FinTech Magazine - January 2022

January 2022 | fintechmagazine.com

Generali Vitality: A little healthier every day Digital Payments: Innovative payment solutions across the FinTech landscape

Finastra: Solutions for financial institutions Equiniti: Tranforming and digitising procurement Mambu: Emerging markets boom

“

The formula is simple: build a better solution and treat customers exceptionally well

“

Shane Holdaway, CEO of Mission Lane

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The FinTech Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DERIN CAG EDITOR

JOANNA ENGLAND EDITOR DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON JANE ARNETA ELLA CHADNEY

PRODUCTION EDITOR

MOTION DESIGNER

JANET BRICE

TYLER LIVINGSTONE

CREATIVE TEAM

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON JORDAN WOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP

EVELYN HUANG JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN MARKETING DIRECTOR

ROSS GARRIGAN

MARKETING MANAGER

EVELYN HOWAT

PROJECT DIRECTORS

JAKE MEGEARY MICHAEL BANYARD JOE PALLISER MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

RICHARD TURNER

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

JOE MARRITT

MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

THINGS WORTH READING ABOUT It's a new year, and with it, a fresh issue of our magazine. This time around, we've got a wealth of ever more fascinating stories and features for you to enjoy

“As promised, we'll continue to keep you ahead of the curve in the fintech business”

The new edition of FinTech Magazine is finally out, and it's packed with great content for all your fintech needs.

We're looking forward to what this new year will bring and are excited to be a part of the rapidly changing world of finance.

As promised, we'll continue to keep you ahead of the curve in the fintech business, and we hope you find our insights informative.

Highlights of January 2022: In this issue, we explore the latest trends in crowdfunding, payment technology, remittances, and digital banking.

We also take a look at some of the unique players in the field, such as Mission Lane, Mambu, FOMO Pay, and Ziglu, among others.

Another update is our standalone top-hundred list of fintech companies, be sure to check them out.

We hope you enjoy this latest edition of FinTech Magazine, and please feel free to reach out to us with any feedback or suggestions.

So without further ado, enjoy reading!

FINTECH MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

DERIN CAG

derin.cag@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

fintechmagazine.com

5

CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 10 Big Picture 12 The Brief 14 Timeline:

PayPal 16 Trailblazer:

Li Ka-shing 20 Five Minutes With:

Shân Millie and Kate Bohn

28

38

Providing access to quality financial products

How cloud core banking provider Mambu is embracing payment technology

Mission Lane

Mambu

44

Arvato Systems

Christian Scholz of Arvato Systems on digital transformation

64

Fidelity International

New adventures in sustainability for finance firm

56

Finserv

Cross border balance: fintech in China

76

Banking

After COVID: Digital banking and the emerging markets boom

106

84

Innovative payment solutions across the finTech landscape

Delivering the future of open finance through technology

Digital Payments

Finastra

er ?

Insurer ? Brok

Get the A.I. powered claim solution that you deserve Instant damage claim : from your insurer’s hand to a real assessment in seconds !

Your clients are empowered to make the best claim possible Your treatment time has been reduced by days You get a perfectly documented claim that you can process right away

AI

Instant detection and estimation

More info on

weproov.com/claim

130

Technology

Savvy crowdfunding & community-empowered fintech startups

114

JP Morgan & Chase The gold standard in diverse spend

138

Equiniti

Transforming and digitising procurement

154

Generali Vitality

Incentivising health and wellness

170

CURE Insurance Ethical car insurance for the community

Advertorial

Jersey for

Fintech Enabled by fintech and advanced technologies, Jersey’s finance industry is open for business and our digital aspiration is to be the easiest international finance centre to do business with remotely in a digital world.

Throughout its history, Jersey has embraced economic opportunities and innovation. An established international finance centre for 60 years, the Island was quick to recognise the opportunities presented by fintech and has worked hard to develop an attractive proposition for innovative start-ups and established businesses alike; world-leading digital infrastructure, a proactive and supportive government and regulator, an active digital industry body, and a growing skills base.

With the right enablers in place, Jersey has created an ideal environment for fintech to thrive. As a result, Jersey has seen fintechs aligned to the needs of its finance industry – especially in the fields of regtech and wealthtech – start, grow, and scale on the Island, and established fintechs relocate. With an ultraconnected business environment, the Island’s finance and tech sectors are in close proximity to each other, resulting in strong collaboration and partnerships.

Discover how Jersey is a world-class centre for fintech, visit jerseyfinance.je/fintech

UK

JERSEY

FRANCE

+44 (0) 1534 836000

jersey@jerseyfinance.je

www.linkedin.com/company/jersey-finance

www.jerseyfinance.je

www.youtube.com/jerseyfinance

@jerseyfinance

Advertorial

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An Ideal Environment for Fintech to Thrive

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4 world-class hosting and data centres

£1.4 trillion intermediated in Jersey each year*

1GB full-fibre to the home network ranked fastest in the world

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BIG PICTURE

The conjunction of quantum computing and gender equality

The Cloud As the race to build the world’s most powerful quantum computer continues, fintech use-cases also increase, both for the better and worse. And just as Ada Lovelace came up with the concept of the general-purpose computer, could a woman leader also do the same with quantum computing in finance?

