IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Interviews

 A team of UK FinTechs including Trade Ledger, a digital lending platform; Wiserfunding, a digital SME credit scoring platform; Nimbla, a trade credit insurance provider, and NorthRow, a remote client onboarding platform, have established a FinTech taskforce to provide a turn-key loan origination and underwriting platform that allows banks, alternative lenders and private debt lenders to virtually and digitally deploy funds to businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak.The concern of the taskforce is that grants, loans and guarantees including the British Business Banks’ Coronavirus Business Interruption Lending Scheme (CBILS) funding may not get to those SMEs that most need it – or in the timeframe needed. 

Finch Capital is an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm focusing on Europe and Southeast Asia. In Europe the firm looks to invest in AI, FinTech and IoT. Managing Partner Radboud Vlaar talks about those FinTechs likely to prosper and those likely to stumble as a result of the economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic, and also what it may mean for VC exit strategies from FinTechs over the course of the next 12 months. 

ERI is a global, digital solutions provider specialising in the design, development, implementation and support of an integrated, real-time banking software package: the OLYMPIC Banking System.The company has offices in Geneva, London, Lugano, Luxembourg, Paris, Singapore and Zurich. ERI is the market leader in the provision of banking and asset/wealth management software in many countries, notably in Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland.Overall, the OLYMPIC Banking System has been implemented by more than 300 banks and financial institutions in over 50 countries around the world.Robin Amlôt sat with Nicholas Hacking, director and Jean Philippe Bersier, business development director of ERI to discuss the challenges facing, in particular, Tier 2 and 3 banks in implementing technological change. 

 Gresham Technologies came to the London Stock Exchange 35 years ago, listing its shares in 1995. More than 90 organisations around the world use the company’s Clareti platform. Just ahead of the release of Gresham’s latest results (which showed a 30% rise in group revenue and a return to profitability) Robin Amlôt asked CEO Ian Manocha whether and how, unlike many FinTechs, being a quoted company makes a difference to the way Gresham goes about its business. 

India is well-poised to become the Global FinTech Hub due to favourable support coming from the government as well as a increased adoption of FinTech products from the consumer side. Navin Surya is also the founder of India’s first digital wallet ItzCash that he sold off to US-based Ebix. He has been very instrumental in creating various forums for FinTechs to be able to put across their thoughts and agenda to the Government. Surya spoke with Priyanka Pani of IBS Intelligence in this Podcast about the growing FinTech ecosystem in India, the segments that are likely to be more attractive to the investors and also the growth in number of Unicorns emerging from this space. Surya feels that India should expect more Unicorns based on revenues and not just valuations in the coming months. 

Making her second podcast appearance as part of the International Women’s Day series, Iana Dimitrova, CEO of OpenPayd, talks about leadership and her own career, as well as the importance of access to education in order to create a level playing field. 

 Over the past few years, Nationwide has managed to reach 50/50 gender balance on its executive committee, but the journey has taken time. In the third instalment of our International Women’s Day series, Alison Robb discusses the use of case studies and role models help promote diverse working models and why women should build a level of resilience. 

 The Shareholder Rights Directive 2 (SRD2) is a European Union (EU) directive, which, among other things, sets out to strengthen the position of shareholders. It also aims to improve communication by share issuers. Does this matter if you are not in the EU or even the EEA? Yes! The directive explicitly outlines its applicability to non-EU/EEA intermediaries. SRD2 will be implemented as of September 2020 but is the industry ready? Robin Amlôt sat down with Les Turner, vice-president of global proxy, Broadridge, to talk shareholders’ rights. 

In the first instalment of IBS Intelligence’s International Women’s Day series, Sunniva Kolostyak sits down with Anne Boden of Starling Bank to discuss women in power, entrepreneurship and the continued development of one of the UK’s most prominent challenger banks. 

Over the last few years, the torchbearers of the innovations have been the new age FinTechs and this is somehow forcing bigger payments and financial services companies to play catch-up. Ajay Adisheshann, Founder of Indian B2B payments company PayMate talks to Priyanka Pani of IBS Intelligence on the strategies adopted by global card networks such as Mastercard and Visa to remain relevant in a very agile market and bring out better products and services. He also talks about why it is difficult for large organisations to innovate faster. He also talks about PayMate, which has Visa as a strategic investor and partner, on its global expansion strategy.