Fintech Insider By 11:fs

It's been a long two and a half years. But we've finally hit a huge landmark with our 300th episode. This episode is an 11:FS special with some of your favourite hosts: David Brear Simon Taylor Sarah Kocianski Ross Gallagher Jason Bates Plus extra special guest Marko Wenthin, Co-Founder of Solarisbank. Our panel take a trip down memory lane, going over the early days of trying to figure out audio editing, why we took the approach that we did and how taking a conversation from the pub after a conference created a chart-topping podcast. We go over the rejected theme tunes for the show and some of the show's highlights, including some of the best jokes, live shows, conferences and of course After Dark. We also talk about some of the incredible guests we've had and difficult topics we've tackled. Of course none of this would be possible without you so we asked you to send in whatever questions you want for the hosts to answer. But if we didn't manage to get to yours this time around don't wor

This week we have some huge stories for you as David and Simon are joined by two fantastic fintech CEOs: Tom Blomfield, CEO of Monzo Romi Savova, CEO of PensionBee We kick off the episode with a story that'll give you 24 billion reasons to be impressed with the state of the UK's financial industry. It's the first time the four biggest lenders have made more than £20BN since 2007 and while it might appear to be a return to the good old days of pre-financial crisis finances, Romi points out that although the numbers are great, they might not be as great as they would have been in 2007 due to balance sheets. Tom also points out that banks have only made superficial changes so far but that's about to change (02:14). Next up, we talk about Santander's $700M deal with IBM. Tom points out that we only ever see headlines like this at the start of project, never at the end describing the results. Romi talks about how it's a sign that change is coming, but why are companies that market themselves as technology

Sam Maule talks to AWS, Raifeissen Bank, Broadridge, FICO and Liberty Mutual on how Cloud is the new normal, moving to product and development cycles to Cloud in a matter of days rather than quarters and how capital markets and major banks are driving forwards Cloud adoption. Agility tends to be the main theme behind Cloud adoption and integration but no-one's underestimating the human component. Technology might be a huge factor in financial services but people are the ones who ultimately drive these companies forwards and need to be trained in how to use the technology. Sam talks to companies that have been doing Machine Learning for decades and discusses the issues in coming to the game too early as well as too late. Our guests also talk about how to create a new level of security using data, why failing fast is terrible and how juggling 85 balls at a time means individuals only have 5% of their work week to deal with what they should be doing. We have some amazing guests including: Scott Mull

This week we have some huge stories for you as Sam's joined by: Teana Baker-Taylor, Exec Director and Board Member, Global Digital Finance Alexa Fernandez, Open Innovation & Ecosystem Builder at BBVA Joaquin Ayuso de Paul, CEO of Denizen Mark Meisner, CEO of Gen6 Ventures We kick off the show for a US perspective on the super merger that broke on last week's show. Two of the US’ biggest banks merge to become a super bank, as BB&T buy SunTrust for $28BN in stock. It's a phenomenal merger and every one of our guests has a unique take on the story. The banks are 'super-regional' which just means they're not one of the top five in the USA. They still each have assets of over $200BN. It'll make the new bank the sixth largest bank in the USA with $442BN in assets $301BN in loans and $324BN in deposits. 3100 of their branches are within 20 feet of each other (03:10). You can watch the YouTube video of our panel discussing the story here. Next up the US group discuss Chime's incredible acquisition of 10

Can you feel the #digitallove? We certainly could at the first After Dark of 2019. Just one day before Valentine's Day over 200 of finances' finest entered the tower of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf. Set high above the city of London at Level 39, it was standing room only for a show that sold out in six hours. Before we started the show with our first fin-couple, a rebearded David kicked off support for the 11:FS charity of 2019, Mind. Text GIVI88 to 70070 with your chosen amount to donate. Our first pairing on stage were, Tom Davenport, Head of Strategic Partnerships at MarketInvoice and Ian Rand, CEO of Business Banking, Barclays. Ready and eager to go through their nascent relationship with 11:FS' very own Sarah Kocianski. The couple took us through just how deep their integration really is, who's giving and who's taking and the tensions they're concerned about for the future. We also have some great Hollywood-style couple names for the iconic pairing...could BarketInvoice be advertising in the

