regulatory hurdles that you have to cross in order to have those sort of full lending capacities, I think, you know, you need, you need a lot of infrastructure there. And traditional banks like regional banks or, you know, Mid-market buyout specialists are more likely to already have those in place.