Fintech Trends and Opportunities with Donna Parisi, Global Head of Finance at Shearman & Sterling
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Miguel Armaza is joined by Donna Parisi, Global Head of the Finance Business Unit for Shearman & Sterling’s, a global law firm with over 850 lawyers in 24 offices worldwide. Donna is one of the firm’s Financial Services Industry leaders and also leads Shearman & Sterling’s FinTech Foundry and Shearman Women, the firm’s women’s initiative.
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Donna began her career as a derivatives lawyer serving large financial institutions. She worked with large banks for most of her career, but as the financial crisis began to unfold and as it became clear that incumbent financial institutions weren’t fulfilling their mission, she witnessed the emergence of the fintech wave of innovation and expanded her coverage to include the fintech sector. Although some people initially speculated fintechs were going to take over the industry, it quickly became clear to her that these new firms were not going to displace banks, but instead were here to augment and push the industry towards a better direction.
Fintech Trends
Fintech Partnerships. The fintech sector has evolved since Donna started covering it. Partnerships between Banks and fintechs have always been important, but as the ecosystem grows and as companies mature, Donna expects the nature of this collaboration to evolve as well. Partnerships could be challenged, particularly as some of the digitally-native financial unicorns grow to compete toe-to-toe with incumbents.
Consolidation. While fintech startups will continue growing organically, Donna acknowledges the current COVID environment presents buyout opportunities and expects the pace of consolidation to accelerate. Large fintechs will absorb smaller ones and banks could also drive some consolidation.
Banking License. More fintechs will continue to seek different paths to secure banking licenses. Be it through acquisition or application, fintech neobanks will continue securing US charters.
Regulatory Balance. Donna is paying attention to the initiatives taken by the US regulator. On one end, they take a conservative approach and are here to protect the consumer. But on the other end, the regulator wants to encourage innovation and promote technologies to better serve the underbanked. As an example, Donna noted the regulators have taken steps to allow some of the largest fintechs obtain FDIC depositary insurance for their customer deposits.
Global Fintech. Donna also expects the fintech game to become increasingly global as several fintechs from all over the world begin to venture outside of their home markets. In some cases in search of clients and in other cases in search of capital.
Addressing the Gender Gap in Fintech
Amongst Donna's several initiatives, she's very passionate about leading Shearman & Sterling's women's initiative. She's determined to ensure women have equal access to opportunity and can thrive in the FinTech sector because it's an area that holds so much promise for everyone involved. She recognizes the traditional ways of doing business have not always served women well and is excited about some of the change and improvements happening within the FinTech space.
Donna is also focused on empowering up-and-coming talent and has hosted multiple events with female founders to help them connect with accelerators, investors, and industry experts. She is determined to help increase VC investment levels for women-led startups and believes that by bringing together women fintech entrepreneurs and sources of capital they can help this effort. Finally, her message to male founders and investors is that to be successful and accelerate change, women need to work with male allies. All areas with an opportunity gap need to work together. In Donna's own words "We need you!"
Donna Parisi
Donna Parisi is the Global Head of Shearman & Sterling’s Finance Business Unit covering bank finance, leveraged lending, project finance, restructuring and insolvency, and structured products and derivatives. She is one of the firm’s Financial Services Industry leaders and also leads Shearman & Sterling’s FinTech Foundry and Shearman Women, the firm’s women’s initiative.
About Shearman & Sterling
With more than 850 lawyers in 24 offices, Shearman & Sterling is a global law firm that partners with corporations, major financial institutions, emerging growth companies, governments and state-owned enterprises to provide the legal and industry insight needed to navigate the challenges of today and achieve their ambitions of tomorrow.