Fintech Insider By 11:fs

This week we have some great stories for you as Sarah and co-host Adam are joined by a couple of great guests : Karen Kerrigan - COO of Seedrs Romi Savova - CEO and founder of PensionBee Iona Bain - blogger at Young Money as well as industry commentator, author and speaker We kick off the episode by taking a look at the remedies for small businesses story. Nationwide Building Society, Investec Bank and The Co-operative Bank have been granted a total of 80 million pounds from the RBS Remedies Fund Pool B. The allocations are as follows: 50 million pounds to Nationwide, 15 million to Investec bank and 15 million for Co-operative bank. The panel discusses the three banks commitments for the money and if there is any significance in the fact that the money was largely given to incumbents? Why wasn't Monzo on the list? Maybe the government thinks that they already have everything sorted out? Next up, we talk about Metro's big short! The bank faced a shareholder revolt when ISS recommended investors to re

David and Jeff take a close look at mortgages, a painful process Jeff recently went through. Research shows that people who have gone through the process felt stressed, lost sleep, half of the couples rowed over the process and 1 in 10 couples stopped having sex! Furthermore, 1 in 10 sought GP help due to effects on mental health. What is broken here? The duo is joined by a panel of fantastic guests to tell us more about the mortgages market, why some of these challenges exist and what changes are coming: Maria Harris - Director of Intermediary Lending, Atom Toril Steinmo - Head of Loans, DNB Dan Hegarty - CEO, Habito Vadim Toader - CEO, Proportunity The panel discusses how applying for mortgages is one of the most stressful processes in our lives, as humans have integral anxiety about shelter for themselves and their family. The panel argues that the product is not built around the consumer's needs, but rather quite simple data made incredibly opaque. Vadim Toader explains the process like plann

Welcome to this brand new show brought to you by 11:FS, Fintech Insider USA! In this week's episode, Sam Maule is at Empire Startups’ New York Fintech Week Conference where he was invited to mingle with some of the brightest and the best from the New York fintech scene and was able to record some interviews with some of the top speakers of the conference! We hope that you will enjoy these interviews, just as much as we have enjoyed recording them! Our fantastic guests for today's episode are: Alexa von Tobel, Founder and Managing Partner at Inspired Capital Henrique Dubugras, CEO and founder of Brex Rhian Horgan, CEO and Founder of Kindur Mariquit Corcoran, MD at Barclays US We kick off the episode by speaking to Alexa von Tobel about her entrepreneurial spirit, her new book Financially Forward and how having control over your wallet can help you take control over your life. Alexa also explains why being an entrepreneur is like being punched in the face every day (02.01). Alexa's book Financia

This week we have some excellent stories for you as David and Simon are joined by a few fantastic guests: Rebecca Duckworth, Chief Sales Officer at Quotevine Limited Louis Sutton, Co-Founder & Director at The Grapevine and host of I, Fintech Valentina Kristensen, Director of Growth and Comms at OakNorth Ryan Edwards-Pritchard, Managing Director at Funding Options We kick off the episode with Valentina making a big announcement regarding OakNorth entering the mortgage market. As mortgage processes can be considered overlooked and underserved, the discussion goes to whether or not this product could drive incumbents to change existing mortgage processes. OakNorth are hoping that by offering a bespoke customer-centric product, it will become a major player in the sector (03:16). Next up, we talk about Lloyds’ disappointing Q1 results and the fierce competition in the mortgage market. The panel ask where growth is going to come from and how the market is going to change with new challenger banks comin

Anthony Thomson is Founder of 86 400, Atom Bank and Metro Bank. Simon talks to Anthony about the Australian market and how he can apply the lessons he's learned from setting up UK challenger banks to Australia's financial sector, the differences between customer needs in the two countries and how to design a proposition for a brand new market. The pair also discuss the atmosphere Australia's regulatory environment creates for challengers and how new market entrants can operate in an area where incumbents have such entrenched power. They also take a look at Anthony's previous challenger banks and what they've accomplished so far. All this and so much more on today's show. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse. Special Guest: Anthony Thomso

