IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

Samier Khan, Managing Director APAC, Codebase Technologies Open banking in the APAC region is taking two distinct paths. While some jurisdictions have set out a defined regulatory framework, others have chosen to follow a more market-driven approach. Against that background the pandemic has only served to speed up the adoption of digital banking and open banking solutions with pre-built APIs. Robi...

Tushar Aggarwal, CEO & Founder, Persistence   Singapore-based Persistence is building an ecosystem of financial products to serve both institutional and crypto-native users, aiming for seamless integration across blockchains. The idea is to build the liquidity that new financial instruments and cryptoassets require but will this really lead to mass adoption of decentralised finance services as...

Phil Weisberg, EVP Strategic Planning and Partnerships, oneZero The foreign exchange (FX) business is a patchwork quilt of legacy systems. Perhaps more so than any other segment in financial services, tech lifecycles in FX are getting shorter and faster. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Phil Weisberg, EVP Strategic Planning and Partnerships, oneZero about how the FX market is changing.

 Andrey Yashunsky, CEO & Founder, Prytek ; Joe Channer, CEO, Delta Capita Delta Capita, backed by its parent Prytek, offers a BOPaaS (Business Operating Platform-as-a-Service) solution, a combination of tech solutions, managed services, and capital, giving banks the option of lifting out operations to create more efficient businesses. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Andrey Yashunsky,...

Yashwant Lodha, Co-Founder, PayNearby   PayNearby is one of the leading players in India in digital payments and branchless banking. The firm’s solution is to build a network of digital financial advisers from among the country’s ‘mom and pop’, mainly rural, retailers who are already trusted in their communities, providing them with access to digital financial solutions for their customers. Robin...

Julia McColl, Commercial Director, Chetwood Financial As the financial services sector moves towards genuine consumer-led innovation it must ensure that legacy financial inclusivity issues do not persist. FinTechs have a role to play in becoming the engine behind financial inclusion. The banking business model needs to adapt to deliver a truly ideal user experience. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence...

Sam Ranieri, Chief Executive Officer, Reach The pandemic has caused a boom in ecommerce but notably in cross-border ecommerce. A merchant of record model allows merchants to navigate the complexities of local payments methods, FX rates, and conversion rates without needing a physical presence in each region. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Sam Ranieri, CEO of global payment localisation...

Andrea Barbon, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of St Gallen The primary purpose in the establishment of cryptocurrencies is to avoid government censorship but the likes of Bitcoin are not behaving like currencies, rather they are at present simply highly speculative assets. Nevertheless, government attempts to control cryptocurrency serve to showcase the power of the blockchain. Work no...

Muddu Sudhakar, Chief Executive Officer, Aisera Addressing the problem of increasing customer wait times, US banking platform Dave’s solution was to employ an AI conversational interface that delivers customer self-service. With Aisera’s AI Customer Service solution, the challenger bank provides on-demand, personalised support options accessible through a 24×7 virtual assistant that has resulted i...

Eklove Mohan, Senior Director – Technology, Synechron Many financial services institutions have publicly announced a post-pandemic return to work policy with a majority offering a hybrid work scheme marrying remote WFH with some office presence. Goldman Sachs is a notable exception to this but for those going hybrid, what steps do they need to take to ensure secure working? Robin Amlôt of IBS Inte...

Eli Rosner, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Finastra What is the purpose of the organisation? Bankers (86%) are recognising they have a duty to support the communities they serve. A clear majority of the senior executives in financial services around the world (85%) also say Banking as a Service (BaaS) will make an impact over the next year, with 40% believing the impact will be significan...

James Hudson-Dale, New Partner Sales, IDnow Digital disruption in RegTech is all about making the connected world a safer place. Businesses and regulators need to find ways to work together to create an environment that capitalises on opportunities while ensuring safety and security. Regulation is increasing as is the focus on privacy with the introduction of GDPR in the EU and the CCPA in Califor...

