Banks have historically had scarce interest toward start-ups, resulting in the lack of engagement with them. However the increased competition, caused by new EU regulation combined with the diffusion of digital technologies that during the past decade led to the emergence FinTech start-ups, is somehow urging banks to revise their strategical plans: during last years, more and more initiatives targeting start-ups in which the banks were directly involved were created across all Europe. Considering only banks following a universal business model, the analysis aimed at identifying possible innovation strategies that could be pursued by these organizations according to the start-up programs in which they were involved.