This week we have some great stories for you as David and Simon are joined by a couple of great guests: Samantha Bedford, Head of Innovation and New Ways of Working, CYBG Freddie Villis, Google Account Manager: Finance at Snowdrop Solutions Oscar Williams-Grut, Senior Correspondent at Yahoo Finance We kick off the episode by taking a look at Central banks becoming the world's newest climate change activists. An open letter in support of climate change came from the Network for Greening the Financial System (the NGFS). Simon comments that customers are making eco-friendly choices all the time as shown by the growing presence of challenger banks (03:17). You can read up on Simon's views around eco-friendly finance here. Next up, we talk about Open Banking one year on. According to the OBIE, in addition to helping individuals with their finances, Open Banking is using technology to combat societal issues such as access to mortgages and debt advice, with benefits for the UK SME community also being p

This week we have some great stories for you as David and Simon are joined by a few great guests: Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless Solange Dive-Chamberlain, Head of Commercial Banking Strategy at LBG Chris Maddern, Co-founder & CPO at Button, formerly of Venmo Niall Cameron, Global Head of Corporate and Institutional Digital at HSBC We kick off the episode by taking a look at Station F, could it be France’s F-You to London’s fintech hub? Opened in June 2017, Station F is the world’s largest startup incubator. Station F acts as a statement of ambition. France wants to become the number one country for tech in Europe. Hiroki notes that Paris is five years behind London in terms of fintech environment and David's not a huge fan of the name...(02:50) We speak to Oscar Williams-Grut, who wrote the story, for a bit more insight (03:34). Next up, we talk about the evolution of the US prepaid card ecosystem. There were 10.7 billion prepaid card transactions worth $290 billion in 2016, according to The

Ross and Adam are taking a close look at financial literacy, how fintech is encouraging better money management from a young age and how pocket money apps are pushing forwards innovation. They're joined by a couple of experts in the space: Louise Hill, COO of GoHenry Will Carmichael, CEO of Rooster Money The panel talks about the effects of activating customers early on in life, something banks have done really well with student accounts. They take a look at whether there's a responsibility to create educational tools within finance apps aimed at children, if psychological ‘nudges’ early enough in life can make someone far more financially literate as they grow older and what pressure, if any, there is from the regulator to increase financial literacy. They also discuss the complexity of building a digital proposition for such a varied target market and whether the target audience is children or if it's really for the parents. All this and so much more on today's show. Don't forget to subscribe

This week we have some great stories for you as Sarah and Simon are joined by a couple of great guests: Freddy Kelly, CEO and co-founder at Credit Kudos Ben Gleisner, CEO and Co-founder at CoGo Simon Vans-Colina, Engineer at Monzo We kick off the episode by taking a look at US lenders preparing for a recession. U.S. online lenders such as LendingClub Corp, Kabbage Inc and Avant LLC are scrutinizing loan quality, securing long-term financing and cutting costs, as executives prepare for what they fear could be the sector’s first economic downturn. We hear from our Americas MD, Sam Maule for a US perspective (:). Next up, we talk about RBS challenging the challengers with Bo. Despite buying NatWest almost 20 years ago RBS still uses different IT systems at the two banks. Bó, their new digital-only consumer bank in contrast, has been built in a little over a year on a completely new cloud-based system. It will launch to the public later this year. Sarah and Simon VC remark that if Bo are happy to be a

This week we take a look at something set to change payments for everybody as we talk about Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) Sarah is joined by some great guests to discuss the subject: Nilixa Devlukia, Head of Regulatory at Open Banking Olivier Godement, Product Manager at Stripe Daniel Chatfield, Engineer at Monzo Fred Liu, VP Identity and Risk Products at Visa We kick off the episode by taking a look at what's driving the introduction of SCA and the theoretical benefits around it. The group explains what SCA is, who's responsible for its implementation and whether any existing SCA can work when SMS-based 2FA has been breached in the past. There's a discussion around whether SCA actually allows or encourages innovation or if it's going to grind innovation to a halt. SCA has had a very fragmented introduction so the outlook isn't particularly clear and the panel discuss what the possible outcomes could be, including whether or not PIN Sentry tools may make a return. They also examine how th