Mac Thompson, Founder & President, White Clay US FinTech White Clay specialises in helping banks to clean up their act where data is concerned, data that could mean the difference between knowing what their customers want and being in a position to help or, eventually, going out of business! Mac Thompson, Founder and President of White Clay talks to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence about findin...

Micky Watkins, Chief Executive Officer, World Mobile The World Bank estimates 1.7 billion adults are unbanked, unable to access basic financial services, including some 700 million people in Africa. World Mobile is working with Cardano to leverage a decentralised identity solution built on the latter’s blockchain to address this issue. Large scale trials are already operating in Tanzania and the c...

Corey Gross, CEO & Co-Founder, Sensibill Amazon is already doing it and banks should be doing it too! Bankers need to be thinking differently about data, especially data from third party sources and what it can tell them about customer behaviour and how they can leverage that information to tailor products. Manage this ‘alternative data’ properly and banks will be able to be more proactive in...

Eric Head, Vice President Experience Leadership, Verint The US banking industry appears to have weathered the pandemic storm in strong fashion with all of the top 15 US banks showing improved customer satisfaction scores in the Verint Experience Index: Banking (2021) . However, that doesn’t mean that they can rest on their CSAT and NPS rankings, customer journeys have become more complex, and expe...

Alan Vey, Chief Executive Officer, Aventus   NFTs are a part of decentralised finance (DeFi) that is rapidly growing, digitally representing ownership in a highly tradable and secure format, allowing marketplaces and more complex financial products to be built. There’s a lot more here potentially than just video clips and digital art. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence talks through the potential of...

Ajay Vij, SVP and Industry Head, EMEA – Financial Services & Public Sector, Infosys The acceleration of clients’ digital expectations and the need for technology investment are forcing the pace in increased spending on tech solutions for banks and other financial institutions. But there are significant potential benefits. Infosys reckons financial services institutions could see $151 billion a...

Terrie Smith, CEO, & David Birch, Chairman, DIGISEQ The global wearable devices market is primed to reach $62.82 billion by 2025. UK-based DIGISEQ has announced a breakthrough in payment wearable technology giving consumers the functionality to turn any object of choice into a payment device via a mobile APP. The new solution, Rapid Contactless Personalisation, works with both Android and iOS,...

Terry Donohoe, CEO Europe, Ignition Ignition developed the first robo-investment direct-to-customer solution in Australia. Now, the firm offers a SaaS solution that offers personal digital advice journeys across investment, insurance and retirement. Ignition has entered the UK market with a white-label, multi-currency bank grade, compliant digital advice platform that is compatible with both legac...

Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, Chief Strategy Officer, Blend Network Many FinTech players evolved out of the Global Financial Crisis with new platforms taking business from banks in areas that they were no longer able or no longer willing to play a part in – SME lending and development finance lending are among notable examples. However, while alternative lending has grown, has it reached a point wher...

Mary Connor, Director, Retail Banking Strategic Engagements & Global Sales, Finastra New research by Finastra saw people across 5 continents (Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas) talking about their banking situation and whether they felt empowered by their financial institutions. The Journey to Financial Empowerment asked participants about their aspirations and to...

Justin Banon, CEO & Co-Founder, Boson Protocol Ecommerce platforms claim to value customer-centricity when what they are really doing is hoarding data and separating people from the value they create, according to Boson Protocol. The company aims to disrupt ecommerce platforms by tokenising ‘things’ – real-world products and services and commerce data within a liquid digital market, built on D...

Lalit Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, Decimal Technologies Around the world, economies are dependent on their SME sectors for employment and wealth creation, but SMEs face continued problems in access to credit, especially women entrepreneurs. In India, for example, according to an International Finance Corporation report, more than 70% of the total finance requirement of women entrepreneurs is unmet...

 Stefano Cipollone, Business Development Manager, Auriga Banks are under both political and public pressure to preserve access to cash. ATM pooling could be the solution to them being able to do this in an economical way, overcoming the barrier of operating costs through the sharing of ATM infrastructure by multiple banks. Institutions in Finland, Sweden and Belgium have already adopted ATM poolin...