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January 2022

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THE BRIEF “ IN CHINA, WHAT OFTEN HAPPENS IN NEW AREAS IS THE REGULATIONS ARE LEFT FLEXIBLE TO LET A MARKET AND SOLUTIONS DEVELOP”

BY THE NUMBERS We asked you which of the following options fintech companies should prioritise.

9%

David Messenger

YOU SAID:

Profit

CEO, LianLian Global  READ MORE

“ BANKS ARE IN NEED OF CHANGE; CHALLENGERS ARE RISING IN THE MARKET. TO MAKE THIS CHANGE SUCCESSFUL FOR ALL INVOLVED, TRUST FROM THE REGULATORS REMAINS A KEY SUCCESS FACTOR”

27%

Disruption

45%

Experience

Matthijs Pronk

Commercial Director for EMEA, Mambu  READ MORE

“ ASIDE FROM GENERAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH NOT MEETING THE CAMPAIGN'S TARGET, FINTECH COMPANIES HAVE THE ADDED COMPLICATION OF HAVING TO COMPLY WITH VARIOUS FINANCE REGULATIONS” Michele Schueli

Lecturer of Finance, Università della Svizzera Italiana  READ MORE

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January 2022

18%

Innovation

17 Fintech Trends

THE FUTURE OF FINTECH LOOKS BRIGHT, WITH AI, ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION, SMART CONTRACTS, DEFI, AND VIRTUAL REALITY ALL ON THE RISE.

THE ULTIMATE A-Z CRYPTO DICTIONARY The most comprehensive dictionary online of blockchain and cryptocurrency-related buzzwords, from AFK to Zk-SNARKs, these are the terms you need to know.

The Rise of ESG Fintechs

A NEW STUDY FROM JOANNA GLASNER AT CRUNCHBASE, EXPLORING CLIMATE-FOCUSED ACTIVITIES IN THE FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM.

BUY NOW, PAY LATER (BNPL) GROWS IN POPULARITY

 PLATE IQ The spend management and invoice automation fintech company has had a good year, raising $160m in a Series B round With the rise in popularity of buy now pay later (BNPL), a new fintech vertical has been created. The BNPL industry is now worth more than $97bn USD and set to increase.

It is an excellent option for those who need something but don't have the money immediately available to them. If used correctly, it can be an extremely effective and convenient way to pay for things.

At the same time, it is important for fintech companies to clearly explain what consumers are getting into before offering them such a service. It makes it easier to accumulate debt and interest.

BNPL is a trend particularly expected to continue growing in underdeveloped countries with a lack of credit scoring and access to traditional lending.

As a result, it is a fantastic opportunity for people to make purchases where they may not otherwise have had such opportunities.

 N26 The digital-only German bank halted its operations in the US, leaving 500,000 customers to find new bank accounts for the new year.

BINANCE Site freezes during a crypto crash in May 2021, leading to more than 2,000 legal claims against the exchange in the following months, and a lawsuit from White & Case, LLP.

GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES

 MYNT The digital wallet and lending platform is feeling flush following a Series A funding round that raised them $300mn

JAN22

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TIMELINE The Story of

Late 2000 WHEN WAS PAYPAL FOUNDED? PayPal, as we know it, officially launched in October 2000. It gained skyrocketing success in its early stage of development mainly due to using referrals and giving small fees of $20, $10 and eventually $5 for signing up. The company achieved almost 10% in daily growth during this period of its history.

The history of PayPal, the world's highest-valued fintech company

1998 WHERE DOES THE STORY OF PAYPAL BEGIN? Well, it goes back to Confinity Inc. created by Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel in 1998. The company aimed to provide secure software for financial transactions on individually owned devices.

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January 2022

Early 2000 THE X.COM / COINFINITY MERGER In 2000, Elon Musk initiated a merger between the two parent companies of PayPal; Confinity and X.com, his own online banking company.

After realising that Confinity’s operations were more profitable than X.com’s, Musk continued to focus only on Confinity’s operations of transferring money.

Early 2002

Late 2002 – 2021

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING ON NASDAQ

MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS, DELISTING, AND RELISTING ON STOCK EXCHANGE

In 2002, PayPal joined the world of publicly traded companies. In the same year, PayPal stock grew to 55% on NASDAQ. It was considered a phenomenal gain for a start-up like PayPal. By gaining such huge success over a very short time, PayPal was in the center of the world’s attention.

In July of 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for the fine price of $1.5 billion. The acquisition spread the word about PayPal even faster and helped the company grow much larger as eBay’s first choice for payments.

In 2013, PayPal acquired Braintree payments gateway for $800 million.

In 2014, Carl Icahn, an activist and an investor of PayPal, carried out a massive public campaign by demanding a PayPal split from eBay. In July of 2014, PayPal was officially a public company again.

PayPal’s market value climbed to $49 billion on its first official day trading as a public company again, which far exceeded eBay's market value.

In late 2021, the market cap of PayPal was around $220 billion.