This week we have some massive stories for you as David and Simon are joined by: Mel Palmer, CMO at Exo Investing Saumeel Pachigar, Head of Partnerships at acasa Viktor Nebehaj, CMO at Freetrade Iona Bain, Author, speaker, commentator at Young Money blog We couldn't NOT kick off with the story causing the most noise this week, and we were lucky enough to have Iona join us on the show to give us her perspective. Of course we're talking about THOSE Revolut-ionary Valentine's day tube adverts that caused a Twitterstorm (02:52). We followed that with some breaking news from across the pod as 2 of the US’ biggest banks merge to become a super bank, as BB&T buy SunTrust for $28 BILLION in stock (18:50). Other stories included: Amex and Curve’s bust-up as Amex blocks access to Curve, 36 hours after reinstating it. Australian banks may face criminal charges after final royal commission report into their malpractice to try and clean up the sector, and naturally we had to ask our Aussie banking afic

There's no question about the impact finances have on mental health and with today being Time to Talk Day (7th February) we wanted to take a closer look at how finance interacts with the mental health problems that affect 1 in 4 of us. Time to Talk Day wants to break down the stigmas around mental health and get people talking more openly about it. Sarah's joined by Katie Evans, Head of Research and Policy, Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Joe Surtees, Policy Manager at the Single Financial Guidance Body and James Nicholson, Engineer at Monzo to discuss why money's such a taboo subject in everyday discussion, spending for stress and whether technology can solve the problem or if it'll just exacerbate it. The group also discuss positive friction, the trap of frictionless finance those who struggle with spending and the reality that some people will simply never have enough money for their needs. We take a look at these issues and many more on this week's episode of Fintech Insider. We hope you

Our hosts David, Simon and Sarah are joined by Oscar Williams-Grut, Senior City Correspondent at Yahoo Finance, Valentina Kristensen, Director, Growth and Communications at Oak North and Livia Benisty, Head of Financial Crime at Mimiro. First up, China launches an app to dob in debt 04:01 Lloyds unveils 100% mortgage for first-time buyers 10:32 TrueLayer launches Open Banking-based payments API 20:27 FCA launches GFIN 27:37 We spoke to Anna Wallace from the FCA to tell us more 33:37 11:FS AMA with a question on which fintech has the best approach to building a banking marketplace 38:41 Stripe raises $100m at $22.5bn valuation 46:49 We spoke to Andy Challis, MD Principal Investments, and John Stecher, CIO at Barclays to give us insight into Barclays supersized accelerator 53:51 Barclays supersizes New York accelerator 56:30 Chief Innovation Officer, Neal Cross Bids Farewell to DBS Bank in Heartfelt Post 57:45 And Finally, HSBC launches ‘sound identity’ in next phase of global brand refres

Michael Rouse is the CCO of Klarna. David talks to Michael about avoiding the trap of copying others, partnering with a brand as unique as Snoop Dogg's, and the evolution of payments in a broad sense, beyond simply moving money into a service and discovering the new areas of innovation. They also look at how to become both big and fast in the space and how that is born from creating a culture that allows people in the company to act autonomously. Michael talks about how empowering the leaders of Klarna's teams to think of it as running a business has been part of its success. Klarna has managed to keep the entrepreneurial spark it started with nearly 14 years ago. Operating in the world of e-commerce and point of sale financing, Klarna is born out of the buy-now pay-later category and started in Sweden. Now they're operating in 18 geographies and around 60M consumers have used its product. We hope you enjoyed the show! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow Fintech Inside

