Fintech leaders release first candid report on the state of industry communication in 2025

Fintech’s most influential voices have come together for the first time to launch the inaugural Started Advisory Board Report, a landmark publication created to elevate how the financial technology industry communicates, builds trust and connects with the world.

Created by Started PR, the advisory board and this report bring together exclusive insight from leaders across policy, media, product, investment and community. It is the first time experts of this calibre have united to give fintech a fully candid view of how effectively it communicates. Collectively, the unique group brings more than 200 years of experience across regulation, journalism, product, investment and ecosystem leadership.

The Started Advisory Board features:

• Kimberley Waldron, MD Started PR (Advisory Board Chair)
• Jason Mikula, Publisher, Fintech Business Weekly
• Jason Williams, CEO, The Fintech Power 50
• Katie Ramsey, Head of Fintech UK Department for Business and Trade
• David M. Brear, CEO, 11:FS Holdings
• Susanne Chishti, Founder and Chair, Fintech Circle
• Monica Millares, Chief Product Officer, BigPay
• David Savage, Founder and Host, Tech Talks
• Raf De Kimpe, CEO, FinTech Belgium
• Jas Shah, Fintech Strategist
• Sarah Kocianski, Fintech Expert and Commentator

Commenting on the launch of the report, Kimberley Waldron, Founder of Started PR and Chair of the Advisory Board, said: “When you bring together leaders from government, media, investment and product, you get perspectives the industry has never had before. The message is simple. When fintech communicates clearly, it performs better. There is a huge opportunity ahead and this report shows exactly where to start.”

A central feature of this impactful new report is the introduction of the Started Advisory Board’s ‘Eight Rules for Fintech Communication’. These rules form a practical toolkit designed to help leaders and teams communicate more effectively in 2026. They reflect the collective insight of the Advisory Board and outline the habits, structures and principles that will define high performance in the year ahead.

The rules emphasise:

1. Creating content that is designed for the LinkedIn feed, where specialist discovery takes place
2. Building trust through provenance, proof and transparent sourcing
3. Reinforcing confidence with human and in person communication
4. Moving beyond echo chambers with distinctive and contextual storytelling
5. Using physical activations that generate genuine attention and action
6. Adapting all content for AI driven discovery and stronger verification
7. Communicating responsibly in areas such as lending, investing and financial wellbeing
8. Prioritising the audiences and channels that matter most rather than trying to be everywhere

Alongside the rules, the report introduces new benchmark scores that provide a clear view of the state of communication in fintech. The results highlight both areas of progress and significant room for improvement. Advisory Board members were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, how effectively the industry communicates across nine key areas, including innovation, regulation, collaboration and customer understanding.

Key findings include:

• The Advisory Board scored fintech 5.1 out of 10 for how well it made itself understood.
• The Advisory Board scored fintech 4.1 out of 10 for how well its communications landed outside the industry.
• The Advisory Board scored fintech 6.9 out of 10 for how well its communications landed within the industry.
• The Advisory Board scored fintech 2.6 out of 10 for how well it communicated about failure.
• The Advisory Board scored fintech 7.6 out of 10 for its opportunity to improve the effectiveness of its communications.

The inaugural Advisory Board Report is available to download from Started PR, to access please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13R6r26JeSNExfTPGrqJe5OlOMPOJxSKR/view?usp=sharing

For more information about Started PR, please visit: https://www.startedpr.com/