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TRAILBLAZER

LI KA-SHING:

HONG KONG'S RICHEST MAN BETS ON 72 FINTECH years as a business founder

Job Title: Company:

Senior Advisor CK Hutchison

S

$3bn+ USD donated towards philanthropic causes

ir Li Ka-shing KBE is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He was born in Chaozhou, of the Guangdong province in China, on October 27th 1928, to a low-income family of three children.

Li is of Teochew descendants, occasionally referred to as "guest people" in the early days of his life. His family fled to Hong Kong as refugees during the SinoJapanese War in 1940 because it was safer and offered more employment as a British colony.

Three years later, he lost his father and had no other choice but to leave school ahead of time to support his mother and younger siblings. He found a job in a plastics trading company, wherein he laboured for 16 hours per day.

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January 2022

© EdTech Stanford University School of Medicine

19

fintechmagazine.com

TRAILBLAZER

“ OUR PRINCIPAL POLICY IS NEVER TO TAKE FINANCIAL RISK” 20

January 2022

Li Ka Shing Tower of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

© Matthäus Wander

In 1950, Li started his own plastic manufacturing company Cheung Kong Holdings. From there, he was able to build a multi-billion dollar empire consisting of manufacturing, retail, tech, electricity, and multiple investments in asset classes, including communications and real estate.

Li holds Canadian citizenship for commercial reasons and is married with two sons, one of whom was kidnapped for ransom by a notorious gangster called Cheung Tze-keung in 1996. At the time, Li paid the criminal to release his son, but the gangster was sentenced to death and executed by mainland Chinese authorities two years later.

At the time of publication, Li had an estimated net worth of $30.5bn USD and was one of the richest men in Asia. He

has been named repeatedly as one of the most influential people in the world by powerhouse magazines including Time and Forbes. His companies own numerous highrise buildings worldwide, and he controls CK Hutchinson, the largest company in Hong Kong, with more than 270,000 employees in combination.

In 2020, Li made his debut bet on a financial technology company by acquiring a startup called FOMO Pay through AMTD Digital, which is a subsidiary of New York Stock exchange-listed and fintech-focused investment banking firm AMTD International, established by CK Hutchison.

FOMO Pay is a cashless payment system based in Singapore that uses QR codes and processes 3 million transactions per month.

The company also allows payments to be made using Visa, MasterCard, WeChat Pay and Baidu Wallet, to name a few.

Li is also one of the leading philanthropists worldwide and has donated more than $3bn USD to charities, particularly for healthcare and education reform, since 2001. Several schools bear his name today, including Cambridge University's research institute in partnership with Cancer Research in the UK. He also funded Shantou University and set up the Li Ka Shing Foundation in 1980.

In conclusion, many individuals throughout the world can learn from Li's success. He was born into poverty but managed to become one of Asia's most powerful billionaires.

Perhaps it's no accident his surname sounds like "kerching", the sound derived from oldfashioned cash registers because he gets the money in. His unwavering commitment and desire to thrive inspire others who wish to accomplish great things in life, regardless of their circumstances or origins. And his interest in fintech may be a sign of more exciting things to come. fintechmagazine.com

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FIVE MINUTES WITH...

Shân Millie and Kate Bohn are the co-founders of Bright Blue Hare – an agency that offers practical transformation support for intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs in the fintech and insurtech space.

Q. W HO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY?

» Kate: Piglet – Winnie the Pooh’s closest

»

friend – the original green jumper wearing version. Although he is a "very small animal" of a generally timid disposition, he tries to be brave and on occasion conquers his fears. Here’s to us all doing that as children and grown-ups.

Shân: Her name was Emma and she was a hockey ace in the fifth form when I was a first year (so 11 years’ old). In a weird twist of fate, through marriage we were related at one point, many years later.

Q. W HAT'S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED?

» Kate: “If you need to ask the question, »

you already know the answer.”

Shân: “To make change happen, you have to start where people are at.”

Q. W HAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ – AND HOW LONG AGO DID YOU READ IT?

» K ate: The Last Lecture – Lessons in

Living by Randy Pausch, who was a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellor. He wrote the book following the extraordinary response to his ‘last

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January 2022

»

lecture’ – given to his students in the final weeks before his death from pancreatic cancer. The title of the event was “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and he wrote the book to capture the thoughts he offered on the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others and seizing every moment.

Shân: I just finished The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler: Leading Millions into the Abyss by Laurence Rees. To understand what makes Leadership work, you have to look at Fellowship, and how our species makes choices – for good and ill – about those we choose to trust and believe in.

Q. N AME ONE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT AND TELL US WHY (EXCLUDING YOUR MOBILE PHONE)

» K ate: The internet. While the

downsides have been well documented, the ability to remain connected with friends and family around the globe is an extraordinary privilege. The connection is either real time, or nearly so, and there is no commitment to those awful blue airmail letters of old.

Shân Millie Cambridge, UK

Kate Bohn London, UK

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Shân Millie (left) & Kate Bohn (right) Speaking @ Fintech and Insurtech Live, Tobacco Dock October 2021

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January 2022

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

» Shân: The original paradigm-busting technology: the pen and paper. And nurofen, a most brilliant example of pharmatech.

