

Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
11:FS
Fintech Insider is your ultimate guide to the world of finance and fintech from 11:FS - the leading independent fintech consultancy, recognised five times with the British Bank Award for Consultancy of the Year.Our expert hosts, with real industry experience, are joined by the biggest decision-makers, VCs, and reporters from across financial services including Visa, Monzo, Nationwide, JPMorgan Chase, Wise, the Financial Times, and more to discuss breaking news and deep dive into the biggest topics and trends within the industry.Our weekly news show drops every Monday and tackles the biggest news stories across M&A, open banking, embedded finance, payments, regulation and more. Then, every Thursday our Insights show dives deeper into the hottest topics shaping the industry like AI, regulation, Big Tech, the cost of living crisis, and more. Whether you’re already immersed in the world of financial services, or just keen to learn more, this is the #1 podcast for you.Want to get involved in the conversation?Connect with us now on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok
Episodes
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Mar 8, 2019 • 55min
302. Insights: Women in financial services
Coinciding with International Women's Day, Sarah is hosting an episode that shines a spotlight on the financial industry's documented lack of equality and many headlines are made of the gender pay gap and many other negative aspects. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
Our roundtable goes over a wide range of topics, looking at their personal experiences as women in financial services, the gender (im)balance at work, what's changed in the industry, differences in gender equality at incumbents and fintechs, how STEM can attract more women, careers advice and so much more.
They also talk about approaches to work, mentorships, imposter syndrome, salary expectations and share experiences and advice that apply to everyone.
We have some brilliant guests, including:
Emma Lindley, VP at VISA and Co-Founder of Women in Identity
Val Kristensen, Director of Comms at OakNorth
Livia Benisty, Head of Financial Crime at ComplyAdvantage
Shafali Gupta, VP Strategy & Operations at Fluidly
Diana Parades, CEO of Suade Labs
Our Senior Producer Laura Watkins also interviews Megan Caywood, now Head of Digital Strategy at Barclays and formerly Chief Platform Officer at Starling Bank to get her unique perspective on similar issues.
We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @fintechinsiders and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.
This episode was made thanks to Senior Producer Laura Watkins and edited by Audio Engineer Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Diana Paredes, Emma Lindley, Livia Benisty, Megan Cooper, Shafali Gupta, and Valentina Kristensen.
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Mar 4, 2019 • 1h 8min
301. News: Not cashless but less cash
This week we have some great stories for you as David and Sarah are joined by four great guests:
Nick Bortot, CEO of Bux
Max Rofagha, CEO of Finimize
Nicholas Megaw, Retail Banking correspondent at the FT
Damian Richardson, Head of Product, New Digital Customer Propositions, Services at NatWest
We kick off the episode with a close look at the winners of the RBS Remedies fund announced last week and wonder why some were snubbed. Max Rofagha points out how anti-competitive the awards were but it remains to be seen if this continues through the the rest of the fund pools available. TSB may have lost out but as Sarah says, TSB have bigger problems than missing out on a fund. And in a quick throwback to last week's news episode, Tom Blomfeld CEO of Monzo was correct to predict that Starling would win the £100M (03:19).
Next up we take a look at Goldman Sachs' move into the credit card market with Apple. David notes that a big technology company moving into banking has been the incumbent banks biggest fear for quite some time. Sarah asks if this move could spell the end of the Marcus brand with co-branding alongside ApplePay. Sarah thinks it's been a long time coming considering some of the moves Goldman Sachs has been making over the past few months, the decision to partner with Apple suggests that Goldman Sachs wants to target Apple's demographic and payment network (10:25).
Later on in the show we spoke Norris Koppel, CEO of Monese to find out more about the partnership with Avios (56:07).
Other stories included:
Have you got PPI? Lloyds have £19.4bn
The Swedish Money Laundering Scandal continues
HSBC launches PayMe in HK
US might legislate against going cashless
And finally, Lithuania’s Top Gear-inspired strategy to become a fintech hub
All this and much much more on this week's news show.
