Navigating Pressure with Purpose.
As economies cool and markets tighten, many fintechs feel the squeeze in funding, consumer behavior, and operational flexibility. Yet this environment also spotlights those founders who design for durability rather than dazzling growth. Recent filings show that listed fintechs have significantly reduced marketing and promotions to refine margins and reinforce their core businesses, an approach that commands investor attention in times that reward strength over flash.
Debt as a Double-Edged Instrument.
Debt isn’t inherently risky. What counts is how it’s employed. Eric Hannelius underscores that borrowing must serve a clear business outcome: generating returns that exceed cost.
“Debt isn’t inherently a problem—misalignment is. The key is using debt to power outcomes that produce more cash than they consume. Debt has to serve a very clear purpose or it becomes a drag instead of a driver.”
In practice, leadership teams should model growth scenarios both with and without debt. This illuminates how leverage affects flexibility, control, and runway, especially under stress. Covenants can feel peripheral until they threaten agility. Revisiting them regularly enables adaptive strategy.
Fusion through Consolidation.
The downturn is also prompting shifts through partnerships. Startups are merging or being acquihired, allowing cost pooling and preservation of engineering talent. Established financial institutions are snapping up fintech platforms at strategic discounts. These moves reflect a pragmatic turn: durability over fragmentation, synergy over hype.
Licensing and Regulatory Rigor as Advantage.
Speed mattered in earlier cycles. Now, the companies building in the toughest environments prioritize legitimacy. A banking license today stands for trust far more than user counts ever did. Some fintechs are anchoring growth through strategic acquisitions that confer licenses in challenging markets, signaling that compliance and permanence matter more than rapid entry.
Fundamentals Reassert Their Role.
A perspective from BCG emphasizes that profitability, disciplined pricing, and tight capital allocation define survivors. For scaled fintechs, deepening presence in core regions and pursuing rational M&A are sharper bets than chasing untested verticals.

Open Finance: Resilience Through Integration.
While not a direct economic antidote, open finance frameworks provide strategic flexibility. They drive diversification across products (investments, insurance, lending) expanding revenue bases and strengthening adaptability in downturns. As this model matures, institutions that embrace it can engage multiple revenue channels while responding to shifting customer needs.
Championing Trust Through Security.
Downturns heighten scrutiny. Cyber threats and governance failures erode confidence quickly. Eric Hannelius urges fintechs to lean into security as a differentiator: “Robust safeguards protect financial futures in a digital age where vulnerabilities carry lasting reputational consequences.”
Leading-edge implementations like blockchain-based zero-trust architectures can enforce granular access, ensure immutable audits, and resist insider threats.
Consumer Behavior Under Strain.
Economic stress reshapes consumer behavior. BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) offerings are seeing heightened use as individuals seek flexible payments amid inflation and income uncertainty. While this may provide temporary volume, it also raises alarm for credit risk and defaults if the downturn deepens.
A Founder’s Playbook for Adversity.
Resilience isn’t born of avoidance. It emerges when leadership uses downturns as proving grounds:
- Manage debt consciously, using it only when outcomes outweigh risks.
- Evaluate M&A, acquihire, or pooling options as strategic stabilization.
- Ground expansion in regulated frameworks and licensing.
- Build around fundamentals: pricing discipline, cost focus, and governance.
- Expand through open finance partnerships to amplify revenue diversity.
- Prioritize security to safeguard trust under pressure.
- Monitor shifting consumer needs, especially credit sensitivity.
- Signal strength through consistency and infrastructure depth.
Downturns aren’t just challenges. They test and define business models. With a lens on fiscal discipline, strategic partnerships, regulatory foundation, and security strength, fintechs can survive and emerge with credibility.
Eric Hannelius captures it well: “Debt that delivers returns, governance that inspires, and operations that endure, those form the business models investors bet on during tough cycles.”