Over the last decade, the growth of new Fintech firms has increased significantly. However, when Fintech firms enter the financial market they are met by several obstacles, including the barriers erected by incumbent banks, difficulties obtaining financing and the challenge of gaining the trust of the market. This thesis aims to describe how Swedish Fintech firms work together with, or against, the incumbent banks, how they raise capital and what kind of challenges they experience when raising capital and how they work to gain the trust of potential investors, partners and customers. In this thesis it was found that Swedish Fintech firms do not close their doors to cooperation with the incumbent banks, as in exchange for helping the banks with their technology they can get access to banks' customer base and help with regards to costs. The Fintech firms did however think cooperation was less likely to happen if the incumbent banks did not open their mindset and make their processes more effective. Developing the banks’ technology is something the Fintech firms recognize that they can help with. When it comes to gaining the trust of the market, Fintech firms strive to deliver good customer experience, show earlier accomplishments and build legitimacy. The biggest challenge that Fintech firms encounter is the lack of having a known brand on the market and trying to build a name for themselves from scratch. It was found that most of the firms raise capital through private equity even if many of the interviewed firms raise capital as well through indebtedness. Challenges these firms encounter when it comes to raising capital is to mediate their true potential and vision to the investors and to find investors that can help the firm in more ways than just with monetary support. At the same time it was discovered that a few firms did not have any problem finding investors because of their already good network and experience.

This study investigates challenges that emerge for Swedish incumbent banks when pursuing compliance with IT security regulations, while simultaneously striving towards innovation in order to maintain market competitiveness in terms of digital payment service offerings. As competition increases within the payment service industry, developing innovative services becomes increasingly important. At the same time, it is essential that these solutions maintain a high level of IT security, both in terms of the preservation of customer trust as well as in terms of compliance with financial regulations. Consequently, the aim of this study was to contribute to research from an incumbent banking perspective, where theory together with a qualitative case study has revolved around the topics of technology, compliance, and innovation in the pursuit of identifying key challenges. The study included a series of interviews with respondents within banking, IT security, and compliance management. This resulted in three principal challenges regarding compliance and innovation within payment services at incumbent banks, along with proposed actions to be taken. Firstly, the necessity of incrementally transitioning from legacy infrastructure towards modernized platforms was established. Secondly, banks are encouraged to make trade-offs between regulations and deploying new products and services. Finally, for banks to engage in communication and collaboration within the organization as well as with regulators can facilitate compliance as well as promoting harmonization of regulations. / Denna studie undersöker de utmaningar som svenska storbanker står inför i en digitaliserad miljö där både IT-säkerhet och innovation behöver tillgodoses för att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft gällande betaltjänster. Då konkurrensen ökar inom betaltjänstsektorn blir utvecklingen av innovativa tjänster allt mer betydelsefull. Samtidigt är det viktigt att dessa lösningar håller en hög nivå av IT-säkerhet, dels för att bibehålla kundförtroende, men också för att banker lyder under finansiella regelverk. Följaktligen var syftet med denna studie att bidra till kunskap om utvecklingen av framtidens betaltjänster. Teori och empiri kretsade kring områdena teknik, regelverk och innovation, med en strävan att identifiera huvudutmaningar på området. I en kvalitativ fallstudie inkluderandes en serie intervjuer med experter inom banksektorn och ITsäkerhet. Resultaten visade att de viktigaste utmaningarna kopplat till regelefterlevnad och innovation inom betaltjänster för storbanker är nyttjandet av föråldrad teknik, behovet av en avvägning mellan att uppfylla regelverk och utveckling av nya produkter och tjänster, och slutligen kommunikation och samarbete inom både organisationen och med lagstiftare.