This week we have some great stories for you as Jason and Adam are joined by a few great guests: Anthony Craufurd, Director, Venture and Startup Engagement at Visa Europe Chris Low, Senior Advisor at Motive Labs Emily Nicolle, Technology Editor at City AM We kick off the episode by taking a look at Standard Chartered expected to pay just over $1 billion to resolve U.S., U.K. probes. Standard Chartered Plc has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to U.S. and British authorities for conducting illegal financial transactions that violated sanctions against Iran and other countries. Chris comments on the importance of it being based on historic violations and Jason wonders if it's only the people who aren't good at avoiding AML that get caught (02:13). Next up, we talk about London being set to lead the unicorn race. Of the 29 global unicorns, 9 are in San Francisco, 7 are in London and 38% of VC funding went to London with reports suggesting that London will overtake the US tech hub in funding this year, bringin

Live from NYC's New York Fintech Week with the DIT Sam's joined by some great guests to talk about the future of money: Natalie Ceeney, Chair, Innovate Finance Robin Mackenzie, Chief Marketing Officer, De La Rue Andrew Boyajian, Head of North America, Transferwise Farrah Lakhani, Director, Growth and Operations at OakNorth Analytical Intelligence We kick off the episode by taking a look at the story so far and how the UK fintechs have developed world leading challenger brands offering new customer products and services that are focused on the customer. Next up, the panel talk about how customer centricity drives innovation, how that factors in to the notion of digitalisation over digitisation and whether customer focus is something that's gathered appeal on a global scale. They also take a look at the appetite for fintech in the US and what makes breaking America so much more difficult than the European market. And whether there's an unfair advantage built in for UK fintechs. Payments are a m

This week we have some great stories for you as David and Ross are joined by a couple of great guests: Ken Hart, CEO and Founder of Snowdrop Solutions Megan Caywood, Managing Director at Barclays We kick off the episode by taking a look at Revolut's newest scandal reveal. The Financial Conduct Authority has made enquiries into Revolut after being contacted by an ex-employee whistleblower who passed on their concerns regarding compliance and the CEO’s conduct as far back as 2016. Megan comments that it seems to have started from the Valentine's incident and snowballed from there and wonders if it could be because the media's loving the scandal and making the culture out to be bad. Ken adds that to be disruptive you have to take risks but if you want to be a trusted financial partner then you need to pivot and do some things differently (02:14). Next up, We spoke to Gary Turner Co-Founder and Managing Director of Xero UK & EMEA to find out more about making tax digital (08:34). The panel talk about

David and Simon are with some great guests from Finastra, including: Simon Paris, CEO Eli Rosner, Chief Product and Technology Officer Martin Haering, Chief Marketing Officer Nicola Hamilton, Senior Director, Brand and Communications We're bringing you an insight into how to manage diverse sets of client requirements, handling varying paces of change and overcoming the hurdles regarding legacy brands. We also talk to Finastra about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, how the company interacts with CSR and what the future has in store for Finastra. Our guests talk to us about creating a platform for financial services that let banks move faster than core banking systems let them. Finastra aims to provide an open platform for innovation in the financial services industry in an age of massive consolidation and doing it in a way that deals with internal silos and prevents them from being formed. They also talk about skill transfer, enabling those without technology skills to use

