Matthias Kroener

Fintech pioneer who founded the world's oldest fintech bank, helping incumbent banks navigate AI, automation and digital disruption

Overview

Matthias Kroener has spent more than 25 years disrupting the financial services industry — not as a commentator, but as a founder. In 2007, well before the fintech boom began, he founded Fidor Bank, often described as the world's oldest fintech bank, growing it into a global operation across Dubai, Munich, New York and Singapore before its sale to a major French banking group in 2016. Before that, he co-created and led DAB Bank, Europe's first digital bank and online broker, through a successful 1999 IPO valued at €1.5 billion.

Today, Matthias helps incumbent banks understand what's actually coming: how artificial intelligence, robotics and automation will reshape primary banking relationships, why future banking may become largely invisible, and how data and AI will define the next generation of customer experience. He serves on the International Technology Advisory Panel (ITAP) of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and his current focus sits at the intersection of Data, Tokenization and Open Banking.

Career Highlights

• Founder and CEO of Fidor Bank (2007–2019), widely regarded as the world's oldest fintech bank

• Co-founder and CEO of DAB Bank, Europe's first digital bank — IPO'd in 1999 at a €1.5 billion valuation

• Member, International Technology Advisory Panel (ITAP), Monetary Authority of Singapore

• Fidor Bank won Best Banking Innovation (San Francisco, 2013) and the Celent Model Bank of the Year award (2015, 2019)

• TEDxBerlin speaker

• Senior advisor and business angel to multiple fintech and AI-driven startups

• Co-host, Breaking Banks Europe podcast

Key Speaking Themes

• AI, robotics and automation's impact on the future of banking

• Open Banking and the invisible future of financial services

• Fintech disruption and how incumbent banks must adapt

• Data, tokenization and the next generation of customer experience

• Building customer-centric digital banking from the ground up

Signature Talks

• The Future of Banking — the regulatory, social and technology trends reshaping finance, including how data and AI will create entirely new customer experiences

• Open Banking — why regulation and technology are becoming the strongest game-changers in retail banking

• Is M&A the Abbreviation for Murder & Assassination? — a candid, real-world look at how incumbent banks approach (and often mishandle) fintech acquisition and disruption

What Your Audience Will Gain

Audiences get insight from someone who has actually built and sold two digital banks, not just studied them from the outside. Matthias translates complex regulatory and technological shifts — AI, automation, open banking — into practical strategy for incumbent institutions facing genuine existential disruption, delivered with candour and real-world humour.

Ideal For

• Banking and financial services conferences

• Fintech and AI-focused summits

• Regulatory and industry body forums

• Executive briefings for financial institutions