When Revolut applied for its UK banking licence in 2021, regulators evaluated the company’s financial controls, governance structure, and operational resilience. But they also evaluated something less tangible: whether the company’s leadership could be trusted to manage a regulated bank. Revolut’s extensive media presence, including hundreds of articles about its growth, its challenges, and its public commitments, provided regulators with a record of the company’s stated intentions that could be compared against its actions. Trust in fintech is not an abstract quality. It is a composite of specific signals that different stakeholders evaluate through different channels. According to CMI’s 2025 B2B research, 58% of B2B marketers report that content marketing increased sales. In fintech, content does not just increase sales. It builds the trust without which sales cannot happen at all.
Why Trust Is Different in Fintech
In most B2B technology sectors, a buyer evaluates a vendor based on product capability, price, and support quality. Trust is a factor, but it is one among many. A company purchasing project management software is unlikely to conduct a three-month due diligence process or require the vendor to hold specific regulatory licences.
Fintech is different because fintech products handle money, personal financial data, or regulatory obligations. A bank adopting a new payment processor is entrusting that vendor with the flow of customer funds. A corporation using a fintech for treasury management is giving the vendor visibility into its cash positions. An insurance company integrating a claims automation platform is trusting it with policyholder data and payment decisions.
The Boston Consulting Group projects fintech revenues will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, with embedded finance and digital lending accounting for the largest share of projected growth.
According to CB Insights’ 2024 fintech report, global fintech funding declined 40 percent between 2022 and 2024, pushing the sector toward consolidation and a sharper focus on profitability over growth at all costs.
The consequences of misplaced trust are severe and public. When Synapse, a banking-as-a-service provider, collapsed in 2024, its bank partner customers faced regulatory scrutiny and customer complaints. When Wirecard’s fraud was revealed in 2020, every institution that had partnered with Wirecard faced questions about its due diligence processes. Trust models in financial services are built on the understanding that failure damages not just the failing company but every institution connected to it.
The Trust Hierarchy for Institutional Buyers
Institutional fintech buyers evaluate trust through a hierarchy of signals, each carrying different weight.
At the top: regulatory licences and compliance certifications. SOC 2 Type II certification, PCI DSS compliance, state money transmitter licences, and FCA or MAS regulatory approval are non-negotiable prerequisites. They do not build trust so much as prevent immediate disqualification.
Second tier: client references and case studies. A bank considering a fintech vendor will ask to speak with existing bank clients. Positive references from comparable institutions build trust directly.
Third tier: financial stability. Institutional buyers review the vendor’s financial statements, funding history, and investor base. A fintech backed by reputable VCs with substantial runway is trusted more than an identically capable company with unknown investors and uncertain finances.
Fourth tier: industry presence and thought leadership. This is where media plays its role. A fintech company with consistent coverage in respected publications, public analysis from its leadership team, and visible participation in industry conversations builds a trust layer that supports all the tiers above it. Industry authority in fintech marketing sits at this level: it does not replace compliance or references, but it creates the context within which those signals are evaluated more favourably.
How Media Builds Trust Specifically
Media builds fintech trust through three mechanisms that other trust signals do not provide.
First, media creates a public record of the company’s statements and commitments over time. A founder who published an article in 2022 promising to prioritise data security, and whose company then achieved SOC 2 certification in 2023, has a verifiable track record of following through on public commitments. This record is available to anyone who searches for the company, providing a longitudinal view of consistency that a single due diligence meeting cannot.
Second, media provides third-party validation that the company cannot manufacture. A positive profile in Finextra required an editor to evaluate the company and decide it was worth covering. A feature in American Banker required a journalist to verify claims and find the story newsworthy. Each publication’s editorial process acts as a trust filter. The Edelman-LinkedIn B2B study found that 73% of decision-makers consider thought leadership more trustworthy than traditional marketing materials. Industry publication credibility provides exactly this third-party validation.
Third, media creates trust through transparency. A fintech company that publishes openly about its technology approach, its regulatory strategy, and its market perspective signals willingness to be evaluated. Companies that avoid public visibility often trigger suspicion among institutional buyers. According to DemandSage, 83% of marketers prioritise quality over quantity. For trust-building, this means publishing substantive, transparent content rather than volume-driven promotional content.
Trust Building at Different Company Stages
The trust-building function of media changes as a fintech company matures.
At the seed stage, media builds trust that the company is real and the founders are credible. In a market with thousands of fintech startups, many of which will not exist in two years, basic visibility in industry publications signals legitimacy. An investor or early customer who can find media coverage of a company is reassured that the company has passed at least one external credibility filter.
At Series A, media builds trust that the company can deliver on its promises. Customer case studies published in trade media, technical deep-dives from the engineering team, and founder commentary on industry developments all contribute to a trust profile that says: “This company knows what it is doing, and other people confirm it.”
At later stages, media builds trust that the company will be a stable, long-term partner. Enterprise buyers signing multi-year contracts need confidence that the vendor will exist and perform throughout the contract term. Consistent media presence over years signals organisational stability and leadership continuity. Media visibility supporting fintech growth across multiple years creates a trust asset that short-term campaigns cannot replicate.
When Trust Fails: The Media Recovery Challenge
Media’s trust-building power has a counterpart: media amplifies trust failures. When a fintech company suffers a data breach, a regulatory enforcement action, or a service outage, media coverage ensures that the failure becomes part of the company’s permanent public record.
Companies with pre-existing media trust recover faster from these events. A fintech company with years of positive coverage and established journalist relationships can provide context, explain remediation steps, and demonstrate accountability through the same media channels that amplified the failure. The prior trust creates a reservoir of goodwill that absorbs some of the damage.
Companies without pre-existing media presence face a worse situation: their first significant media coverage is about their failure, with no prior coverage to provide context. Digital PR strategy is partly a risk management tool. Building media trust during good times creates the resilience needed to weather bad times.
Trust is not a marketing objective for fintech startups. It is the operating condition that makes everything else possible. Without trust, banks will not integrate fintech products. Investors will not fund fintech companies. Regulators will not grant fintech licences. Media builds trust through mechanisms that no other channel can replicate: a public record, third-party validation, and demonstrated transparency over time. The fintech companies that invest in media-based trust building earliest create an asset that appreciates with every article published and every year that passes without contradiction.