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com
This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Damian Richardson, Max Rofagha, Nicholas Megaw, Nick Bortot, and Norris Koppel.Links:
CYBG Snubbed For RBS Funds | PYMNTS.com
Apple plans to launch credit card with Goldman Sachs | Business | The Times
Lloyds PPI bill grows £750m to £19.4bn - BBC News
Swedbank Dirty Money Plot Thickens After CEO Analyst Call
HSBC unveils PayMe for Business app in initial beta test
This Legislation Could Force Stores to Take Your Cash - The New York Times
Monese integrates with Avios loyalty currency
Lithuania to boost central bank headcount in response to Revolut with Top Gear-inspired strategy - AltFi News
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Mar 1, 2019 • 1h 14min
300. Insights: This. Is. Fintech.
It's been a long two and a half years. But we've finally hit a huge landmark with our 300th episode.
This episode is an 11:FS special with some of your favourite hosts:
David Brear
Simon Taylor
Sarah Kocianski
Ross Gallagher
Jason Bates
Plus extra special guest Marko Wenthin, Co-Founder of Solarisbank.
Our panel take a trip down memory lane, going over the early days of trying to figure out audio editing, why we took the approach that we did and how taking a conversation from the pub after a conference created a chart-topping podcast.
We go over the rejected theme tunes for the show and some of the show's highlights, including some of the best jokes, live shows, conferences and of course After Dark.
We also talk about some of the incredible guests we've had and difficult topics we've tackled. Of course none of this would be possible without you so we asked you to send in whatever questions you want for the hosts to answer. But if we didn't manage to get to yours this time around don't worry, we've made AMAs a regular feature on the podcast so we'll get to yours eventually!
To tie off the show we have the favourite moments of ours and yours and some friends of the show.
The microphones we used for this recording were six Rode NT1A's with Pop Shield.
We take a look at all this and much more on this week's episode of Fintech Insider. Thank you for sticking with us for the past 300 episodes and we hope you'll stick around for next 300.
We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @fintechinsiders to submit your favourite Fintech Insider moment!
And if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.
This episode was produced by Laura Watkins. Edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guest: Marko Wenthin.
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Feb 25, 2019 • 1h 7min
299. News: Buzzwords for everyone
This week we have some huge stories for you as David and Simon are joined by two fantastic fintech CEOs:
Tom Blomfield, CEO of Monzo
Romi Savova, CEO of PensionBee
We kick off the episode with a story that'll give you 24 billion reasons to be impressed with the state of the UK's financial industry. It's the first time the four biggest lenders have made more than £20BN since 2007 and while it might appear to be a return to the good old days of pre-financial crisis finances, Romi points out that although the numbers are great, they might not be as great as they would have been in 2007 due to balance sheets. Tom also points out that banks have only made superficial changes so far but that's about to change (02:14).
Next up, we talk about Santander's $700M deal with IBM. Tom points out that we only ever see headlines like this at the start of project, never at the end describing the results. Romi talks about how it's a sign that change is coming, but why are companies that market themselves as technology companies outsourcing for technology? (13:34).
Later on in the show we discuss the RBS Remedies Fund. In a special segment with 11:FS' Adam Davis we discuss how this situation came to pass and the state of play of the fund at the moment. Tom puts the fund in the context of Monzo and how the challenger bank has £100M, the same amount of the second prize fund, to date on development (34:10).
We also announce the winners of the fund, just in case you've missed out (49:42).
Other stories included:
Ant Financial buy WorldFirst
SoFi plans new lending products and move into stock trading
Chase goes down
Yolt means business - we've got a great interview with Leon Muis, Chief Business Officer at Yolt to get a bit more insight
And Finally, a Natwest call handler channels his inner Piers Morgan
All this and much much more on this week's news show.
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com
This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins, written by Dhanum Nursigadoo and edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Adam Davis, Leon Muis, Romi Savova, and Tom Blomfield.Links:
Britain's top banks poised to reveal biggest profits since financial crisis erupted in 2007 | This is Money
Santander strikes $700m IBM deal to support biz transformation prog...
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Feb 22, 2019 • 1h 19min
298. Insights: The future of cloud
Sam Maule talks to AWS, Raifeissen Bank, Broadridge, FICO and Liberty Mutual on how Cloud is the new normal, moving to product and development cycles to Cloud in a matter of days rather than quarters and how capital markets and major banks are driving forwards Cloud adoption.
