IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

Stephan Hartgers, VP Digital Strategy, Mobiquity EuropeCovid-19 has accelerated digital transformation across banking and financial services. Banks need to offer customers a fully digital and convenient banking experience but, it seems, that many banks are approaching this challenge in the wrong way! Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Stephan Hartgers, VP Digital Strategy of Mobiquity Europe, who believes that banks need to separate innovation from transformation to drive business impact. 

Rick DeLisi, Lead Research Analyst, GliaWhat’s the real deal with Millennials and telephone calls? What they don’t want to do is be forced to dial a number that takes them out of their digital experience. We live on our screens but that doesn’t mean customers don’t want to talk to a bank representative in real time – phone and voice are not synonymous. It’s time to replace the phone-based call centre with a digital customer service and onscreen voice. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Rick DeLisi, Lead Research Analyst at Glia and co-author of The Effortless Experience and Digital Customer Service.  

Sudarshan Lodha, Co-Founder, Strata Property Management Direct investment in commercial real estate as an asset class has remained largely inaccessible to retail investors with issues such as high ticket prices, illiquidity and complex administration. Strata Property Management in India aims to bring commercial real estate to the mass affluent through an online platform offering fractional investment in pre-leased properties – offices, logistics and retail. Sudarshan Lodha, Co-Founder, Strata Property speaks to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence. 

Stuart Neal, GM-Identity, BokuThe issue of onboarding is a significant barrier. One survey suggests up to 42% of millennials and Gen Z’s would abandon an onboarding process that required offline completion. But the tech behind our mobile networks already holds a potential solution to this. It could enable a ‘user-free’ identity verification factor allowing financial institutions to background check new customers via the mobile network operator. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Stuart Neal, General Manager-Identity with Boku.

Blake Kannady, Chief Product Officer, Intelliflo How has the pandemic affected the financial advisory business? Intelliflo offers open software architectures to financial advisers, providing its services to more than a third of all financial advisers in the UK. The company was acquired by Invesco in 2018 but operates independently. Its solutions support around 30,000 financial professionals worldwide, representing more than 3 million end-investors, with over $1 trillion advised across Intelliflo platforms. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Blake Kannady, Chief Product Officer of Intelliflo. 

Ola Oyetayo, CEO and Co-Founder, Verto FXAs emerging markets are increasingly joining the global marketplace, companies looking to pay suppliers abroad must transact in less liquid currencies. That can be a logistical challenge for businesses as international payments can be an expensive proposition where liquidity is scarce, and spreads and FX fees are high. VertoFX was founded to enable fairer access to a global financial system allowing small businesses to transact at FX rates 9x cheaper than high street banks, settle 3x faster, charging no transaction fee whilst enabling them manage their currency exposure through multi-currency business accounts.  IBS Intelligence Reporter Gaia Lamperti interviewed Ola Oyetayo, Verto FX’s CEO and Co-Founder for IBSI Views Podcast. 

L Guru Raghavendran, Senior Vice President, BFS Products, Azentio SoftwareAzentio Software topped two categories in IBSI’s latest Sales League Table: compliance management with Amlock; and Islamic lending (retail) with Kastle. The company offers core software to financial services providers and ERP solutions to mid-market enterprises across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and India. Azentio has more than 800 customers in over 60 countries. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Guru Raghavendran, SVP, BFS Products for Azentio Software. In a career spanning 20+ years, Guru has also worked for HDFC, Standard Chartered and HSBC, as well as with a number of IT organisations and as an entrepreneur. 

Kathy Schneider, Chief Marketing Officer, FD TechnologiesNorthern Ireland-based FD Technologies has launched as a new brand to a business that’s been around for 25 years. The firm powers data analytics for 38 leading banks and is one of the world’s leading capital markets consultancies. So why the rebrand? Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Kathy Schneider, Chief Marketing Officer of FD Technologies about the decisions and reasons behind the new brand identity.

Sundip Patel, CEO & Co-Founder, AvanaAvana established LendThrive to offer performance-based loans for small businesses. The aim is to empower diverse SMEs to create new jobs and build economic value in their communities, while rewarding business owners for timely repayments by reducing the interest rate charged over the course of the loan. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Sundip Patel, CEO and Co-Founder of Avana Companies. 

Oliver Werneyer, CEO & Co-founder, Imburse PaymentsThe use of fully integrated SaaS technology could reduce the costs and waiting times associated with global connectivity, enabling cross-border payments and expansion into new markets. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Oliver Werneyer, CEO & Co-founder, Imburse Payments, on the impact of integration-free access to any payment technology, regardless of the service provider.