Q. WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO IN TERMS OF LEADERSHIP AND MENTORSHIP?

Q. I S THERE A PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT FROM THE PAST 12 MONTHS OF WHICH YOU ARE PARTICULARLY PROUD?

» Kate: I have had the privilege of sharing

» Kate: Every person who has pushed

»

boundaries and continues to manifest their inner self in spite of their loneliness in the execution of pushing those boundaries – such as Stacey Cunningham, Katherine Graham, Arabella Mansfield, Junki Tabei and Vigis Finnbogadottir. These are a few examples of people that have offered an alternative view on how life might be lived and opened the door to those that followed in their wake.

Shân: It’s a cast of thousands on both counts so the best thing to do is spotlight an example each: Ben Smyth and Chris Frogner are building a new kind of FinTech called Arma Karma, and walking their values not just talking about them.

This is not the easy road to growth, but they’re taking it nonetheless. On the mentoring aspect, just one example of the generous and patient consumerfocused activists helping me to really see FinTech in a different light is Lois Ratcliffe of Inclusion Scotland.

Q. W HICH ACTIVITY ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO DOING WHEN THE PANDEMIC IS OVER?

» Kate: Watching epic films on the big »

screen at the Cinema with an extra-large bucket of sweet and salty popcorn.

Shân: Sharing Christmas with our mum and close family, including our siblings (and their families) living in the US and Canada.

»

my personal thoughts on and motivations for recognising individual value with several media avenues. I never imagined that would be an opportunity and I have been humbled by the responses those engagements have brought in return.

S hân: It was definitely a team effort but I know I played a vital part in writing and publishing Open Finance: The Future of Insurance Innovation? with TechNation in July. We aimed to demystify what can be a complex area and encourage new and established firms to get on the front foot with something I think is an inevitable, imminent, and near-term disruptor.

Q. W HAT INSPIRES YOU IN FINTECH TODAY?

» Kate: The extraordinary and ordinary

»

people in the industry working to ensure the impact and capability delivered today makes a material and positive difference to the life of us all, rather than just a academically-successful and financiallyastute few, both now and into the future.

This knowledge drives me forward and keeps me asking the (sometimes difficult) ‘what if’ questions in creating ever simpler and more inclusive outcomes.

Shân: FinTech today has to face the fact that many fellow-citizens feel excluded, exploited, and threatened by the methods and outcomes of how Data, AI and other Technologies are used. What inspires me is the opening up of these debates within the FinTech community, and the emergence of new, sociallypositive firms. fintechmagazine.com

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In Association With:

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

2022

February 23rd-24th STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

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Confirmed Speakers Include:

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Roy Cheung

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Global Head, Sustainability Solutions, Engineering Plastics

Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer

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Tiger Brands Limited

Øistein Jensen

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Chief Sustainability Officer

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Odfjell SE

Providing Access to Quality Financial Products.

Mission Lane's Shane Holdaway discusses his early days, using fintech for good, and offering credit to contribute towards inclusive financial development WRITTEN BY: DERIN CAG

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January 2022

I

n this special interview, Shane Holdaway, CEO of Mission Lane, shares how his company started, where fintech is heading, and his vision for the future.

Before co-founding Mission Lane, Shane was the CEO of Barclays (US) and President of Capital One (Canada).

Mission Lane is a leading provider of financial technology solutions using a proprietary machine learning system to help people get access to credit.

Their flagship product is a Visa credit card that gives people a chance when most others wouldn’t. It is often used to help people get their first-ever credit card, rebuild their credit history, or have money during emergencies.

As a seasoned executive in the financial sector, with nearly 20 years of experience, Shane has a unique perspective on the current state of fintech and how it is evolving.

Read on to learn more about what Shane had to say.

MISSION LANE

Example of an image caption

MISSION LANE

Q: I know you've been a high-level executive in the banking industry, from companies like Barclays to Capital One. I really want to know, what made you want to get involved in fintech?

Before I joined Mission Lane as CEO, I was serving as CEO of the US consumer business at a major international bank when Nigel Morris, managing partner of venture capital firm QED Investors, whom I had worked with while I was at Capital One, called me out of the blue. Nigel was spinning off a new company called Mission Lane from another company in which he had invested and asked if I would be interested in being the founding CEO. At first, it seemed an unlikely prospect Mission Lane was a fraction of the size of what I was running at the time and carried a lot more uncertainty as a brand-new company.

But on the flip side, I saw an opportunity to fundamentally change the game for

“ I was giving up the stability and brand recognition of a large bank in exchange for the chance to build a new, mission-led company” SHANE HOLDAWAY CEO, MISSION LANE

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January 2022

Credit Building Unveiled

underserved consumers. I was giving up the stability and brand recognition of a large bank in exchange for the chance to build a new, mission-led company on the foundation of modern technology and data science and to be able to move at a much faster pace.

Q: If there was one piece of wisdom you could give to other people in the financial industry to improve their work, what would it be?

