FinTech Futures

Vincent Kilcoyne, executive vice president and head of product management at SmartStream, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. For our news in numbers, Vincent talks about the huge numbers involved when financial institutions experience operational loss events, and how despite progress, it keeps happening. We also chat about the data breach at buy now, pay later giant...

Kunal Galav, regional director for EMEA at Mambu, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. This week we talk about the six week deadline the Financial Conduct Authority has given e-money institutions and non-banks to clarify to their users they're not banks. We also chat about the cognitive barrier of poverty and how the unbanked and underbanked can be roughly treated by a...

James Herbert, founder and CEO of financial inclusion and wellbeing fintech Hastee, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. This week we talk about HSBC paying up to get rid of its loss-making French businesses, Curve going crowdfunding just five months after raising a $95m Series C, and the French watchdog's 127-page warning about the power of Big Tech. In our discussion...

Riten Gohil, partner and co-founder at compliance and risk technology firm Sphonic joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We cover a ranger of topics, including Mastercard acquiring Ekata in a $850 million deal, Robinhood's take on "elitist" regulators, and Santander's migration of its IT infrastructure to the cloud. In our discussion section, we talk about whether finte...

EngKok Chong, Chief Digital Officer at Infopro, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We talk about Indonesian fintech Alami acquires rural bank in $10m deal, Santander 111 UK branch closures as consumers go digital and our exclusive story on Revolut freezing $90k of investment manager’s account. Chong provides his insight on Infopro's award-winning Best Core Banking So...

Leena Iyar, chief branding officer at Moxtra, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We talk about Freetrade’s £50 million Series B fundraise and how 65% of UK financial institutions missed the UK Treasury’s gender representation targets. We also try and unpack the workplace harassment allegations against Goldman Sachs following the leaked survey by 13 first year analyst...

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 7 | Class is in session Tania Ziegler, senior research associate at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF), joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We talk about the £12 billion proposed for the new UK infrastructure bank, which falls short of the £20 billion recommended by the government’s own commission. We also discuss SoFi’...

On this latest episode of the What the Fintech podcast, we are joined by Pablo Reyes, director of technology at Strands. It’s all about the numbers as we unpack HSBC, Lloyd’s and Barclays’ latest financial results. We talk about how HSBC is exploring its options for its loss-making US retail arm, Lloyd’s tech spending programme amid a 72% profit dip and Barclays’ closure of Pingit. Reyes provides...

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 5 | Rising to the top Alexandra Boyle, head of strategic client group for Europe at ‎OpenFin, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We talk about legacy technology and new players as the Financial Conduct Authority revealed that more than 90% of UK’s financial firms still rely on legacy tech. We also unpack IKEA’s recent purchase of a 49%...

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 4 | Tmrw never dies: digital banking in the ASEAN Stuart Smith, head of regional engagement and user experience design at UOB’s TMRW Digital Bank, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We discuss Singapore’s iSTOX landing $50 million, and 86 400 becoming the second challenger to exit Australia with $169 million NAB merger. We also talk ab...

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 3 | Israel’s mobile lending tech scene Shlomi Turgeman, founder and CEO of BTB Israel, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We talk about GameStop’s “stonks” saga and how online brokers are halting its trade. We also celebrate US Black History Month with a brief primer on Black banking in America as Black-owned US challenger, Greenwood F...

The latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast features, Jack Baldwin, CEO at financial software provider, BHMI. We discuss the share price offered by NCR for Cardtronics stock and unpack Visa’s failed merger with Plaid. We also talk about buy now, pay later (BNPL) firms as the San-Francisco-based BNPL, Affirm, almost doubled its value after its initial public offering (IPO). Baldwin provides...

Happy New Year! Welcome to a brand-new season of the What the fintech? podcast. Dean Snyder, executive vice president and head of business solutions at Automated Financial Systems (AFS), joins us to usher in the new year and new season. We discuss the Financial Conduct Authority’s warnings about bitcoin and how its survey results that found 4,000 financial security firms being at risk of failing d...

