In 2025, more people access financial services through a mobile screen curated by a technology platform than through a bank branch (Chaudhari, 2025; Pazarbasioglu et al., 2020).

FinTech firms are unbundling services with speed and precision, while BigTech giants such as Amazon, Tencent and Google are embedding financial products into everyday consumer ecosystems. Banks, once secure in their franchise value, now face declining relevance.

Yet in many classrooms, banking is still taught as though balance sheets, branch networks and Basel rules alone define the sector. This dissonance between industry reality and academic preparation poses a pressing question: Are we equipping graduates for banks that may not exist in their current form?

Disruption: FinTech and BigTech on four continents

Across the globe, the contours of banking are being redrawn. In Europe and North America, digital challengers such as Revolut, Square and PayPal are redefining consumer expectations around payments and lending (Mushtaq, 2025). In Asia, Ant Group, Tencent and Grab have built super-apps where finance is seamlessly embedded into shopping, transport and communication.

In Africa, M-Pesa and Wave have leapfrogged traditional infrastructures, demonstrating that financial access can be driven by telecom operators rather than banks. What unites these examples is not geography but logic: financial services are no longer products distributed through branches, but platforms powered by data, trust and user experience. And yet, business schools still train students primarily in the mechanics of credit scoring, capital adequacy and loan portfolio management.

Competency gap in management education

This divergence creates a troubling competency gap. While students emerge with fluency in ratios and regulatory frameworks, they often lack literacy in the technologies and models reshaping the sector. Among the missing capabilities are:

• Data literacy and AI in finance – from algorithmic credit scoring to fraud detection.
• Platform business models – understanding value creation in ecosystems, not institutions.
• Cybersecurity and RegTech – anticipating risks in digital transactions and regulatory reporting.
• Digital consumer behaviour – recognising how trust and convenience override brand loyalty.
• Ethical reasoning around BigTech dominance – grappling with questions of privacy, competition and societal impact.

The risk is stark: management education may graduate leaders fully prepared for the banking sector of the past, while leaving them illiterate in the realities of a FinTech-driven future.

Rethinking curricula and pedagogy

To remain relevant, business schools need to act decisively. This means not only revising course content but also reshaping pedagogy.

Curricula should integrate new core modules such as Digital Finance, Platform Economics and Technology Ethics. Interdisciplinary collaboration with computer science and public policy departments can foster a holistic understanding of finance as a digital and societal system. Case studies should extend beyond Citibank or Barclays to include PayPal, Ant Group and M-Pesa. Pedagogical methods must evolve as well. Live labs with banks and FinTechs can give students hands-on experience.

Regulatory sandboxes can simulate policy environments where learners test innovative products under controlled conditions. Project-based assessments could require students to design a FinTech solution, audit an AI-driven credit model, or critique a BigTech–bank partnership from multiple stakeholder perspectives.

These shifts align closely with EFMD’s accreditation principles. EQUIS and EFMD Accredited both emphasise corporate connection, internationalisation and societal impact. By embedding FinTech and BigTech realities into teaching, schools not only address industry needs but also strengthen their alignment with these quality benchmarks.

Call to action for business schools

The financial industry will not pause while education catches up. If business schools do not take the lead, corporations will simply expand their own executive education pipelines, further eroding academia’s influence. The challenge is clear: is management education ready to cede its authority in financial knowledge to the very firms disrupting the sector?

The opportunity, however, is equally clear. By rethinking curricula and competencies, schools can position themselves as the architects of future-ready leadership. Graduates fluent in digital platforms, ethical reasoning and cross-continental regulatory complexity will not merely adapt to disruption, they will shape it. For deans, programme directors and faculty, the question is not whether to recalibrate but how quickly. After all, banking is becoming invisible, but finance is everywhere.

Closing call to readers:

How should your institution adapt its teaching to prepare leaders for a world where financial services are embedded in technology platforms rather than confined to banks? The conversation is urgent, will business schools lead it, or follow?

References

Chaudhari, A. V. (2025). Reimagining Finance with Artificial Intelligence: Smart Technologies Reshaping the Digital Economy. ESP Journal of Engineering & Technology Advancements, 5(2), 47-61.

Mushtaq, W. (2025). The innovation paradox in banking. Journal of Digital Banking, 9(4), 353-372.

Pazarbasioglu, C., Mora, A. G., Uttamchandani, M., Natarajan, H., Feyen, E., & Saal, M. (2020). Digital financial services. World Bank, 54(1), 1-54.

Dr. Donkor Nawaah is Area Chair of  Accounting, Department of Finance and Accounting, School of Business, Woxsen University, Hyderabad, India.

For additional insights, announcements and perspectives, visit the conversation on Ecomonics and Business Education.