IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

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...

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.