Ruby Hinchliffe joins us on this special edition of What the fintech, where we relay our industry highlights of 2020. Instead of our regular news in numbers, each of us chose our one number of the year. From RON 20,000 ($4,832.68) being frozen on a Revolut account, to Lanistar’s $150 million valuation and a whopping $2 trillion in suspicious transactions uncovered in the FinCen Files leaks. We eac...

The latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast features Vinoth Jayakumar, partner at Draper Esprit. We talk about Uber’s latest finance-related projects and PNC’s acquisition of Spanish bank BBVA’s US subsidiary for $11.6 billion. We also explore the rise of fraud amid COVID-19 global lockdowns as Ghimob, a new strain of banking malware, is targeting banks, fintechs, and cryptocurrency exchan...

Nina Mohanty, executive at Klarna and co-host of Breaking Banks Europe podcast, joins us on this latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast. We talk about the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) report that revealed how a staggering 12 million people are in danger of low financial resilience due to the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. We also unpack how COVID-19 is fuelling a boo...

This special episode of the What the Fintech? podcast features Tudor Goicea, chief revenue officer (CRO) at the PayTech Award winning firm, TypingDNA. We discuss the number of fines financial institutions experienced for anti-money laundering (AML) failures, Yandex and Tinkoff’s recent merger scrap, and Ant gaining regulatory approval from Hong Kong and Chinese regulators for its initial public of...

The latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast features Manuel Silva Martinez, general partner at Mouro Capital (formerly known as Santander Innoventures). We analyse the consequences of HMRC’s £3.5 billion furlough payments that were sent in error and JP Morgan firing a collection of employees for illegally siphoning money from COVID-19. We also discuss what Jane Fraser’s appointment as Citi...

The latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast continues to be brought to you remotely, featuring Travis Skelly, director of venture investing at Citi Ventures. On this episode, we analyse the growth of the buy now, pay later firms and discuss the recent decision by the UK Competition Markets Authority to greenlight the Visa and Plaid deal. Skelly shares his thoughts on how Citi Ventures eval...

The latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast is brought to you remotely, featuring Matt Sattler, head of HSBC’s innovation labs. On this episode, we examine the levels of M&A activity in the fintech space this year and dissect the financial losses of Revolut, Starling Bank and Monzo. Sattler reveals what it takes to land a commercial contract with the bank and offers his insight on how “dat...

Although parts of the UK have gone back on lockdown whilst others are loosening up their rules, the team is still erring on the side of caution by bringing you What the Fintech? as a remotely recorded podcast. This time, we used the opportunity to take our podcast across the continent to catch-up with Ivan Glazachev, chief operating officer at Yandex Money in Russia. We explore the recent initial...

Despite the UK beginning to reopen, the team veered on the side of caution, continuing to bring you What the Fintech? as a remotely recorded podcast. On this episode, we welcome Theodora Lau, founder of the boutique fintech consultancy firm, Unconventional Ventures. We examine the lack of diversity within the financial services industry in the wake of the Black Lives Matters movement. Lau also pro...

Although pubs and restaurants opened in the UK to much fanfare, the latest episode of the What the Fintech? podcast remains a remotely recorded endeavour, featuring Sam O’Connor, co-founder and CEO of Coconut. On the episode, we dissect the dramatic details of the Wirecard accounting fraud scandal and potential ramifications it has on the fintech industry. O’Connor also shares his insight on the r...

The latest episode of What the Fintech? is brought to you remotely, featuring Sophie Guibaud, chief growth officer at OpenPayd. On this episode, we examine the low-interest rate savings market as Goldman Sachs closes Marcus to new users, whilst other savings providers are slashing their rates. We also explore how big technology companies have been moving away from facial recognition software in th...

The latest episode of What the Fintech? is brought to you remotely, featuring Victor Trokoudes, co-founder & CEO of Plum, a UK-based savings app. On this episode, we explore Western Union’s potential union with MoneyGram and how consolidation is impacting traditional players in the paytech market. We also unpack Softbank’s $100 million fund that "will only invest in companies led by founders and e...