IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

Ahmed F. Karsli, Founder, Papara Papara is the market leading Turkish financial SuperApp, offering instant, free, multi-currency transfers to consumers as well as providing a one-stop-shop for paying bills, trading digital currencies, tracking spending habits and facilitating mass payments from businesses to employees. Specifically targeting the underbanked and underserved, Papara has grown since...

Cecily Mak, Chief Operating Officer, Blockdaemon Dive into the future of the blockchain industry as institutional adoption of blockchain and digital assets accelerates. We look at how blockchain networks are scaling up with Cecily Mak of Blockdaemon, a leading blockchain node infrastructure provider. She tells Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence that 2021 is the most significant year yet for the indus...

Amit Dua, President, Suntec ; Likhit Wagle, General Manager, Global Banking & Financial Markets, IBM Modernising traditional legacy systems offers a structured way for financial services institutions to switch to a customer-centric approach to their business rather than a product-centric view. This may be done through the establishment of a new ‘middle layer’. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence d...

Evgeny Likhoded, CEO, Clausematch Remote working in financial services has exacerbated governance issues over the past year. At the same time, regulators, notably the US Department of Justice (DoJ), are focusing more on conduct as opposed to fines for AML/KYC lapses. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence discusses compliance issues and solutions with Evgeny Likhoded of Clausematch.

Susanne Hannestad, Chair of the Advisory Board, FinTech Diversity Radar ; Annette Evans, VP of People & Culture, GPS Earlier this year, Global Processing Services (GPS) announced its sponsorship of findexable’s FinTech Diversity Radar – the first global platform gathering data to understand women’s impact on and contribution to the digital economy. Women remain largely underserved by and under...

Björn Goß, CEO & co-founder, Stocard European mobile wallet Stocard has more than 60 million users and aims to reshape the future of shopping and banking. In November 2020 it began rolling out its payment feature Stocard Pay and is now looking to expand its offering to provide a holistic approach to consumer financial services. Stocard aims to add multiple bank cards to its app and the company...

Teodor Blidarus, Founder and CEO of FintechOS The SME banking space is an untapped market which is underserved and overlooked, according to FintechOS, a technology provider accelerating digital transformation for financial institutions. Moreover, change and automation is happening at a low speed. Teodor Blidarus, Founder and CEO of FintechOS, speaks to Sunniva Kolostyak about issues around serving...

Gourav Datta, Director Intelligent Automation, Ciklum The pandemic has propelled the growth of the payments industry. How now to capitalise on this? The solution – intelligent automation that targets transactional, mundane and repetitive tasks, taking advantage of a full range of RPA, AI/ML and analytics solutions. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence discusses the potential with Gourav Datta of Ciklum...

Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO & Co-Founder, MoonPay   Supporting 45 fiat currencies and more than 60 cryptocurrencies, MoonPay recently marked its second anniversary by processing more than a million transactions. It has also announced in-principal approval for a Class 2 Virtual Financial Assets licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority. The company’s latest move is to provide payment tools...

Matteo Dante Peruccio, President International, Wave Financial Group Matteo Peruccio of Wave Financial Group has previously been CEO of Pioneer Investments and also a board member of Jupiter Asset Management, but his journey has now taken him to the digital asset space. He discussed how traditional asset management and custodian firms are coming to grips with digital assets on the new frontier of...

Karen Penney, VP Payments Products UK, Western Union Business Solutions The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential opportunities for women in the growing digital economy. Remote working and flexibility, together with the requirement for a fresh take on leadership that unites employees, clients and partners, have served to demonstrate how a new way of working can help personalise customer...

George McDonaugh, Managing Director and Co-Founder, KR1 KR1 is a London-based digital asset investment company investing in digital and cryptographic assets of decentralised networks and DeFi projects at an early stage. It also seed-funds early-stage blockchain and DeFi companies and holds private equity long-term. Managing Director and co-founder George McDonaugh is a founding member of the Multi...

Jonathan Allan, Chief Marketing Officer, Puzzel The pandemic has brought with it sweeping changes in customer behaviours and expectations. Willingness to self-serve has increased exponentially and voice-assisted service has also grown. However, expectations have also grown – what customers need, how and when they need it – has changed and banks need to adapt to ensure they are providing the type o...

