Fintech Daydreaming

In this engaging second episode of our collaboration with Helsinki Fintech Farm, we journey once more through the bustling Nordic fintech landscape. Though payments and venture funding may appear routine, the Nordic fintech sector always keeps us on our toes. This time around, we delve into the pivotal role of national infrastructure in fostering fintech adoption, and explore the impact of central...

If embedded banking and finance are the future of financial institutions, will the role of banks become more critical, less significant, or simply transform? Paul Staples, Head of Corporate Embedded Banking at ClearBank, joins hosts Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu to delve into the shifting role of banks within digital ecosystems and its long-term implications. From atrocious quantum jokes to insigh...

The first ever episode of Nordic Fintech Highlights is here! Pål and Ville join Janne from Helsinki Fintech Farm to discuss what’s hot (or not) in Nordic fintech this month. In this episode we discuss: Alphasense becomes the first Finnish fintech biunicorn - AlphaSense, an AI-based market intel firm, snaps up $150M at a $2.5B valuation | TechCrunch Enable Banking partners for pan-European open ban...

Do you have children? If you do, here’s something to think about: your kids are probably multimillionaires before they ever get their hands on a real bank account. How is this, we hear you ask... This is true because of most kids getting exposure to virtual worlds like games with their own digital economies. But this also creates a financial education challenge when bridging the gap from virtual t...

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a phrase you hear quite often when talking about developing organisations towards sustainable growth. What happens when the development you need to get done is in a bank and the direction you are taking is invisible banking? How do you cultivate a culture that becomes an environment for innovation in a regulated banking environment? Sudip Khan is the O...

Autumn is fast approaching and that means two things: more rain and a fresh new season of Fintech Daydreaming! Season eight of our podcast kicks off on a high note as we welcome CEO of audax, Kelvin Tan for a discussion about the current and future digital banking landscape. Building a digital banking platform in-house in a bank and then packaging it into a product is a journey that builds on the...

Join hosts Pål and Ville in this episode of Fintech Daydreaming as they reflect on the exciting journey of Season 7 and share their plans for Season 8. Season 7 was filled with engaging discussions and insightful interviews, covering topics like ESG and embedded finance. The hosts express their gratitude for the continuous growth and support from their audience, with their LinkedIn page now reachi...

“Everything in this world that can be connected, will be connected” is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot. What many times gets less attention is how exactly will this massive connectivity of machines and things mean for ownership and value chains that are suddenly sources of a lot of very detailed usage data. Linx4 is an Austrian fintech that saw this opportunity and ran with it. Paul Bruckbe...

It’s that time of the year again: Pål and Ville took the show on the road and joined the Nordic Fintech Summit in Helsinki as the official podcast partner to bring you this special episode that was recorded live in our own temporary studio on site. Our hot seat was on high demand and we got to speak with a wide range of guests and exhibitors in the summit. Join the fun as we talk to: Janne Salmine...

Stop the press 💥 Banks are late to the party and are just about to join as the cool kids are already heading for the exits 🚪🏃‍♀️ Sounds about right, but which party is it this time? The public cloud. Join Pål and Ville in this episode of Fintech Daydreaming where we are joined by David Heinemeier Hansson, who is the CTO and co-founder of 37signals - the company that has brought you Basecamp. Da...

We don't always have fintech superstars as guests, but when we do, they are shining bright. Leda Glyptis joined Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu to talk about her own journey in banking and fintech and how it inspired her to write her recently published book "Bankers like us." Surgeon general warning: This episode might give you superpowers - especially if you're working in the tren...

Have you ever wanted to ask a fintech VC what are the ingredients for your company's success and scaling globally? Us too! Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu sat down with Prakash Pattni from IBM and Anders Hammarbäck from Antler to talk about the current trends in fintech but most importantly how to take a fintech idea to practical execution and how to get funding. Will we be able to carry out a c...