Our hosts David, Jason and Sarah are joined by Daniel Macklin, Co-founder of So-Fi, board member and Angel Investor, Daniel Lowther, Head of FinTech at CCgroup and Freddy Kelly CEO of Credit Kudos. First up, Snoop Dogg Invests In Klarna, Sweden's $2.5 Billion Unicorn 02:49 We've also got a great cutaway from Aoife Houlihan, VP Communications and Public Policy at Klarna to tell us more about the partnership 11:16 Square launches debit card for businesses 15:04 Google hit with £44m GDPR fine over ads 20:10 Alipay awarded e-money licence in Luxembourg 25:25 11:FS AMA with a question on if the big 4 Australian banks are more engaging than Monzo 39:30 Aussie digital bank Xinja makes crowdfunding move 45:11 Aussie digital bank Volt wins banking licence 48:30 Lloyds to cut costs with Thought Machine platform move 54:20 And Finally, Church of England: Contactless collection payments trialled 1:03:38 All this and so much more on today's episode of Fintech Insider! ​ Subscribe so you never miss a

Reuben Lai is Senior Managing Director of Grab Financial Group. Simon talks to Reuben about making taxis safe, opening bank accounts for those used to relying on a cash-first economy and how Grab Financial Group rose so high in the markets so fast. Reuben talks about how Grab Financial worked to turn one of the least safe industries in Malaysia into reputable and safe service through fintech, removing the cash element of transactions to improve standards and ensure customers know what they're getting. Grab Financial Group has had off the charts levels of hypergrowth - at only six years old the fintech is now operating in eight countries and 336 cities. Simon and Reuben go over Grab's expansion across South East Asia, the problems of entering a new market, convincing customers to move away from cash and using financial inclusion to encourage opportunities for a swathe of micro-entrepreneurs and consumers. We hope you enjoyed the show! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow

Our hosts Ross and Sarah are joined by Lianna Brinded, Head of Yahoo Finance UK at Yahoo, Lucy Woolfenden, Marketing Director at Yolt and Wincie Wong, Head of Innovation for Supply Chain Services at RBS. First up, Fiserv to acquire First Data in all-stock deal with equity value of $22 billion 01:38 We spoke to 11:FS Managing Director of the Americas, Sam Maule to get his perspective on the Fiserv story 08:13 Atom Bank hires advisers ahead of potential Spanish bid 10:56 AccessPay banks $9 million in new funding as VCs hit the North 18:36 We interviewed Anish Kapoor, CEO of AccessPay to get a bit more insight 22:32 Digital bank Tandem eyes IPO as customer numbers continue to surge 24:46 Challenger Bank Tide Joins With ClearBank To Bid For RBS Fund 28:23 11:FS AMA on geographical markets and fintech hotspots 35:58 Fintech firms want to shake up banking, and that worries the Fed 40:23 Peter Thiel Wants To Give Wall Street a Fright 47:57 We got a bit more insight from Sam Maule 52:18 Swift

Steve Bartlett is an entrepreneur and Founder of Social Chain. David talks to Steve about technological curves, disrupting the mobile phone, building brand love and the power of being transparent. We hope you enjoyed the show! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow Fintech Insider on Twitter or Facebook. If you really loved it, please leave us a review, we love reading them! This episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse Special Guest: Steve Bartlett.

Our hosts David, Jason and Leda are joined by Jeppe Rindom, CEO of Pleo, Saalim Chowdhury, Partner at 500 Startups and Simon Vans-Colina, Engineer at Monzo. First up, RBS takes stake in student-focused fintech 02:22 Google gets go-ahead from Central Bank for payments 08:52 Two-Thirds of Financial Decision-Makers Believe Tech Giants Will Offer Retail Banking in Five Years 13:29 Logging In to Your Bank Account Is Now a $3 Billion Business 15:25 Our Open Banking expert, Adam Davis had a few minutes to bring a little more insight 22:09 Starling eyes France and Germany 24:43 We also have an AMA with an intriguing three part question from a listener at Microsoft 34:55 At last, US banks are introducing contactless cards 52:09 New challenger bank on UK scene, Chetwood Financial 56:32 We have a great interview with Chetwood Financial COO, Mark Jenkinson to find out more 57:53 And finally, UK start-up Viola Black tunes in with account launch 1:05:54 All this and so much more on today's episode o