This week we have some great stories for you as David and Leda are joined by a couple of great guests: Conny Dorestijn, Founding Partner at BankiFi Ryan Edwards-Pritchard, MD of Funding Options We kick off the episode by taking a look at Apple Card, Apple announced the launch of a credit card designed to help customers lead a healthier financial life. It offers no fees of any kind and encourages customers to pay less interest. Conny comments that it's a cool product that can deliver an excellent user experience across devices, which is where Apple will excel but Leda thinks that this isn't a gamechanger (03:06). Next up, we talk about Oaknorth and Monzo teaming up to launch a savings account, Ryan thinks that this news is a great entry partnership for the companies and Leda adds that Oaknorth are the story right now more than Monzo (17:53). We also talk to Amir Nooriala, COO of OakNorth to get some further insight into the partnership (21:00). Other stories include: Venmo’s going after users

Last year we introduced you to the wonderful world of Luxembourg fintech through LHoFT, nine months later we've been invited back. Laura Watkins explores how Luxembourg has solidified its place in Europe as a fintech hub and how this tiny country plans to extend its reach globally by talking to some of the key players in Luxembourg's fintech space, including: Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg Finance Minister, Nasir Zubairi, CEO of LHoFT - (lux House of Fin Tech) Susanne Schartz, Chief Operating Officer, Seqvoia, a homegrown Luxembourg fintech Luc Falempin, CEO at tokeny.com Alberto Dalmasso, Co-Founder and CEO of Satispay Laura finds out how Luxembourg is capitalising on interest in blockchain, supporting 'older' fintechs that sowed the seeds for the fintech hub and what outsiders think about the small country with big ambitions and why some of them are relocating to the picturesque nation surrounded by major European economic players. Luxembourg has managed to attract major global players like Amaz

This week we have some great stories for you as David and Jason are joined by two great guests: Caroline Plumb, CEO of Fluidly Simon Balmain, Operations and Community Specialist at Monzo We kick off the episode by taking a look at WorldPay selling to FIS and changing its tech stack. The group comments that it's not a modern way to approach tech stack spending, it's an oldschool way of doing things and 600M is a large amount to spend over 6 years to maintain technology (02:36). Next up, we talk about Barclaycard bringing Alipay payments to UK retailers. There are some suggestions that this could mark the beginning of the end from the panel but they also wonder who the first adopter will be and Jason, for one, welcomes our new overlords (08:52). We spoke to Tao Tao, Alipay's Business Development Director to find out more (13:15). We also talk to our 11:FS Americas MD Sam Maule to get a US insight into why 21% of Americans have no savings (:). Other stories include: 21% of Americans have no s

Benoit Legrand is CIO of ING. Simon talks to Benoit about his unsuccessful startup experiences and what they taught him, how ING sees itself as a 20 year old fintech, why some banks are afraid of PSD2 and how to focus on the problems customers are facing. They also take a look at Yolt, developing resistence to change and the importance of having a team dedicated to delivering change, why the scale of partnerships matter and touch on Brexit. 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: Benoit Legrand.

This week we have some great stories for you as Sarah and Simon are joined by a couple of great guests: Daniel Hegarty, CEO of Habito Sharon O’Dea, founder of communications and collaboration consultancy Lithos Partners We kick off the episode by taking a look at the RBS trials for a biometric fingerprint bank card. Sarah thinks it's not a terrible idea and a potential solution to upcoming Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) demands. But Simon and Daniel disagree. Simon thinks the whole thing is a gimmick and customers deserve a better UX whereas Daniel just can't see any good use cases for fingerprint cards (01:50). Next up, we talk about Bank of England telling VISA Europe to hire PwC after the 2018 outage. Simon reckons that having more eyes looking at the problem can only be a good thing while the outages problem rumbles on, Sharon agrees and comments that VISA's outage was a human error issue but there's a need to look at why that error could occur in the first place (08:36). We also have an

David Duffy is the CEO of CYBG. Simon talks to David about CYBG's recent acquisition of Virgin Money, how the challenger narrative is shifting and why integrating a challenger brand into CYBG's existing services might be easier than industry commentators believe. They also take a look at Brexit, the future of the industry, how fintech and banks can partner together and what role the big tech platforms can play. 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: David Duffy.