The consequent “fractional-reserve” banking accompanied by “maturity transformation” can be a cause of bank-runs, which sometimes triggered crises in the past. This is why central banks serve as a “lender of last resort (LoLR)” mainly for banks in order to prevent financial crises. On the contrary, non-bank FinTech companies do not take deposits.
Some of them focus solely on payment services, while others provide fund intermediation services such as P2P lending without using their own balance sheets. Moreover, many FinTech companies are trying to realize “economies of scope” through combining financial services with other activities related to ecommerce, sharing-economy businesses and big data analytics in order to deliver new addedvalue.