Bianca Zwart
Chief Strategy Officer at Bunq
Bianca, you came to fintech from a very humanities background. How did that happen, really? Was it something you were drawn to from the start, or did you develop the passion over time, after already entering the market?
Honestly, I've never been very good at following the obvious path.
Back when I was still at university, I went for language studies because I was curious about people and how they think, not because it was the most straightforward career choice. At the time, a lot of people thought it was a bit unusual, but looking back, it was probably one of the best decisions I could have made!
Speaking five languages teaches you that the exact same thing can look completely different depending on who you are talking to. It forces you to adapt, listen, and see the world from other perspectives.
That's probably why I ended up loving bunq. I wasn't drawn to banking itself — I was drawn to building things for people. Banking just happened to be one of the industries where there was still so much frustration left to solve.
It's interesting that you say you were drawn to solving people's problems. Over your ten years at bunq, you've worked across support, public relations, operations, and now you lead strategy. How would you say this journey shaped the way you think about your current role?
I think my biggest advantage is that nobody ever really sat me down and told me what a Chief Strategy Officer was supposed to do. At bunq, that's actually a strength: people are given the freedom to shape their role around the impact they can have and the problems they're trying to solve, rather than around a predefined job description.
I started in support, which meant spending my days talking to users. That's probably where I learned the most important lesson of my career: users are the strategy. If you listen properly, they usually tell you exactly what needs fixing.
Then working in Communications taught me how to make complex things simple, and Operations taught me that a good idea only matters if you can actually make it happen. Strategy is really just connecting all those dots: understanding the user, understanding the business, and making sure we focus our energy on the things that matter most.
Looking back, every role taught me something different, which is why I see it as further proof that careers don't have to be linear. Sometimes the weird route ends up being the one that gives you the perspective you need!
That is certainly an interesting viewpoint — thank you for sharing it! You say bunq’s way is to empower people to act on what users need, but how does that work in practice? Your bank is known for moving faster than almost any other in Europe, despite the heavy regulation. How do you maintain that speed without the wheels coming off?
We don't see regulation and speed as opposites.
A lot of companies respond to complexity by adding more layers, and before you know it, nobody has a clear idea of who is actually responsible for what anymore. We try to do the opposite: be very clear on the problem we're solving, give ownership to the people closest to it, and trust them to make decisions. When everyone understands the goal, you can move surprisingly fast — even in a regulated industry.
And honestly, at the end of the day, users don't care how complex something was internally. They only care whether you solved their problem or not.
Bianca, before returning to bunq, you actually took a break and spent some time on launching your own business, working with startups and scale-ups, correct? What was the biggest takeaway for you from this period? Did it change the way you see the relationship between narrative, product, and growth?
The biggest thing I took from it all is that your product and your story can't be two separate things.
The best companies I've seen don't start by asking, "How do we tell a great story?" They start by asking, "What problem are we solving, and for whom?" When that is clear, everything else begins to align. The product solves a real problem, the narrative explains why it matters, and growth comes from people recognising themselves in that story.
It's very easy to get distracted by what's new or exciting, especially when your company is in the middle of growing. Right now, for example, that exciting thing is AI. But users don't wake up thinking, "I want AI." They wake up thinking, "I want my life to be easier." Technology is just the tool that helps you, as a business, to deliver that ease to them.
Seeing as you’ve brought up getting distracted by new market trends, I’d like to shift the topic a bit. You've been attending and speaking at major fintech events for years, and have watched the industry evolve up close. Do you see any shifts in the conversations around women in finance?
I've honestly never really thought of myself as a woman in tech. To me, it's always been simple: what matters is what you build and the impact you make, not who you are.
That's what makes technology so powerful. You don't need to come from the "old world" to build something better — you just need to be obsessed with solving a problem and willing to figure things out as you go.
It’s also very much how we've built bunq. We've never been interested in doing things a certain way just because that's how they've always been done. We care about solving problems for users and giving responsibility to the people closest to those problems.
When you build that way, different perspectives naturally find a seat at the table. I see that every day in the incredibly diverse people I get to work with!
That philosophy seems to run through everything you've talked about today: real people, real problems, real ownership. So, with that in mind, what advice would you give to founders building fintechs that genuinely try to do banking differently?
I would keep it simple: don't start by trying to build a better bank — start by solving a problem people actually have.
Most people don't wake up thinking about banking. They wake up thinking about moving countries, running a business, managing their money, or making their lives easier.
Fall in love with the problem first, and the rest follows!
