Fintech in Crisis Times: Companies Should Stay Calm, but Not Stay Silent

In finance, as in any other industry, when a crisis comes, companies often have two options. The first is that they can hide in the shell and prepare a comprehensive comment fully approved by a dozen boards and a legal team. And the second is that a business may try to speak openly with its stakeholders from the first minute when something has not gone according to plan. 

But which one is a better choice? 

Since finance and fintech are extremely fast-moving markets, many aspects here may demand flexibility and quick decision-making when it comes to communication. Let’s discuss how not to overlook a coming crisis and explore strategies to win it.

Why Communications Should Be Flexible

In fintech, communication is often built around new launches or funding rounds. These are, of course, useful opportunities to remind the market of its presence and showcase results, but the entire strategy should not depend on them alone. The industry changes quickly and companies may face delayed launches or unexpected regulatory statements that force them to pivot their strategy.

When a company faces one of these situations, the biggest mistake it can make is to keep sticking to its original communication timeline, because both the market and clients are likely to interpret this as a problem. They may start asking questions like, “Why are they silent? Surely something has broken and they simply don’t know what to do.” As a result, the entire strategy becomes fragile and vulnerable, undermining the trust of clients and investors.

For example, there was a case where a fintech company planned to announce a product at a major event, but the announcement was delayed due to market conditions. The weaker response would have been to stop all communication. On the contrary, the stronger one would have been to continue discussing the customer problem, the market need and the company’s broader point of view, so that the delayed launch would not erase its visibility.

The Crisis Is Solved in the First 30 Minutes

Delayed launches are not the only examples, as in reality, there are dozens of reasons why a well-planned communication strategy may turn into an irrelevant one. Even the most prepared campaign may turn into a crisis.

In that case, it is even more important to have a flexible communication strategy, since silence may be considered even worse than ordinary. In my experience, a real crisis begins when negative information about your company enters the public field and starts affecting the brand. If a company fails to respond in time and honestly explain the difficulties it is facing and how it is dealing with them, journalists and social media users will do it instead. Be sure that they may not choose their words carefully. Sometimes, they may even use the wrong information on what actually happened, since your company has not published an official position. 

The consequences of such a loss of control can be very serious. It is extremely important to react quickly but without panic. The first 30 minutes are the most important part of any crisis, where you can assess risks, change already prepared plans and find the best possible channel to transmit the message accordingly. All the team's efforts afterwards will depend on the company's reaction during that initial period.

In my practice, I had a case that clearly shows the value of those first minutes. One DeFi company faced the risk of liquidation of $200 million in user funds. Within just a few minutes, the story became dozens of publications in top-tier media. Many of them described the problem incorrectly because they lacked sufficient information or trusted sources and began interpreting events themselves. The team had to contact the editorial teams, provide an official statement and correct the coverage tone after the story had already taken on a life of its own.

The lesson here is to avoid building a full crisis strategy from scratch and deal with 70 media outlets in just 30 minutes. A company should make communications its natural function, rather than treating it only as an “on-off” function for preparing press releases about successful launches.

What Does “Honesty” Mean in Communications

I am sure that in countless articles and conversations with PR specialists, you hear the same advice over and over: “Be honest and transparent with your audience.” But what does that actually mean? 

Without a doubt, it is not demanded of a company to say everything at once and reveal what is happening behind the scenes. Transparency and trust can be built without unnecessary oversharing. The main thing here is to show stakeholders that leadership hears them and is ready to answer their questions, demonstrating that it knows how to manage uncertainty.

Sometimes it may be enough to explain what the team knows, what principles it is guided by, or when the next update will be provided. Clear guardrails and decision-making frameworks help people make decisions without unnecessary delay and clients may simply need to know how things are progressing. For example, if a payments company delays market entry due to operational or regulatory issues, it can still share insights on cross-border payments, customer demand, infrastructure challenges and the importance of reliability in financial services.

There are very specific practical tools for all of this, such as a special crisis response group, a crisis checklist, response templates and pre-agreed words and narratives to avoid. Working on them and other communications consistently is preparing the company for any inconvenience that may arise. Thus, it helps to maintain trust with the public and show expertise.

The Role of Leadership in Communication

All these cases show that communication cannot simply be delegated to someone who writes texts and that leadership must always be involved in managing relations with stakeholders.

It is important to note that in times of crisis, the first people everyone looks at are the company’s leaders and, of course, the founder. The CEO should become a kind of chief storyteller and embody the organization’s culture and purpose. If the leader can speak openly about both successes and failures, the market will be more likely to trust them.

The task of PR professionals is to support the leader and prepare them for communication and it can’t be postponed. Actually, it should be the starting point. The PR team should conduct a media training, develop a speaking book, or provide a stress interview. All of this will help the leader in the future and, therefore, the whole company.

In my career, there have been situations where preparing the company’s leader saved it from collapse and the key to success was deliberate preparation, ready-made templates and the experience we, as specialists, could provide.

When a company has built strong relationships with stakeholders and established a clear narrative, it has a solid foundation for a coming crisis. And when this happens, the whole team, from leadership to juniors, would act timely and mitigate any sensitivity the company may go through. Building such a foundation is where strategic PR creates long-term value.