Don’t Break the Bank: Run IT, Change IT

This is not so much of a best of episode as a taster for some of the topics we have covered and to tease / encourage you to go listen to the prior episodes.   3 Takeaways: We have had a diverse group of guests, customers, partners, industry thought leaders and colleagues. The deep dive has given us a rich conversation into the heart of some of the meatier topics of Financial Services, Technology a...

In this captivating conversation, we have the pleasure of hosting Joy Macknight, the first female Editor of the prestigious publication - The Banker. Join us as we journey through Joy's illustrious career, starting from her double major in biology and environmental studies to leading a team of editors and reporters covering the international banking industry. She shares intriguing insights into th...

In this episode, our podcast host, Matthew O’Neill takes us on a deep dive “Exploring DORA”, Europe’s new Digital Operational Resilience Act which is being suggested, will be as significant for Financial Services as GDPR has been to the rest of us. Matthew discusses the key provisions of DORA and how it aims to ensure the robustness and resilience of the financial system in the digital age. We'll...

Episode Description: In this episode, we’re joined by Paolo Sironi, who shares his unique journey from banking to FinTech entrepreneurship and to his current role as  global research leader in banking and financial markets at IBM, the Institute for Business Value. In our discussion, he emphasizes the need to understand the human being when innovating in the world of FinTech and banking transformat...

Episode Description: In this episode, we delve into a conversation with Dr. Leda Glyptis, an accomplished fintech leader and former banker. With over two decades of experience driving transformation and technology across diverse financial sectors, Leda explores the inherent ties between banking, fintech, and the current technological surge. Discover how these domains can seamlessly integrate into...

In this episode, we talk with Tony Boobier, a consultant, mentor, author and advisor with a specialisation with AI and financial services. Tony delves into hype surrounding AI's role in everyday life. He discusses the fear-driven perceptions of data-driven decisions, pondering the motives behind the hype, and its influence on society's view of AI.  The episode also explores the practical applicati...

In this episode, we talk with Ian Ellis, Technology Strategist, Angel Investor, Venture Partner and Founder of the London Enterprise Tech Meetup. Ian Ellis is an experienced Technology Strategist who has driven C-level stakeholder engagement across some of world's leading organisations, including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Prudential Financial, Microsoft and Bank of Ireland. His work involves...

In this episode, we flip the script on our show and put Brian Hayes, Senior Director, Financial Services Industry Vertical at VMWare in the guest seat. We discuss the digital transformation of the financial services industry. Brian highlights the need for financial institutions to embrace digital transformation, adopt agile methodologies, and cultivate a culture of innovation to stay competitive i...

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 1 of Don't Break the Bank. In this episode, we speak with Joe Baguley, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, EMEA, at VMware. In his own words, Joe is the connection between R&D and the field, our customers, and our partners.  He drives all things around that, in terms of where we're going, what we're doing, what's next, and leading the technical community withi...

Spencer talks with us about building a next generation database with Cockroach Labs. He discusses the importance of distributed databases to use effectively and efficiently the commodity hardware found in the cloud, that can’t be specialized and can scale rapidly. Spencer explains about the new realities of doing business across multiple regions with diverse databases, and what is being done to pr...

Claire-Louise is a managing Director within the Technology Sector at Russell Reynolds Associates. She is a diversity and inclusion advocate, with a passion for hiring diverse Board and executive leadership teams and building succession pipelines of female and underrepresented minority leaders. Claire-Louise chatted with us about what she calls the great reflection, assessing the current work envir...

In this episode, we speak with Kevin McLoughlin. Kevin is partner and co-founder at MTech Capital. He has spent 22 years in insurance investment banking. Along with his brother they created MTech Capital as a venture capital firm that invests in technology companies operating in the insurance industry.   Kevin talks with us about how digital technology allows insurance companies to advance their o...