Agility tends to be the main theme behind Cloud adoption and integration but no-one's underestimating the human component. Technology might be a huge factor in financial services but people are the ones who ultimately drive these companies forwards and need to be trained in how to use the technology.
Sam talks to companies that have been doing Machine Learning for decades and discusses the issues in coming to the game too early as well as too late.
Our guests also talk about how to create a new level of security using data, why failing fast is terrible and how juggling 85 balls at a time means individuals only have 5% of their work week to deal with what they should be doing.
We have some amazing guests including:
Scott Mullins, Head of Worldwide FS Business Development at AWS
Claus Moldt, CIO at FICO
Laurence Thiery, Head of Financial Services, Asia at AWS
Phil Moyer, Managing Director of the Financial Services for the Americas at AWS
Jonathan Allen, Enterprise Strategist and Evangelist at AWS
Megan Caywood, was Chief Platform Officer at Starling Bank at time of recording, now Managing Director at Barclays
Martin Dow, Engineer at Starling Bank
Rob Krugman, Chief Digital Officer at Broadridge
John Heveran CIO of Global Risk Solutions at Liberty Mutual
Gerhard Froehlich, Group Product Owner at Raiffeisen Bank International
Vladimir Simunovic, Deputy Group CTO at Raiffeisen Bank International
Thank you to AWS for inviting us to AWS re:Invent 2018.
We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @fintechinsiders and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.
This episode was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha. Recorded by Michael Bailey and edited by Alex Woodhouse.
Cloud is a vital way to transform your business for the modern age, tap here to find out how to do it with AWS.Special Guests: Claus Moldt, Gerhard Froehlich, John Heveran, Jonathan Allen, Laurence Thiery, Martin Dow, Megan Cooper, Philip Moyer, Rob Krugman, Scott Mullins, and Vladimir Simunovic.Sponsored By:
AWS: Deliver innovative customer experiences, accelerate your time to market, and enable digital transformation with Amazon Web Services.
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Feb 18, 2019 • 1h 4min
297. News: Talking poop
This week we have some huge stories for you as Sam's joined by:
Teana Baker-Taylor, Exec Director and Board Member, Global Digital Finance
Alexa Fernandez, Open Innovation & Ecosystem Builder at BBVA
Joaquin Ayuso de Paul, CEO of Denizen
Mark Meisner, CEO of Gen6 Ventures
We kick off the show for a US perspective on the super merger that broke on last week's show. Two of the US’ biggest banks merge to become a super bank, as BB&T buy SunTrust for $28BN in stock. It's a phenomenal merger and every one of our guests has a unique take on the story. The banks are 'super-regional' which just means they're not one of the top five in the USA. They still each have assets of over $200BN. It'll make the new bank the sixth largest bank in the USA with $442BN in assets $301BN in loans and $324BN in deposits. 3100 of their branches are within 20 feet of each other (03:10).
You can watch the YouTube video of our panel discussing the story here.
Next up the US group discuss Chime's incredible acquisition of 10K accounts in a day, starting with a great question from Teana Baker-Taylor on whether digital banks in the US really have different regulations compared to traditional banks. We actually gave them an 11:FS Pulse award for Best US disruptor before this happened, we're geniuses. We take a look at how the UK challengers are eyeing up the USA and how the outage with Wells Fargo was one of the best advertising campaigns for Chime (15:00).
Other stories include:
Plaid now goes Nationwide - the fintech's now supporting Auth for every bank and credit union in the US
Venture Capital investment into fintech companies rose to approximately $31BN in 2018
Revolut's marketing woes continue as the ASA is set to probe the 'spoof' takeaway ad campaign
OakNorth aims to put down roots in the US after new investment from Japanese mega-investor Softbank. We also have further insight on this story from OakNorth CEO Rishi Khosla
Mastercard's new groove with Linkin Park. The payments infrastructure and processor company is heading to the Grammys and Brit Awards to debut the audio cue for its new sonic brand identity
All this and much much more on this week's news show.
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com
This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Alexa Fernandez, Joaquin Ayuso de Paul, Mark Meisner, Rishi Khosla, and Teana Baker-Taylor.Links:
SunTrust and BB&T are merging — here’s what customers need to know - MarketWatch
Chime adds record number of accounts after Wells Fargo outage - Business Insider
Plaid - Blog
Fintech Startups Suck in $31bn As The Big Finance Players Step Up R&D By Proxy
City watchdog to probe Revolut’s ‘spoof’ takeaway ad campaign | Financial Times
UK fintech unicorn Oaknorth to nail $440m round led by Softbank | City A.M.
