I actually think the example of banks is a good one, because what's happened in places with a competitive banking landscape is just that the big players have upped their game and the benefit of the challenger banks has diminished, with them struggling to become profitable.

Monzo is the biggest new player in the UK and it's not making much of a profit. Revolut doesn't have a banking license because it can't comply with the regulatory requirements. Starling has taken much more of a conservative path and is being led by an ex-Barclays person, but even it is being investigated by the FCA for having poor controls around financial crime. All of those giving loans have unnaceptably high % of defaults from an investor perspective.

In Europe there are other more successful cases like Wise. Or big banks starting whole subsidiaries from the ground up.

Wise aren't a bank again though, they don't have a European or UK banking license.

I didn't say it was. I was saying they are displacing the old guard.

I think new hot upstarts will find that a combination intricate regulation, physical reality and institutional inertia would only allow them to make a tiny dent over years.