IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2601.14071.html

How Disruptive is Financial Technology?

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas Cumming
  • Hisham Farag
  • Santosh Koirala
  • Danny McGowan

Abstract

We study whether Fintech disrupts the banking sector by intensifying competition for scarce deposits funds and raising deposit rates. Using difference-in-difference estimation around the exogenous removal of marketplace platform investing restrictions by US states, we show the cost of deposits increase by approximately 11.5% within small financial institutions. However, these price changes are effective in preventing a drain of liquidity. Size and geographical diversification through branch networks can mitigate the effects of Fintech competition by sourcing deposits from less competitive markets. The findings highlight the unintended consequences of the growing Fintech sector on banks and offer policy insights for regulators and managers into the ongoing development and impact of technology on the banking sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas Cumming & Hisham Farag & Santosh Koirala & Danny McGowan, 2026. "How Disruptive is Financial Technology?," Papers 2601.14071, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2601.14071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.14071
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thakor, Anjan, 2020. "Corrigendum to: Fintech and Banking: What Do We Know?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Saunders, Anthony & Schumacher, Liliana, 2000. "The determinants of bank interest rate margins: an international study," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 813-832, December.
    3. Bartlett, Robert & Morse, Adair & Stanton, Richard & Wallace, Nancy, 2022. "Consumer-lending discrimination in the FinTech Era," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 30-56.
    4. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & Philipp Schnabl & James Vickery, 2019. "The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1854-1899.
    5. John H. Boyd & Gianni De Nicoló, 2005. "The Theory of Bank Risk Taking and Competition Revisited," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1329-1343, June.
    6. Vikrant Vig, 2013. "Access to Collateral and Corporate Debt Structure: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 881-928, June.
    7. Raz, Arisyi F. & McGowan, Danny & Zhao, Tianshu, 2022. "The dark side of liquidity regulation: Bank opacity and funding liquidity risk," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    8. Lars Hornuf & Milan F. Klus & Todor S. Lohwasser & Armin Schwienbacher, 2021. "How do banks interact with fintech startups?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1505-1526, October.
    9. Berger, Allen N. & Udell, Gregory F., 2004. "The institutional memory hypothesis and the procyclicality of bank lending behavior," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 458-495, October.
    10. Cumming, Douglas & Farag, Hisham & Johan, Sofia & McGowan, Danny, 2022. "The Digital Credit Divide: Marketplace Lending and Entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(7), pages 2659-2692, November.
    11. Jiang, Wei & Tang, Yuehua & Xiao, Rachel J. & Yao, Vincent, 2025. "Surviving the fintech disruption," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    12. Duqi, Andi & McGowan, Danny & Onali, Enrico & Torluccio, Giuseppe, 2021. "Natural disasters and economic growth: The role of banking market structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Birchler, Urs W, 2000. "Bankruptcy Priority for Bank Deposits: A Contract Theoretic Explanation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(3), pages 813-840.
    14. Calomiris, Charles W., 1999. "Building an incentive-compatible safety net," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(10), pages 1499-1519, October.
    15. Sumit Agarwal & David Lucca & Amit Seru & Francesco Trebbi, 2014. "Inconsistent Regulators: Evidence from Banking," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 889-938.
    16. Elena Loutskina & Philip E. Strahan, 2009. "Securitization and the Declining Impact of Bank Finance on Loan Supply: Evidence from Mortgage Originations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 861-889, April.
    17. Erik P. Gilje & Elena Loutskina & Philip E. Strahan, 2016. "Exporting Liquidity: Branch Banking and Financial Integration," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 1159-1184, June.
    18. Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Huizinga, Harry, 2010. "Bank activity and funding strategies: The impact on risk and returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 626-650, December.
    19. DeYoung, Robert & Lang, William W. & Nolle, Daniel L., 2007. "How the Internet affects output and performance at community banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 1033-1060, April.
    20. Giovanni Dell'Ariccia & Robert Marquez, 2006. "Lending Booms and Lending Standards," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2511-2546, October.