David Foss, President & CEO, Jack Henry ; Alex Carriles, Digital Head, Simmons Bank On the back of its tech strategy and partnership with Jack Henry, Arkansas-based Simmons Bank saw a 30% rise in digital banking users in 2020 with an IOS App store rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. The bank’s performance highlights how community and regional banks in the US can leverage digital technologies to comp...

Tom Stelzer, Cryptocurrency expert, Finder So the price of Bitcoin is volatile – that’s a given – but almost one-fifth (19%) of potential or existing UK crypto investors told a survey commissioned by personal finance website Finder that their decision to invest was influenced by a view that it ‘seems an easy way to make money’. That’s a worrying number and a worrying attitude. Robin Amlot of IBS I...

Thomas Schumann, Founder, Thomas Schumann Capital ; Markus Barth, CEO, Anatase Ltd The TSC Water Risk Index went live in January 2021 through a partnership between Thomas Schumann Capital and Anatase Ltd, a consultancy specialising in index development. The investment ethos behind it is guided by Thomas Schumann Capital’s support for UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG6 – sustainable management of...

Sassan Danesh, Managing Partner, Etrading Software; James Haskell, Business Operations Officer, Etrading Software Etrading Software has been nominated as the exclusive Registration Authority for the new International Organization for Standardization’s standard for Digital Token Identifiers. The crypto asset class includes cryptocurrencies, stable coins, security tokens and utility tokens. Developi...

Elena Sinelnikova, co-Founder, Metis , and CEO, Cryptochicks Metis recently raised $1 million in seed funding to assist with the release of its new blockchain solution for decentralised autonomous organisations. Company co-Founder Elena Sinelnikova explains the concept to Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence. Sinelnikova is also CEO of Cryptochicks, a non-profit blockchain educational hub which aims to...

Scott Johnson, Head of Product, Western Union Business Solutions Western Union Business Solutions, the payments arm of Western Union, is expanding its global B2B payments platform. The expansion includes adding SWIFT gpi and expanding the currency portfolio within its Mass Payments API to cover 130 currencies. The increased functionality will enable partners to send up to 10,000 payments in a sing...

Colette Miller, Director Payment Solutions, moneycorp Americas Corporate culture is at a crossroads. One recent report suggested that 80% of the workers who left the US labour force in January were women. This abrupt slump needs to be addressed through a more balanced corporate culture. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence spoke with Colette Miller of moneycorp Americas, asking her how the business env...

Bharat Mistry, Technical Director, UK & Ireland, Trend Micro While cybercriminals are beginning to use more complex attacks on the cloud, according to the 2020 Cloud App Security Report from Trend Micro, high-risk email threats rose by 32% in 2020 and email remains the largest single threat vector. Robin Amlot of IBS Intelligence discussed the report’s findings with Bharat Mistry of Trend Micr...

Ian Henderson, Chief Executive Officer, Kyckr Regulators across the globe took aggressive action against AML violators, handing down major financial penalties and in some cases, lengthy prison sentences to the individuals involved. 28 financial institutions were issued fines totalling more than $3.2 billion for AML-related violations last year, according to Kyckr’s 2020 AML Bank Fines Report . Rob...

Anthony Culligan, Chief Engineer, SETL  Following on from the first successful live settlement of a fund using Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) tokens what are the next steps in the development of CBDCs. How will they work and what will that mean, not just for banks but for all of us? Anthony Culligan of London-based settlement and payments infrastructure provider SETL spoke with Robin Amlot o...

Matthew Williamson, Vice President Global Financial Services, Mobiquity It may not quite be a case of ‘go digital or go dinosaur’, but it is close! Digital banking is the way of the future with 13.6% CAGR forecast over the next six years, and the number of online and mobile banking users estimated to reach 3.6 billion by 2024. Matthew Williamson of Mobiquity discusses the outlook and the firm’s di...

Josipa Majic, Founder and CEO of Revuto Has every consumer-facing service provider adopted a subscription model? Sunniva Kolostyak speaks with Josipa Majic, Founder and CEO of Revuto, about investors’ preference for subscription-based companies – and how to help younger generations protect themselves against both the subscription economy and buy now pay later schemes.