Be infinitely sceptical of traditional approaches and business models while also maintaining the deepest reverence for the immutable “laws of physics” of finance (especially in underwriting, funding/liquidity, and customer care). Like the Wright Brothers: they never would have achieved sustained powered flight if they had not bucked tradition in their designs, but they would have likewise failed had they pretended that the law of gravity doesn’t exist!

Q: Congratulations on more than doubling Mission Lane's users year on year, now

at 1.6 million users. What are the best ways fintech startups can accelerate their process of gaining new users?

The formula for gaining new users is simple but can be agonising in the execution. First, build a better solution. Second, treat existing customers exceptionally well. At Mission Lane, we leverage technology and data to help us understand consumers’ backgrounds and identify what they need to achieve their goals. Data can give us both quantitative and qualitative insights to allow us to personalise our products and services to each customer.

But it is not just about bits and bytes; we also demand superior customer service and train our representatives to listen to and understand each person’s unique situation.

We understand that financial empowerment fintechmagazine.com

31

MISSION LANE

is a journey that not everyone will get right the first time. We aim to work with customers for the long-term rather than providing quick, band-aid solutions or onetime, transactional services.

Q: What excites you the most in the field of financial technology right now?

And how do you anticipate things to play out by the 22nd century?

Right now, we’re seeing cloud-based applications for testing, organising and modelling allow us to greatly increase the speed of deploying new insights and rapidly scale them. Customer preferences and digital innovations are changing rapidly, increasing demand for the products and services that meet these wants and needs.

New technology enables us to be a “learning machine” that can quickly implement new insights across our growing product portfolio and within our customer experience.

No one can say exactly what the future holds, but looking forward to the 22nd century, I anticipate the biggest changes will be in the speed and humanity of banking.

New data sources and constantly evolving software will enable most banking to happen in real-time yet the more technologically

advanced we get as an industry, the more I believe consumers will crave a personal connection with those companies they entrust to help with their finances. Fintechs who can achieve extreme advantages on both dimensions simultaneously will be the winners over the next few decades.

Q: Which positive financial innovations do you anticipate in the coming years?

In the coming years, we’d expect to see continued advances in machine learning and causal inference techniques that make processes more accurate, reliable, explainable, and fair. Explainable machine learning methods are vital, as they allow us to explain our decisions more easily (for example, on credit approval or declines).

This is not only best practice to avoid bias and serve customers but is also becoming increasingly important to regulators.

Data advances like these build trust, which is extremely important in attracting and retaining customers, who want to ensure their data is used securely and to their benefit; for employees, who need to use data to make decisions confidently; and for regulators and partners, who must be able to trust and verify data and model governance.

Q: It seems your company's primary focus is around providing credit building products; why is such an offering important from a sustainability perspective?

At Mission Lane, we know credit-building products are important because so many consumers are left out of mainstream financial services -- or have to pay very high rates to participate in the mainstream -- due to low or nonexistent credit scores.

But we also provide a suite of services for customers, including debit, credit, and income management tools, and we plan to

MISSION LANE

“ Fintechs who can achieve extreme advantages on both dimensions simultaneously will be the winners over the next few decades” SHANE HOLDAWAY CEO, MISSION LANE

roll out more services specifically tailored to our customer segment.

Our first product was a credit card, which customers like because of its flexibility, ubiquity, and credit-building potential. Many of the customers we serve are not just looking for a second chance; they haven’t even been given a first chance. We aim to put them on a path toward financial empowerment by offering them transparent and reasonably priced credit and other financial products without hidden fees or confusing terms.

Another area we care about a lot is financial education. The foundation of financial education is helping consumers who are new to credit understand how the system can work for them instead of against them. But even with more established consumers, keeping up with the rapidly changing world of financial products and services can be a dizzying endeavour! How does a customer differentiate and find what works best for them among all the new options coming available each year?

We have developed our own content to help customers at different stages in their learning curve, and we are also partnering with our users to help them share their stories and hard-won advice with others in our community. This is all in the name of helping customers figure out what to do next in their financial journey. fintechmagazine.com

33

2018

Year founded Mission Lane has raised circa

$700m

(USD) in funding and debt since 2018

400+

Number of employees

$200m

and growing at over 100% per annum

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January 2022

MISSION LANE

Q: Legacy sources of credit ratings have made access to finance harder for disenfranchised communities in the past, what makes your proprietary machine learning system for credit ratings unique?

We do not use traditional credit scores like FICO in our underwriting. FICO is useful for categorising segments of customers and cross-referencing with other companies, but we have found that incorporating new data sources -- as well as getting more granular with traditional data -- gives a much sharper picture of a person’s credit situation.

The most powerful data insights are those we generate through endless cycles of proprietary, systematic testing.

“The foundation of financial education is helping consumers who are new to credit understand how the system can work for them instead of against them” SHANE HOLDAWAY

CEO, MISSION LANE

Equally important is how we organise our data and ourselves. We make sure our data insights are not siloed into one unit but rather integrated through every aspect of our business.

At many companies, data teams act as ticket takers, fulfilling requests by different teams.

