IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

Ben Richmond, Founder & CEO, CUBE    In a new report, Data: Poison or Cure? , global RegTech CUBE explores the potential of data in financial services. While remote working has made compliance more of a challenge, systems are getting smarter. Remember, however, that data outcomes are only as good as the data that you feed into your system! Ben Richmond, Founder and CEO of Cube, speaks to Robin...

Danny Chazonoff, Chief Operating Officer, Paysafe Paysafe’s Lost in Transaction report surveyed 8,000 consumers around the world on how the global pandemic has affected their spending habits. Globally, 86% confirmed changes to their behaviours and a majority (59%) also tried using a new payment method for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Danny Chazonoff, COO of Paysafe speaks to Rob...

Russell Starr, Chief Executive Officer, Trillium Gold Bitcoin is a hot topic as the moment – is it the way of the future or does its price volatility rule it out as both a currency and an investment? Can we compare ‘digital gold’ and its mining to that old-fashioned yellow metal that gets dug out the ground? Is there room in the investment space for both? Robin Amlôt discusses these and other chal...

Elin Helander, Chief Scientific Officer, Dreams Sweden-based Dreams has partnered with Ukrainian commercial bank, UKRSIBBANK BNP Paribas Group, allowing the bank to leverage Dreams’ financial wellbeing technology and behavioural science methodology. The deal means UKRSIBBANK’s 2 million customers will have access to a range of functionalities from which they can set and achieve money-saving goals...

Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist, VMware The disruption caused by the pandemic along with an ‘anywhere’ workforce has resulted in a surge of sophisticated cyberattacks and material breaches. According to VMware’s Global Security Insights Report 2021: Intelligence from the Global Cybersecurity Landscape, 76% of global cybersecurity professionals said attacks had increased due to emp...

Fidelma McGuirk, CEO and Founder, Payslip Covid-related travel restrictions, in-country business continuity requirements and the massive increase in WFH have significantly boosted international hiring and country expansion. However, multinational institutions face a range of payroll pain points, including lack of data standardisation and automation, reporting and analytics, together with potential...

Vikas Srivastava, Chief Revenue Officer, Integral Integral recently surveyed 94 heads of FX trading and senior FX managers, reviewing the global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the FX business. Among the survey’s findings, 28% of respondents said they will operate their FX technology completely in the cloud within the next 5 years, compared to just 2% at present. In distribution channels, 46%...

Andrew Kessler, Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, Zenotta Blockchain and data innovation are now going hand-in-hand to make digital systems governance and execution work together to create a new way of using and valuing data in an interconnected world. Andrew Kessler, Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, Zenotta, speaks to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence about how digital currency h...

Claire Calmejane, Chief Innovation Officer; Albert Loo, Deputy Head of Sales for Global Markets - Fintech strategy & Global Market Incubator, Société Générale Digital transformation, it is easy to talk the talk but harder to walk the walk. Among big banks leading the transformation charge in Europe is France’s Société Générale. Claire Calmejane, the bank’s Chief Innovation Officer speaks to Ro...

Joe Higginson, Chief Commercial Officer, Identitii New customer requirements and pressure from banking regulators around the world are forcing the pace of change in digital banking and open banking but how should banks be performing critical technology upgrades and what are the risks they face in doing so? Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence discusses the issues and legacy challenges with Joe Higginso...

Steve Morgan, Banking Industry Market Lead, Pegasystems Accelerate digital transformation and improve customer service may well be the key mantra for many banks now but it is not just about digital banking technology, it is about bringing people with you – both customers and staff. It is about delivering personalised actions for people across the board in payments, lending and financial management...

Alistair Stuart, Head of Digital Banking, Apex Many headlines have been devoted to the development of digital banking in the retail and SME sectors but the digital banking landscape in the corporate sector is less developed. Alistair Stuart, Head of Digital Banking, Apex and former COO of Investec Bank, speaks to Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence about the challenges and opportunities in the corpora...

