David M Brear on Service, Core Banking, and Fintech Agility – Fintech Garden Episode 130

Podcast #130: David M. Brear on Banking Transformation, Core Infrastructure, and Human-Centered Service

In this episode, hosts Igor Tomych and Dumitru Condrea speak with David M Brear, Group CEO of 11:FS Holdings, about the future of banking. David reflects on his professional journey in fintech and explains how his background in athletics shaped his leadership philosophy, emphasizing resilience, discipline, and strategic focus.

The discussion explores why scale is no longer the dominant competitive advantage in financial services and why true value comes from delivering exceptional service rather than simply building more products. David explains how modern fintech companies use technology to create contextual, proactive, and personalized customer experiences, making the type of service once reserved for private-banking clients accessible to the wider market.

A major part of the conversation focuses on the challenges created by legacy core banking systems and the long-term cost of technology debt. David contrasts this with the agility of digital-first banks, which innovate faster through iterative development, better data usage, and more flexible technology stacks. He also highlights the cultural shifts required for transformation, including empowering teams, modernizing leadership practices, and replacing slow decision-making with autonomy and accountability.

The hosts and David dive deeper into why large banks struggle to execute change, even when the strategy is clear, and how fintechs manage to move from idea to implementation with speed and precision. They discuss the importance of combining human insight with digital tools to create banking experiences that genuinely solve customer problems, not just automate processes.

The conversation closes with David’s reflections on what truly drives transformation in financial services: a blend of service excellence, strong culture, and the willingness to rethink how technology should enable the banking experience.