At Mission Lane, we ensure that data is a core competency across all business units, allowing us to continually improve not only underwriting processes but also product development, customer experience, and other areas.

Q: What are the opportunities and threats of artificial intelligence in the financial services industry?

Data and AI can have benefits across marketing, acquisitions, fraud, and operations by fintechmagazine.com

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MISSION LANE

difficulty in explaining decisions produced by an AI model to the person who is impacted by that decision (for example, an applicant for credit who may see their application declined by an AI model).

It’s also important to not get seduced by innovation for innovation’s sake and forget to spend the time needed to deeply understand what customers actually need.

We have seen this happen in the fintech industry where AI and automation have been used to reduce the workload for companies and customers. But in some of the segments we serve, customers who are living paycheck-to-paycheck want to have a measure of direct control over inflows and outflows, so over-automation can leave them feeling anxious. So, it is important to always remember that we are serving human beings with distinct and nuanced needs; we are not just optimising algorithms.

making decision-making faster, cheaper, and more accurate. Many processes can be automated, thus reducing expensive and time-consuming manual reviews and helping to identify priorities based on predicted business impact. Automation can help make businesses more efficient and scalable by freeing up capital and increasing resilience, leading to sustainable business models that align profitability with customer benefit.

However, innovation does not come without threats of risks that must be addressed. A core issue cited across the board with AI is inadvertent bias and the black box effect. The black box effect is the 36

January 2022

“ It’s also important to not get seduced by innovation for innovation’s sake and forget to spend the time needed to deeply understand what customers actually need” SHANE HOLDAWAY CEO, MISSION LANE

Q: Please summarise your life in 3 words.

Road less travelled Q: What is next for Mission Lane in the coming 5 years?

In the future, we plan to expand our offerings to provide a comprehensive suite of banking and financial products and services that serve those who don’t typically have access to quality financial products. Some of the products we plan to offer within the next five years are debit products and a product specially geared toward gig workers, a growing sect of underserved individuals. With each of these new products, we aim to expand financial inclusion and help more individuals build their financial futures.

Q: Last, what is the one thing you want everyone to know about Shane Holdaway?

I grew up in the Los Angeles area to hardworking parents and am the third of six children. Our family didn’t have much, so I had to earn scholarships and work parttime jobs to pay my way through college and graduate school. Whatever we lacked in material possessions, my parents more than made up for in the values they taught and instilled in me—hard work, integrity, and respect for others of all backgrounds, colours, and creeds. I strive to bring these lessons to work every day as CEO of Mission Lane.

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MAMBU

Matthijs Pronk, Commercial Director for EMEA at Mambu

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MAMBU

How cloud core banking provider Mambu is embracing payment technology AD FEATURE BY: MAMBU

M

ambu, the leading SaaS cloud core banking provider and fintech unicorn, is enabling financial institutions with innovative and modern banking solutions, including the latest payment technologies, allowing them to launch new products faster and cheaper than ever before.

Matthijs Pronk, Commercial Director for EMEA at Mambu, talks about the future of payment technology and his company’s role in enabling change.

It has become increasingly important for financial providers to embrace technology and stay ahead of consumer demands in an uncertain world. Mambu’s banking platform allows clients including top tier banks and fintech challengers to launch banking and payment products with a faster time to market, because they no longer require costly in-house resources.

The forward-thinking leader’s multifaceted approach to transformational change goes beyond providing go-to-market technologies for companies in the financial fintechmagazine.com

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MAMBU

Flexibly build new finan products to meet your customers’ needs.

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ncial

MAMBU

services industry. Mambu's core banking platform promotes true adaptability through a unique approach called composable banking. This allows for best-in-breed providers to be assembled together, creating a banking ecosystem fit for change.

“On top of Mambu’s core banking engines, we have built a partner ecosystem that provides our clients with access to a vast range of products and features, making it possible to swap components in and out to keep up with changing consumer expectations”, says Matthijs. So, looking ahead to the next several years, what transformations and challenges does he believe the industry will face?

"Payments evolve rapidly; regulation is getting a bigger footprint. This is similar in 42

January 2022

the banking industry, where we see banks moving into the cloud and regulatory compliance is of utmost importance. Banks are in need of change; challengers are rising in the market. To make this change successful for all involved, trust from the regulators remains a key success factor in building a fintech ecosystem."

The role Mambu plays in this new environment A key element to composable banking is the ability to connect with leading technology partners through APIs. Partners like global payments platform Currencycloud allow customers to integrate out-of-thebox solutions without the need to build everything from scratch.

MAMBU

"We are a back-end orientated banking solution, which means partners are crucial to our clients’ and our own success. To scale this globally, we are partner agnostic, meaning we need to be able to work with any type of local payment rails", Matthijs states.

"Specifically looking at payments, we see that the industry is globally adopting ISO20022. As a consequence, Mambu is aiming to deliver a generic ISO-20022 transaction API from the payment gateway to create set standards that will require less customisation by our clients, making solutions controllable and cost-effective."

"Another hot topic in fintech is buy now pay later (BNPL). Mambu’s core banking solution consists of multiple product engines, including lending, which allows our

customers to create their own BNPL service or product. The ability to do this in a time and cost efficient manner is key for providers to get in on the action.”