Vince Graziani, CEO, IDEX Biometrics The concept of digital currency, powered by blockchain, has been around for a couple of years but the reality could be here by the end of the year in China. However, there is a growing need for additional layers of security to protect consumers and also to offer the unbanked and underbanked a route to financial inclusion. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence discuss...

Rivo Uibo, Co-founder & Chief Business Officer, Modularbank The banking industry is undergoing a profound transformation but will the rise of embedded finance be an existential threat to banks or a massive opportunity? Growing demand for BaaS and the potential for an infrastructure play mean that banks could operate in ‘multiple modes’, not only providing services to their own customers but ro...

Sylvain Thieullent, CEO, Horizon Software The longer-term implications of Brexit and Covid-19 for the financial markets are becoming clearer. Financial institutions are being forced to review their existing frameworks to navigate the shake-up of traditional market structures as a result of changing global expectations for financial trading services. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence speaks to Sylvai...

Frank Uittenbogaard, Regional VP Europe, Backbase Customer habits have shifted; digital access has become of paramount importance and digital adoption at speed has been the watchword in banking in response to Covid-19. To thrive and survive in the new business environment, the onus is on banks to ensure both that their front-end engagement is phenomenal and that priority is given to getting the di...

Jeremy Thomson-Cook, Chief Economist, Equals Money What you need to know about the impact of day-to-day moves in the international money markets and the implications of fiscal and monetary policies for business. The discussion also takes in the coming of digital currencies, stablecoins and CBDCs. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence speaks to Jeremy Thomson-Cook, Chief Economist at Equals Money.

Jason Blick, Director & CEO, Eqibank Based in Cayman and serving corporates and HNWIs in more than 180 countries, Eqibank also offers its digital banking solution to third parties as white label banking through a BaaS solution. This means institutions not regulated as banks may offer banking services. Eqibank is also expanding into DeFi, offering a single uniform platform for DeFi products wit...

Peter Briffett, CEO and Co-Founder, Wagestream In three years, Wagestream has scaled from a small charity-backed fintech app to a company hosting 200 employers and half a million employees, operating across the UK, Spain, Australia and United States. So how does Wagestream and so-called Earned Wage Access work? Sunniva Kolostyak speaks to Peter Briffett, CEO and Co-Founder, about ethical scaling d...

Sanat Rao, Global Head and Chief Business Officer, Infosys Finacle The technology may be available now but are people ready? Well, that depends on who and what you believe. Is the tech truly ready for us to go completely cashless – that’s a debate to be had. As for society, well in some countries, Sweden for example, there is already a cashless roadmap in place. In others, despite opportunities an...

Nikhita Hyett, Managing Director Europe, BlueSnap It is a truism that late payments are a threat to corporate survival but managing the payments cycle properly and replacing outdated, legacy and inefficient payments systems would improve both survivability and profitability. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence speaks to Nikhita Hyett, Managing Director Europe of payments platform BlueSnap about the ch...

Adam Coyle, Chief Executive Officer, Digital River The pandemic has seen explosive growth in ecommerce, not just in domestic markets but across borders as well. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence speaks to Adam Coyle, CEO of Digital River. Getting the back-end processing right is key in cross-border payments and that includes getting local fulfilment and local processing right from the outset. Both B...

Michael Down, Head of Financial Services, Elastic UK financial institutions are embracing tech to innovate and grow. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence speaks to Michael Down, Head of Financial Services, Elastic, about what needs to be done to maintain the UK’s leadership in the FinTech space through a standardised view of data, proper use of that data and the algorithms that manage it, allowing deve...

Gregory Perdon, Chief Investment Officer, Arbuthnot Latham Gregory Perdon, Chief Investment Officer of UK private bank Arbuthnot Latham speaks to Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence about the key themes and trends in wealth management and investment. The discussion also covers how the wealth management business itself is being changed by the implementation of AI and new financial technologies. 

Hani Hagras, Chief Science Officer, Temenos EU regulators are reportedly planning tough new rules on artificial intelligence.  Hani Hagras, Chief Science Officer at Temenos believes financial institutions need to have transparency in their AI decision-making processes to be able to explain to both regulators and customers how such decisions are made. He tells Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence how th...