Mastercard seeks good vibrations with new sonic identity
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Feb 15, 2019 • 1h 11min
296. After Dark: Digital Love
Can you feel the #digitallove?
We certainly could at the first After Dark of 2019.
Just one day before Valentine's Day over 200 of finances' finest entered the tower of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf. Set high above the city of London at Level 39, it was standing room only for a show that sold out in six hours. Before we started the show with our first fin-couple, a rebearded David kicked off support for the 11:FS charity of 2019, Mind. Text GIVI88 to 70070 with your chosen amount to donate.
Our first pairing on stage were, Tom Davenport, Head of Strategic Partnerships at MarketInvoice and Ian Rand, CEO of Business Banking, Barclays. Ready and eager to go through their nascent relationship with 11:FS' very own Sarah Kocianski. The couple took us through just how deep their integration really is, who's giving and who's taking and the tensions they're concerned about for the future. We also have some great Hollywood-style couple names for the iconic pairing...could BarketInvoice be advertising in the near future?
Roving reporter Ross Gallagher, aka the Terry Wogan of fintech, was walking through the crowd after each couple to hear questions from the audience and bringing his trademark charm to the event.
The next fin-couple on the stage have been together for a little longer, they're past the honemoon phase and they're into the real work of a relationship. Josh Bottomley, Global Head of Digital at HSBC and Ed Maslaveckas, CEO of Bud get on stage and are joined by host Jason Bates. 18 months into the relationship and it's safe to say that they're deep into the realities of the relationship. It's not a simple client/vendor relationship like ones they may have had in the past. It's real. Our second couple explain what they got upto before the settled down, why they picked each other and how their relationship is working out so far.
What would digital love be without a bachelor on stage? Representing BBVA we have Derek White, the Global Head of Client Solutions flying solo all the way from Madrid. Derek does a great job sidestepping any awkwardness with his ex in the room and tells us all about the relationships the spanish bank's had with guiding so many fintechs and how happy he is to be back in London - in his opinion the fintech capital of the world. Derek tells us what happens when partnerships don't work out, if having a scattergun approach works and how all BBVA's partners get enough attention.
For our final couple we're bringing on a couple near and dear to our hearts. Rasmus Figenschou, Group Executive Vice President at DNB and Leda Glyptis, CEO of 11:FS Foundry. The pair take us through who DNB flirted with partnering before choosing 11:FS, how DNB had to evolve and change in order to secure a partnership with a fintech like 11:FS and how having a long-distance relationship (international) impacts, hurts, or helps the collaboration.
A huge thankyou to everyone who came out to the show and made it such a great event. We can't wait to see you at our next After Dark! Details on that will be coming out real soon so be sure to sign up to the 11:FS newsletter and follow us on social media.
We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @fintechinsiders and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.
This episode was produced by Laura Watkins. Edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Derek White, Ed Maslaveckas, Ian Rand, Josh Bottomley, Rasmus Figenschou, and Tom Davenport.
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Feb 11, 2019 • 1h 1min
295. News: The Revolut will be advertised
This week we have some massive stories for you as David and Simon are joined by:
Mel Palmer, CMO at Exo Investing
Saumeel Pachigar, Head of Partnerships at acasa
Viktor Nebehaj, CMO at Freetrade
Iona Bain, Author, speaker, commentator at Young Money blog
We couldn't NOT kick off with the story causing the most noise this week, and we were lucky enough to have Iona join us on the show to give us her perspective. Of course we're talking about THOSE Revolut-ionary Valentine's day tube adverts that caused a Twitterstorm (02:52).
We followed that with some breaking news from across the pod as 2 of the US’ biggest banks merge to become a super bank, as BB&T buy SunTrust for $28 BILLION in stock (18:50).
Other stories included:
Amex and Curve’s bust-up as Amex blocks access to Curve, 36 hours after reinstating it.
Australian banks may face criminal charges after final royal commission report into their malpractice to try and clean up the sector, and naturally we had to ask our Aussie banking aficianado, Sarah Kocianski for her thoughts on this story.