Banking and financial technologies are evolving, and the role of cloud-native solution providers like Mambu is critical.

The company has grown into a leader of embracing technological change and creating solutions fit for the future. All with the aim of gaining a better understanding of financial institutions’ needs across global markets, supporting underserved regions and making modern banking products more accessible to all.

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ARVATO SYSTEMS

Christian Scholz, Arvato Systems

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CHRISTIAN

SCHOLZ OF ARVATO SYSTEMS

ON DIGITAL

TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

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ARVATO SYSTEMS

Christian Scholz of Arvato Systems discusses digital transformation, system integration and successful leadership

W

hen a newly founded company grows or an existing company needs to be digitalised, the complexity increases with the new technical possibilities. Companies are often in the situation where they need specialists who know which services are the most suitable, where the strengths and weaknesses of the providers lie and which security levels are required.

This is where Arvato Systems comes in.

"We are a system integrator that offers exactly these kinds of services," says Christian Scholz, IT Director Cloud Business at Arvato Systems. Christian has been with the company for 19 years. He started as Lead Architect and became IT Director in 2014. "The future belongs to all of us, but it is shaped by those who have the courage to break new ground. Because IT is changing our world." This insight of Christian's originated in 1984, when his parents gave him a computer on which he could play games. His soft spot for computer games soon turned into an interest in computer software and that became a passion.

"What do you need for your life?”

“Goals!" laughs Christian. "My personal challenge was to build large IT systems. To try out what is possible. I started at Arvato Systems 19 years ago and I kept getting the chance to work with IT giants, like Microsoft 46

January 2022

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Christian Scholz of Arvato Systems on digital transformation

“ The future belongs to all of us, but it is shaped by those who have the courage to break new ground. Because IT is changing our world” CHRISTIAN SCHOLZ

IT DIRECTOR CLOUD BUSINESS, ARVATO SYSTEMS

and Google, on various projects. These projects were large, complex and very challenging. I had the freedom to make my own decisions and do things differently. This allowed me to test myself, gain new experiences and grow.

That kept me interested and subsequent management level positions have made it all even more exciting. Today, I'm happy to be able to help shape the company in my position."

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Successful leadership and digital transformation For Christian, successful leaders are not above the team, but part of it.

"One of the tasks for good managers is to put together a team that achieves the desired goals”, says Christian. “It is important to understand that the team determines the path to the goal and not necessarily the manager. Successful managers include people with different skills in their teams and give them tasks they can grow with. In other

ARVATO SYSTEMS

CHRISTIAN SCHOLZ TITLE: IT DIRECTOR CLOUD BUSINESS INDUSTRY: TECHNOLOGY

words, the team is given the space it needs.

In an open and trusting atmosphere, it can communicate freely and honestly. This is the prerequisite for developing as individuals and as a team. Everyone in the team has different abilities. You have to put people in the right place and see if their skills develop.

“Good leaders therefore also give pointers on where their team members can improve,and some employees may not even know what their strengths are yetI have the space and freedom to develop the team.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: GERMANY Christian Scholz main responsibilities as IT Director at Arvato Systems is the setting-up and implementation of IT strategy. His further duties include the company’s expanding strategy in the cloud market and he works closely with large customers in Europe. Before becoming IT Director he worked as an IT Architect and Senior Project Manager on large scale project for companies like Google, Microsoft, Volkswagen.His in-depth IT knowledge derives from over 30 years in different positions as IT architect, software developer, network admin, CAD- and graphics expert, project manager, and IT consultant. He has worked in many different industries such as finance, engineering, automotive, e-commerce, media, publishing houses, broadcast, and surveying.Christian's passion is to develop people; he has the ability to see people's skills and to develop their strengths. He has built these skills both in his work environment and in his spare time, where he writes plays and musicals and puts them on stage with people who have never acted before.

Using technology to reach a large audience In the 37 years since Christian started playing computer games, technology has of course changed a lot. IT has definitely become more normal, more commonplace.

"You don't have to be a computer scientist to build a web shop today. We are in the digital age. It has never been easier to reach an audience that is geographically and demographically larger than ever before," Christian explains. "It has also never been easier to build new businesses that could, in principle, have anyone with internet access as a customer. Services like payment systems, web shops, warehouses or delivery services are easily available online. Even advertising works via search engines or social channels. All these elements can be used to set up a new business relatively quickly and without much prior knowledge or technical know-how.”

However, the situation is different for established companies, which were often founded in the last century. This is because they already have successful processes – and an existing IT environment.

“ …Good leaders therefore also give pointers on where their team members can improve. And some employees may not even know what their strengths are yet” CHRISTIAN SCHOLZ

IT DIRECTOR CLOUD BUSINESS, ARVATO SYSTEMS

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“In order to be successful in the future, these companies need to build new technical capabilities and develop new, digital business models”, explains Christian.

“This is where our support comes in.

Arvato Systems helps companies on their way to new digital business models. One approach can be to simply set up a digital interface between the existing business and the audience - to combine everything.