Howard Marks is Co-Founder and CEO of StartEngine with a long history in the gaming industry, he co-founded Activision and founded Acclaim, and has unique expertise in innovating within echnological limitations, turning around failing businesses and raising capital. Simon talks to Howard about how to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and the difficulties of raising capital unless you bootstrap the business. Howard wanted to solve the problems entrepreneurs face in raising funding, especially when entrepreneurs don't fit the young straight white male stereotype that VCs typically see. Howard Marks believes crowdfunding is the future of finance and he realised that the public want to be able to invest in companies they support. For a long time it's felt like the system was rigged for the rich to get richer and now regular people have a way to access companies in a similar way. We hope you enjoyed the show! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow Fintech Insider on Twitter

Our hosts Simon and Adam are joined by Emily Nicolle, Technology Reporter at City AM and Valentina Kristensen, Director of Growth and Comms at OakNorth. First up, Starling Bank reviewing data policy after customer complains his passport was shared in a web link 01:41 2019 looks to continue another lights-out year for fintech startups 06:51 Google just nabbed an e-money license and it highlights the serious threat tech companies pose to incumbent banks 13:05 Microsoft Partners With Fintech Startup ZestFinance To Bring Transparency To AI-Powered Financial Models 20:22 Ant Financial in talks to buy WorldFirst 31:06 Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing expands into fintech as driver regulation rears its head 36:31 Denmark shakes up watchdog after Danske Bank scandal 41:58 We also have a great interview with Sian Lewin to give us a bit more insight 43:29 Israeli law restricting use of cash goes into effect 50:34 And Finally, the bank that watches your every move 55:48 All this and so much mo

Bart Leurs is Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Rabobank, he joined the company two years ago to drive its fintech innovation and came from ING where he headed up its digital transformation. Jeff and Bart talk about scaling up to a full fledged digital bank in the retail market, what it's like to be a part of an industry shift, what digital transformation means to Rabo Bank, why customers are driving the change in digital and why the meta of digital is going to disappear. We hope you enjoyed the show! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and follow Fintech Insider on Twitter or Facebook. If you really loved it, please leave us a review, we love reading them! This episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse Special Guests: Bart Leurs and Jeff Tijssen.

Happy New Year's Eve to all of our listeners. To give you one last fintech laugh before the end of the year we've got a quick collection of the stumbles, fumbles and absurdly mispronounced names from all the recordings this year. The stuff that doesn't usually make it in. We hope you have a great celebration tonight and can't wait to see you for even more fintech goodness in the new year! Produced by Laura Watkins. Edited by Alex Woodhouse.

We've got a roundtable of some of the most beloved fintech podcast hosts there are. They're all ours. Sarah's takes David, Simon, Jason, Ross and Leda through what we think's going to happen in fintech in 2019. We look back at some of our favourite moments that happened in fintech this year, before taking a look at some of the things we're most excited about for 2019. This includes: how big banks are changing, creating their own digital challengers, consolidation in the challenger market and the back office getting a lot more exciting. All this and so much more on this week's episode of Fintech Insider. We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe! Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @fintechinsiders and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes. This episode was produced by Laura Watkins. Edited by Alex Woodhouse. Special Guest: Leda Glyptis.

You might’ve seen on Twitter we’ve been running an advent calendar of the 11 Days of Christmas, with our top things from across fintech and banking in the last year. Today we’re going to take a deep dive on those: Open Banking. The initiative launched almost exactly a year ago on 13th January and it's not exactly an overnight success. The CMA9 were not ready, but fintechs and FS providers welcomed it. We take a look at how far we have come since it began. We take a look at GDPR, if anyone was ready, how successful it's been and what effect it'll start to have in 2019 and if the acclimatisation period is truly over. 2018 brought us a horde of fintech unicorns. We examine how it happened and what it means for investment in fintech for the future. Borderless accounts. Transferwise borderless bank accounts launched back in April, allowing customers to “bank like a local” in multiple currencies. Revolut are also competing in this market with their free international transfers, could this be the next area