FinTech Day Connects IE Students with Industry Leaders Ahead of New Master Launch

IE Talent & Careers hosted the third edition of FinTech Day, bringing students together with leaders from across the global financial technology sector for an afternoon of panels and direct industry exchange. The event arrives as IE prepares to launch its new Master in Financial Technology (MFT) in September.

FinTech Day gives students direct contact with those shaping the global fintech sector. The afternoon combined two panel discussions, featuring senior representatives from neobanks, scale-ups, payment platforms and industry associations, and ended with an open networking session, where students could speak one-on-one with the panellists, meet IE Talent & Careers career advisors, and learn more about the new Master in Financial Technology. 

The first panel, moderated by Andrés Alonso Robisco, IE Professor and Academic Director of the MFT, focused on how fintech is reshaping banking, investing and payments. Anton Diez Tubet, General Manager Spain & Portugal at N26, opened with a reflection on what it takes for a European fintech to grow. 

"If you want to be as successful as a US fintech, you need to be able to operate in multiple jurisdictions to get access to the total addressable market of Europe," he said.

Growth alone, however, was not the only challenge raised. Ignacio del Valle Alamillos, Deputy Branch Manager of Revolut Spain, pointed to personalization as the defining shift in customer expectations, arguing that scale only matters if firms can still deliver a service that feels tailored to each user. Cristina García Carrillo, Global Head of Brand & Marketing at GetNet, further warned against complacency in a fast-moving market, where staying still is the surest way to fall behind.

"What makes fintech a success, I would say, is not to sit on your success," she said. "If you change all the time, and you follow what your customer is asking from you, then you will have success."

For Pablo López Gil-Albarellos, Country Manager of Trade Republic Spain and Portugal, that adaptability comes back to product design. He described the firm's no-commission model and high-interest offering as central to its expansion, and framed its wider purpose as a response to long-term concerns about the European pension system.

"Our mission is to make people's money grow and work for them," he said. 

López Gil-Albarellos also pointed to the qualities needed for entering the industry. "The key two skills are to be generalistic, and second, to have a lot of ambition," he noted. Diez Tubet added that the person willing to "do the extra mile, to try to fix something on behalf of others, is going to be somebody that is going to be highly perceived in the company."

The second panel, moderated by Andrew Whitworth, IE Professor and Academic Director of the MFT, turned to building and scaling fintech across markets. Salem Aljawini, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Tarmeez Capital and IE alumnus, gave advice on where to start, arguing that fintechs should solve one problem well before expanding. 

"It is not a binary choice. It's more about sequence and timing," he said.

Luis Basagoiti, Co-Founder of Capchase, pushed the idea further by arguing that the strongest opportunities sit in universal problems, particularly in B2B, and urged students to stay focused on the fundamentals as technology shifts around them. 

"Money will not disappear," he said. "Focus on the problem, and not on how you're going to tackle it."

Rodrigo García Buenaventura, Chairman and Founder Member at the Global Fintech Alliance, offered a wider view of the sector itself, noting that the early framing of fintechs as challengers to traditional banks no longer matches reality.

"80% of the fintechs are B2B," he said. "They are creating solutions for traditional banks, for new banks, and even for other industries. Fintech is now embedded in every single industry."

Jose Luis Calderón, CEO of PagoNxt, pointed to AI as the next defining force in how the sector will operate.

"Big AI companies have the capacity to dominate and rule how we are going to be paying, how we are going to be having a relationship with anything"" he said.

For students in attendance, the value of the event was in gaining a direct, insider view of the sector. Gabriel Isles, an IE Master in Finance student, said events like this are "really helpful for knowing what is going on in the industry from an insider point of view."

The biggest advice for those considering a career in fintech was that technical skill can open the door, but judgement, ambition and a focus on the customer are what builds a career after. 

"AI is a tool, and the person who uses it best is the person with the best judgement," said Whitworth. "You can get that through studying a master's course here, but you also through experience and working in fintech with great people."