A few months ago, I was faced with a question for the Forbes Finance Council expert panel: “How can firms earn trust over decades, not quarters?” – which got me thinking. Trust has traditionally been treated as something institutions accumulate slowly. A bank proves itself by surviving crises, protecting deposits and serving customers consistently over many years. An insurer builds credibility by paying claims. A professional firm earns its reputation through repeated judgment and conduct.
But it does not fully fit industries that are being created in real time.
Fintech companies, digital asset platforms, embedded finance providers and AI-driven financial services cannot wait 20 years before customers, regulators and partners decide whether they are trustworthy. Their products may scale across several markets within months. They may handle customer funds before they have built a familiar brand. They may also depend on technologies and business models that did not exist a decade ago.
This creates a paradox. New industries need trust earlier than established industries, yet they have less history available to prove they deserve it. Trust must be built through design, transparency, regulation and performance from the beginning. Longevity may confirm trust later, but it cannot be the entry requirement for innovation.
Why the old trust model no longer works
In digital finance, trust depends less on how long a company has existed and more on how responsibly it operates today.
A customer may now use a financial service without ever knowing which bank, payment institution or infrastructure provider sits behind it. A fintech can enter several markets quickly, onboard thousands of users through a mobile interface and deliver services through APIs rather than branches. In many cases, the business becomes part of another company’s customer journey, which makes the provider almost invisible.
This changes how trust is formed. Customers are no longer judging an institution only by its age or physical presence. They are judging whether the service works, whether their money is protected, whether fees are clear and whether support is available when something goes wrong.
The same is true for commercial partners and regulators. A young fintech may need to prove itself simultaneously to banks, payment schemes, investors, customers and supervisory authorities. That is a very different challenge from building a local institution over several generations.
Longevity still has value, but it is no longer enough. Some of the oldest institutions in finance also carry the most outdated technology, the slowest processes and the weakest customer experience. History can demonstrate resilience, but it can also conceal complacency.
Trust must be designed into the business
For a new company, trust cannot be treated as a communications exercise. It cannot be added later through advertising, polished branding or a carefully written mission statement. In industries such as fintech, trust has to be built into the product, the operating model and the decisions made behind the scenes.
This begins with governance. Customers may never see an internal risk committee, a safeguarding process or a compliance framework, but they will feel the consequences if these things are weak. A business that handles money needs clear accountability from the start.
The same principle applies to technology. Systems should be designed to withstand failure, protect sensitive information and provide a clear audit trail from the beginning. Security, resilience and data protection should not be features added once the company reaches scale. By then, the habits and shortcuts that create risk may already be embedded.
Transparency matters just as much. Customers should understand what they are paying, what service they are receiving and who is responsible for delivering it. Complex fee structures, vague terms and hidden dependencies may generate short-term revenue, but they weaken trust quickly.
Trust also depends on what happens when something goes wrong. No financial system is perfect. Payments are delayed, accounts are reviewed, fraud occurs and technology occasionally fails. The real test is whether the company explains the problem honestly, resolves it quickly and accepts responsibility where appropriate.
Young firms do not need to look old. They need to behave as though trust is a core piece of infrastructure. When accountability, security, transparency and redress are built in from the beginning, credibility can develop much faster than age alone would suggest.
Regulation as a trust accelerator
Regulation is often presented as the enemy of innovation. In reality, for new financial companies, it can be one of the fastest ways to establish trust.
A licence does not make a business good, but it does show that the company has met a defined standard. It signals that there are rules around capital, safeguarding, governance, financial crime controls and customer protection. For a young firm without decades of history, that matters.
This is especially important in fintech, where customers are often asked to trust companies they have never heard of with sensitive data and, in some cases, their money. A clear regulatory framework reduces uncertainty. It gives customers, banks and commercial partners a basis for deciding whether a firm is credible.
Good regulation can therefore act as a trust accelerator. It allows new entrants to prove that they are not operating outside the system, even if they are trying to improve it.
But regulation has limits. Compliance can become a box-ticking exercise. A licence can be treated as a marketing badge rather than a continuing obligation. The best firms understand that regulation is the floor, not the ceiling. They do not ask only, “Are we allowed to do this?” They also ask, “Should we do this, and can we explain it clearly to the customer?” That distinction matters.
Operational reliability is the real proof
In finance, the ultimate proof is operational. Payments must arrive when promised. Balances must be accurate. Systems must remain available. Fraud controls must be effective without making legitimate customers feel like suspects. When something goes wrong, the problem must be identified and resolved quickly.
This may sound obvious, but many young companies focus on the visible parts of growth: customer acquisition, fundraising, brand awareness and product launches. These metrics matter, but they can create a false sense of progress. A fintech can look successful from the outside while relying on fragile processes, manual interventions and overstretched teams behind the scenes.
That is dangerous because financial services are unforgiving. A delayed payment is not just a technical issue if it prevents a business from paying staff. A frozen account is not a minor inconvenience if a customer cannot access essential funds. Small operational failures can have serious consequences.
Reliability is therefore more than uptime. It includes consistency, accuracy and the ability to recover well. No system is perfect, and customers generally understand that mistakes happen. What they do not accept is silence, confusion or a refusal to take responsibility.
Borrowing trust without outsourcing responsibility
No fintech operates alone. Even the most innovative company depends on banks, payment schemes, cloud providers, identity services, technology vendors and regulators. These relationships can help a young firm establish credibility more quickly.
A recognised banking partner, a strong infrastructure provider or a respected licence can reduce uncertainty. It shows customers and commercial partners that the company is connected to a broader system with standards, controls and accountability.
This is especially important in embedded finance, where the company providing the customer experience may not be the company holding the licence or moving the funds. Trust is shared across an ecosystem, even if the customer sees only one brand.
But there is a danger in relying too heavily on borrowed credibility.
A fintech cannot simply display the logos of established partners and assume that responsibility has been transferred. If a payment fails, an account is wrongly restricted or a customer is left without support, the customer will judge the company whose name appears on the product. They will not care which provider sits three layers beneath the interface.
That means partnerships must be managed as carefully as internal operations. Firms should understand where responsibilities begin and end, how incidents are escalated and who communicates with the customer when something goes wrong.
The principle is simple: credibility can be borrowed, but accountability cannot.
Trust cannot be delayed
What starts to shape in my mind is that “time can confirm trust, but it does not create it”.
The traditional answer to mistrust is time. Let the company operate, let the market test it and let customers decide after years of experience. That approach is understandable, but it is not enough for industries moving as quickly as fintech. New payment models, digital assets, embedded finance and AI-driven services are developing faster than institutional reputations can mature. Customers and businesses are already using these systems. They cannot wait decades for certainty.
This does not mean standards should be lowered. The opposite is true. When time is compressed, the quality of governance, infrastructure and decision-making matters even more.
Young firms must prove themselves through strong regulation, reliable operations, transparent incentives and visible accountability. They must show that they can protect customers before they become household names, not after. They must also accept that trust can be lost far faster than it is gained.
Established institutions should not assume that age gives them a permanent advantage either. Longevity may demonstrate survival, but it does not excuse poor technology, weak service or complacency. In a digital market, old and new firms are increasingly judged by the same question: can they be relied upon today?
My view is that trust will remain one of the most important competitive advantages in finance, but the way it is earned is changing. It will no longer belong automatically to the oldest institution or the biggest brand. It will belong to the firms that make responsible behaviour visible, repeatable and difficult to compromise.
Decades may still deepen trust. But in industries that cannot wait, the first foundations must be laid from day one.
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