Every vehicle needs an Engine, and in case your vehicle happens to be a financial institution you probably should have a listen to this week's episode of Fintech Daydreaming. Chief Commercial Officer of Engine by Starling Nick Drewett joined Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu to talk about how the success of Starling Bank in the UK inspired the build-up of Engine by Starling; a software as a servic...

This special episode of Fintech Daydreaming was recorded live and for the first time ever in front of a live audience at the Mobey Forum member meeting in Vienna.   Alessio Basso from AWS joined us on stage to discuss one of the hottest topics in fintech right now: superapps. Is this phenomenon just the result of unique circumstances restricted to China or the future of digital ecosystems and...

We go above and beyond with Down Under in this week's episode of Fintech Daydreaming as Pål and Ville is joined by Dexter Cousins from Tier One People to talk about the Australian fintech scene 🦘🪃🇦🇺   Recording an Ozzy episode is an entertaining proposition by default, but on top of that we might have ended up actually learning something about fintech and happy life - we hope you enjoy this...

SEBx has been the poster child of Nordic bank innovation and subject of endless intrigue from the fintech community since its inception. The founder of SEBx and current Head of SEB Embedded Christoffer Malmer joined Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu on this episode of Fintech Daydreaming to tell the whole story and share his insights to some of the burning questions everyone working with emerging tech...

Time is relative and we go quantity over quality in jokes when Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu get to host Anders Olofsson in this week's fix of Fintech Daydreaming.   We jump from bitcoin to central banks, to connection problems, to Wirecard and more in this fast paced episode. Doesn't sound like a plausible script for a podcast but somehow we covered it all in this rollercoaster of an episode...

Season seven is here! Our Fintech Daydreaming hosts Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu have (mostly) survived the holiday season, and have picked-up right back where we left off in 2022 by starting with one of the most important topics we are all going to be talking about in 2023: ESG in banking and fintech. Luckily we found just the right expert to tell us all about the ups and downs of the challenge...

Time to wrap up season six of Fintech Daydreaming and see what (if anything) we learned in 2022. In our season finale we at least learn that ChatGPT hype has finally caught up with Pål and Ville, but is there a fintech angle to it at all and what is it good for actually? What about the problems of AI that are certainly going to be front and center with ChatGPT too?   Sit back, relax, grab a b...

What do bananas, Finnish sauna, personal finance management and chimpanzees have in common?   Data, obviously 🤷‍♂️    Before you ask - have a listen to this penultimate episode of season six where Amir Tabakovic from Experiens.ai joined our hosts Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu to educate us about AI, machine learning and data usage in banking. In addition they take a run down memory...

How does a global company navigate the perilous landscape of regional regulation and remain competitive? Fintech companies handle a tremendous amount of sensitive and private data that puts them in the centre of this exact question.   Jeff Parker leads Marqeta's international unit and has a lot to say about how to find answers to difficult data questions that go way beyond just GDPR. Pål Krog...

Have you ever wondered what happens when you put two recovering bankers and our resident bank platform advocate Pål Krogdahl in the same podcast episode, and start talking about how open banking came about in the Nordics?   Us at Fintech Daydreaming too, and that's exactly why we invited Sarah Häger for a chat with our hosts Ville Sointu and Pål Krogdahl, to tell us all about how to build a s...

It’s that time of year again. The season when who’s who of the financial services industry flock to a get together that still today is the largest migration of bankers and Fintech nerds heading to one place: the annual Sibos conference.   Our co-host Pål Krogdahl found himself in the middle of it all and we decided to share the experience with all our listeners. What’s hot (and not) this year...

"Here we go again" we thought when we scheduled this episode recording that it would be another one about embedded finance. At the same time we realised that this is a chance to get to the next level in the discussion: how does embedded finance really work? What is the terminology we should use and what are the implications of delivering these capabilities across national borders and over differen...

What is a brank? While we break new grounds in Fintech Daydreaming every now and then this is the first time we might have accidentally invented a new word that tells everything about how banks could re-invent their brand strategy.  Join Pål Krogdahl and Ville Sointu for this episode, where they talk with Liz High (unfortunately Allison was unable to join us at last minute) about how banks to...