    21. Danisewicz, Piotr & Elard, Ilaf, 2023. "The real effects of financial technology: Marketplace lending and personal bankruptcy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    22. Danisewicz, Piotr & McGowan, Danny & Onali, Enrico & Schaeck, Klaus, 2021. "Debtholder Monitoring Incentives and Bank Earnings Opacity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 1408-1445, June.
    23. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    24. Demirguc, Asli & Huizinga, Harry, 1999. "Determinants of Commercial Bank Interest Margins and Profitability: Some International Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 379-408, May.
    25. John M. Griffin & Samuel Kruger & Prateek Mahajan, 2023. "Did FinTech Lenders Facilitate PPP Fraud?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1777-1827, June.
    26. Stijn Claessens & Jon Frost & Grant Turner & Feng Zhu, 2018. "Fintech credit markets around the world: size, drivers and policy issues," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    27. Audretsch, David & Colombelli, Alessandra & Grilli, Luca & Minola, Tommaso & Rasmussen, Einar, 2020. "Innovative start-ups and policy initiatives," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(10).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cuadros-Solas, Pedro J. & Cubillas, Elena & Salvador, Carlos & Suárez, Nuria, 2024. "Digital disruptors at the gate. Does FinTech lending affect bank market power and stability?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Swain, Pankaj & Poddar, Abhishek & Misra, Arun Kumar, 2025. "How stressed are the banks? An inter-temporal network analysis," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    3. Tan, Changchun & Mo, Lingyu & Wu, Xiaomeng & Zhou, Peng, 2024. "Fintech development and corporate credit risk: Evidence from an emerging market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Chortareas, Georgios E. & Garza-García, Jesús G. & Girardone, Claudia, 2012. "Competition, efficiency and interest rate margins in Latin American banking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 93-103.
    5. Boot, Arnoud & Hoffmann, Peter & Laeven, Luc & Ratnovski, Lev, 2021. "Fintech: what’s old, what’s new?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    6. Gardó, Sándor & Klaus, Benjamin, 2020. "Overcapacities in banking: Measurement, trends and determinants," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 819-834.
    7. Zack Jourdan & J. Ken. Corley & Randall Valentine & Arthur M. Tran, 2023. "Fintech: A content analysis of the finance and information systems literature," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Cuadros-Solas, Pedro J. & Cubillas, Elena & Salvador, Carlos, 2023. "Does alternative digital lending affect bank performance? Cross-country and bank-level evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Bogdan Căpraru & Iulian Ihnatov & Nicoleta-Livia Pintilie, 2021. "Bank Competition And Risk-Taking In The European Union: Evidence Of A Non-Linear Relationship," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 66(230), pages 35-66, July – Se.
    10. Agoraki, Maria-Eleni K. & Kouretas, Georgios P., 2021. "Loan growth, ownership, and regulation in the European Banking Sector: Old versus new banking landscape," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Ping-Lun Tseng & Wen-Chung Guo, 2022. "Fintech, Credit Market Competition, and Bank Asset Quality," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 285-318, June.
    12. Jia, Xiaoran, 2024. "FinTech penetration, charter value, and bank risk-taking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Chen, Wen & Wu, Weili & Zhang, Tonghui, 2023. "Fintech development, firm digitalization, and bank loan pricing," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    14. Choudhary, Priya & Thenmozhi, M., 2024. "Fintech and financial sector: ADO analysis and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    15. Wilson, John O.S. & Casu, Barbara & Girardone, Claudia & Molyneux, Philip, 2010. "Emerging themes in banking: Recent literature and directions for future research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 153-169.
    16. José-Luis Peydró [AP BACKUP – NOW EXTERNAL] & Mikel Bedayo & Raquel Vegas & Gabriel Jiménez & José-Luis Peydró, 2020. "Screening and Loan Origination Time: Lending Standards, Loan Defaults and Bank Failures," Working Papers 1215, Barcelona School of Economics.
    17. Li, Hui-Jun & Si, Deng-Kui & Chen, Meng-Long, 2024. "How does macroprudential policy affect the relationship between financial openness and bank risk-taking," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1820-1839.
    18. Sujeeth Ungratwar & Dipasha Sharma & Satish Kumar, 2025. "Mapping the digital banking landscape: a multi-dimensional exploration of fintech, digital payments, and e-wallets, with insights into current scenarios and future research," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. Hasan, Iftekhar & Li, Xiang & Takalo, Tuomas, 2023. "Technological innovation and the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission," IWH Discussion Papers 14/2021, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), revised 2023.
    20. Beck, Thorsten & De Jonghe, Olivier & Schepens, Glenn, 2013. "Bank competition and stability: Cross-country heterogeneity," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 218-244.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2601.14071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.