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Fintech

Deutsche Bank wants to bring ‘tough love’ to fintech

Former fintech CEO explains how, as the German bank's innovation chief, she is trying to change the culture at a slow ‘supertanker’

Elly Hardwick, head of innovation at Deutsche Bank
Elly Hardwick, head of innovation at Deutsche Bank Photo: Micha Theiner

When attempting to flog their software to Deutsche Bank’s head of innovation, fintech founders may be encouraged to learn that, in a previous life, Elly Hardwick was a fintech CEO.

She knows how it feels to run a small business and to “see the bank account going down every day”. Yet her experience of running a startup does not mean she shies away from criticising the industry. “There’s an element of tough love that I want to bring to fintechs,” she says.

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