Many reports on fintech prospects in ASEAN predict that fintech plays a critical role in the digital economy and significantly influences the banking industry, attracting many scholars. However, an investigation of the effect of fintech on bank performance across cross-countries has not yet been conducted. Besides, the reports showed that fintech funding had been dramatically rising in recent years, accelerating fintech startup development. Therefore, the authors are concerned about the “How is the effect of fintech funding on bank performance, especially regarding profitability?”. These are the motives for conducting the study. Using a sample of 57 banks and data on fintech funding from 2017 to 2021 in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam, the dynamic panel model is estimated by Panel Corrected Standard Error. The findings show that the growth of fintech funding negatively influences bank profitability, but its lag effect is positive. The results are mostly validated through multiple additional tests (in the context of Covid-19, sorted by country and bank size) and a robustness check by an alternative estimator (Generalized Least Square). Besides, the authors explored some interesting exceptions. In detail, fintech funding does not influence bank profitability in Malaysia and Indonesia, but it negatively links with ROA in Vietnam, and large banks are not sensitive to the growth of fintech funding.