This episode features Zia Yusuf. He is Senior Vice President, Strategic Ecosystem & Industry Solutions at VMware. In this position, he leads the teams responsible for building joint horizontal and industry-centric solutions with the company’s ecosystem partners across Dell, global cloud providers (Hyperscalers), global system integrators, and global ISVs.  Zia chatted with us about his outlook on...

3 Takeaways: AI is not new, but Cloud based Machine Learning has been the game changer through providing seemingly unlimited capacity to do different kinds of projects, stand up more analytical environments, and to do trials and explore innovation, all in a way we couldn’t afford historically.  Learn both technology and the business sides. If you have both of those, you are the junction point. You...

3 Takeaways:   Be open minded in your work and development. This includes everything from how you work, where you work, and what you work on. Consider taking risks and exploring new experiences, while also taking advantage of utilizing new tools and technologies to aid your work. Leverage your expertise in different ways while also gaining exposure to different things. Use what you know to help pr...

3 Takeaways: The hardest (and most important thing) your company can do is invest in cultural and operational transformation. Don’t sell your technology, sell business outcomes empowered by the right technology.  The most successful companies we read about in five years will be the ones that best communicate a common vision, have the strategy to pursue that vision, and whose teams are aligned behi...

3 Takeaways: The future of finance is in the hands of non-financial companies thanks to embedded finance.  This enables companies to embrace FinTech solutions for their customers to sell more of their core product.  As this is an added service, it can be priced competitively as the margin comes from the core product.  It’s up to legacy financial institutions to work out how to aid or compete. Cryp...

3 Takeaways: An organization is more defined by the people that work there than the technology they create. Make sure employees know what their value is to an organization and encourage them to define their goals. Seek out mentors and offer mentorship. The education on both sides makes it possible to challenge old ways of thinking and discover new solutions. Key Quotes:  "Having a clear career pat...

3 Takeaways, beyond Data is NOT boring: The data that you throw away is the data that tomorrow you might be able to use. For instance, as part of a machine learning model that could bring true value to an organization. It's important for organizations to have explicit statements about their AI ethics. Federated learning has some magical capabilities, especially for financial services customers, wh...

3 Takeaways: Nonpublic market information, like planned mergers and acquisitions and market strategies, are now being specifically targeted by cybercriminals as high value targets. Customers see cybersecurity as a competitive issue. They are increasingly investing in proactive security measures like DevSecOps and looking for greater collaboration with information security teams, operations teams a...

Episode Notes 3 Takeaways: Spend lots of time with customers. That’s the best way to effectively communicate the services on offer and to get an honest barometer check on how well a customer’s needs are being met. Creating a broad, customer-focused definition of success motivates the entire organization to think about how and what needs to be done to ensure customers are satisfied.  When it comes...

3 Takeaways: Technology changes are hard, but they're never quite as hard as the people, process and organizational changes that need to happen - the culture changes. The notion of agile portability is critical and getting progressively easier. When going through a digital transformation, it’s really important to talk about it openly as a community - what’s working, what’s not, and to learn from i...

3 Takeaways: Security and especially cybersecurity is a scary reality across financial services. New technologies bring new risks and the bad guys only have to be successful once to make it worth their while.  Listen to Tom and Chris for thought-provoking approaches. People should be seen as an investment, not a cost. To get the most from this investment, focus on getting the best from people by p...

3 Takeaways: For exchanges, geographical sovereignty is a big deal when it comes to cloud data service providers. Because exchanges support many different regulators, they need to think about where the data sits, who operates that platform and who has access to the data - even if it’s encrypted. Security and data protection are important when considering a move to the cloud, but it’s necessary to...

3 Takeaways: Always invest time and effort in eliminating non-value added work and automating where possible. You can't continue to come back and ask for more money without demonstrating that you’re being responsible with the budget already given.  Make sure your tech experts feel connected to the customer experience. Ask IT to do ride alongs - listen to someone on the desk. Do empathy interviews...