We round up the week's biggest funding raises
David's favourite story of the year had to be our "and finally" this week as a man in a bank in Sao Paulo turned up to work for his last day in a full Spiderman costume, as you do.
All this and much much more on this week's news show.
Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com
This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Edward Maslaveckas , Iona Bain, Mel Palmer, Saumeel Pachigar, and Viktor Nebehaj.Links:
Backlash over 'single-shaming' banking ad - BBC News
BB&T and Suntrust to combine in an all-stock merger of $66 billion
Amex blocks Curve as the fintech startup vows to fight ‘anti-competitive’ decision | TechCrunch
Banks may face criminal charges after final royal commission report | Australia news | The Guardian
Metro Bank hit by cyber attack used to empty customer accounts
London fintech startup Bud banks $20m from HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Lord Fink, ANZ, Investec and Banco Sabadell | City A.M.
Business admin and banking fintech startup Anna Money raises £8.5m from Kinetik | City A.M.
Raisin scores $114 million funding round
Man Quits Job At Bank And Turns Up In Spider-Man Costume On Last Day - LADbible
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Feb 8, 2019 • 40min
294. Insights: Money and Mental Health
There's no question about the impact finances have on mental health and with today being Time to Talk Day (7th February) we wanted to take a closer look at how finance interacts with the mental health problems that affect 1 in 4 of us. Time to Talk Day wants to break down the stigmas around mental health and get people talking more openly about it.
Sarah's joined by Katie Evans, Head of Research and Policy, Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Joe Surtees, Policy Manager at the Single Financial Guidance Body and James Nicholson, Engineer at Monzo to discuss why money's such a taboo subject in everyday discussion, spending for stress and whether technology can solve the problem or if it'll just exacerbate it. The group also discuss positive friction, the trap of frictionless finance those who struggle with spending and the reality that some people will simply never have enough money for their needs.
We take a look at these issues and many more on this week's episode of Fintech Insider.
We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe!
Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @fintechinsiders and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.
This episode was produced by Laura Watkins. Edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: James Nicholson, Joe Surtees, and Katie Evans.
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Feb 4, 2019 • 1h 13min
293. News: Ain't nothing but a GFIN
Our hosts David, Simon and Sarah are joined by Oscar Williams-Grut, Senior City Correspondent at Yahoo Finance, Valentina Kristensen, Director, Growth and Communications at Oak North and Livia Benisty, Head of Financial Crime at Mimiro.
First up, China launches an app to dob in debt 04:01
Lloyds unveils 100% mortgage for first-time buyers 10:32
TrueLayer launches Open Banking-based payments API 20:27
FCA launches GFIN 27:37
We spoke to Anna Wallace from the FCA to tell us more 33:37
11:FS AMA with a question on which fintech has the best approach to building a banking marketplace 38:41
Stripe raises $100m at $22.5bn valuation 46:49
We spoke to Andy Challis, MD Principal Investments, and John Stecher, CIO at Barclays to give us insight into Barclays supersized accelerator 53:51
Barclays supersizes New York accelerator 56:30
Chief Innovation Officer, Neal Cross Bids Farewell to DBS Bank in Heartfelt Post 57:45
And Finally, HSBC launches ‘sound identity’ in next phase of global brand refresh 1:00:07
We spoke to VaynerMedia’s Patrick Givens, Head of VaynerSmart - to give us an expert’s perspective 1:03:25
All this and so much more on today's episode of Fintech Insider!
Subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the fintech love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts @FintechInsiders on Twitter
This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse.Special Guests: Andy Challis, Anna Wallace, John Stecher, Livia Benisty, Oscar Williams-Grut, Patrick Givens, and Valentina Kristensen.Links:
China launches app encouraging users to identify and report ‘deadbeat’ debtors | The Independent
Lloyds unveils 100% mortgage for first-time buyers | Money | The Guardian
TrueLayer launches Open Banking-based payments API
GFIN | FCA
Stripe raises $100m at $22.5bn valuation
Barclays supersizes New York accelerator
Chief Innovation Officer, Neal Cross Bids Farewell to DBS Bank in Heartfelt Post | Fintech Singapore
HSBC launches ‘sound identity’ in next phase of global brand refresh
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