An API management layer (Application Programming Interface) makes it possible to have apps and address customers digitally.

The company needs to store information in its new systems, and the storage is done through API management. This gives a company a greater and safer interface that allows the outside world to use the legacy systems in a digital way. If there are, say, three different legacy systems that manage addresses of customers, business partners and perhaps goods, all of this can be combined into one API for each need. We've done that for some clients and it's really easy to implement."

Today, the cloud offers everyone the opportunity to install servers and access services from the cloud with just a few clicks, from databases to developer tools to machine learning. The role that the cloud now plays at Arvato Systems is correspondingly large. "Today, Arvato Systems acts as a service integrator for many of our customers”, says Christian.Quite a few years ago, we recognised that the cloud was on the rise and would become a cornerstone of IT. Since then, we have earned a very good reputation in the German market with our service and our knowledge of the cloud.

The cloud and the business transformation it brings to our customers: This is our bread and butter business today. We have a broad knowledge about multi-cloud environments fintechmagazine.com

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1999

Year Founded.

3,000+

Number of Employees.

€413mn Revenue in 2020.

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and have good, close relationships with the various cloud partners."

Strong partnerships There are three big players in the cloud market: Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Each of them also offers native services, but these may cause a certain vendor lock-in.

“If you use Kubernetes for container applications from Google, you will be able to move it to Microsoft perhaps 98% of the time”, Christian explains, in an example. “But if you then leave Microsoft and move to AWS (Amazon) you may need to adapt the service or use a new one. We are aware of these limitations and take them into account when we create the ideal cloud or multi-cloud environment for a customer.

“At the same time, our partnerships with all these strategic partners are really very close. Microsoft, for example, has already been a very important partner for us for decades. Arvato Systems works with Microsoft in various areas, even with their internal processes. We have also been working with our partner Google on internal products for well over 15 years. We fit so well together because we have the same mindset. When we work on projects, I'm dealing with a lot of cool and experienced people from Google. Their knowledge, this collaboration also improves my own skills.

The same is true for Amazon (AWS). We learn from and with each other in our longstanding partnership and have implemented very many different customer projects.”

Together into the future Cooperation and team spirit are also important goals at Arvato Systems.

"As a manager, you simply have to make sure that the team feels valued. We usually have events twice a year," Christian fintechmagazine.com

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“ You don't have to be a computer scientist to build a web shop today.

We are in the digital age.

It has never been easier to reach an audience that is geographically and demographically larger than ever before” CHRISTIAN SCHOLZ

IT DIRECTOR CLOUD BUSINESS, ARVATO SYSTEMS

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reports. "Only this year, due to coronavirus, we switched to live events that take place via camera and video. Smaller teams cooked together, for example, and we had a professional chef with us - that was a lot of fun.

Then there was also a quiz around the world."

At Arvato Systems, too, the hope is that life will return to normal, that team members will soon be able to enjoy each other's company in person at the office again. Nevertheless, in our digital world, the most constant thing seems to be change. What do the next five years look like for Arvato Systems?

"I think we will continue to expand our connections and partnerships", says Christian. "From a business perspective,

ARVATO SYSTEMS

we will certainly continue our growth course, and even accelerate it. From a technological perspective, I expect a dramatic development in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). So far, AI’s are highly specialised - they have a kind of savant syndrome: one AI navigates me to my destination while driving, another plays chess with me, the third monitors my fitness.

But the great leap forward for future AI generations will be to understand human needs in their complexity, i.e. to support people through a more comprehensive, connected intelligence.

“At Arvato Systems, we are already helping companies to use artificial

intelligence in a targeted way for their business processes and business models.

This will expand significantly in the future with the advancing capabilities of AI. " Many new ideas, in-depth know-how, team spirit and strong partnerships are just some of the attributes that distinguish Arvato Systems, and with creativity, plenty of room for innovation and the right sense for customers' needs, Arvato Systems is ideally positioned for the future and will continue to stand confidently at the forefront of digital transformation.

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CROSS BORDER BALANCE:

FINTECH IN CHINA New regulations for fintechs in China are re-shaping the space. We spoke to LianLian Global CEO David Messenger to find out more WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

A

t the beginning of 2021, China's GDP was conservatively estimated to be $15.66trn. Experts also forecast that its economy will overtake the US in less than decade due to its growth momentum, and become the world’s largest economy.

But over the past few months, Chinese regulators have taken significant steps to restrict the largely unfettered fintech activity that has boosted the economy.

China’s approach to regulating fintech has been three-fold. Firstly, financial businesses must be licensed to operate. Secondly, different businesses such as insurance and wealth management must set up firewalls to prevent cross-sector risks. Finally, the direct link between non-banks and banking information services must be cut.

The central bank has also required fintech businesses to set up holding companies and to include all subsidiaries engaged in financial activities.

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A series of strict measures on fintech regulation have also been implemented.

On November 1st, China’s new law on personal data protection came into effect.

In September the Data Security Law was introduced, and in January, the central bank tightened its regulation of non-bank payment providers, effectively restricting their activities in the swiftly growing payments sector.

The previously free-wheeling fintech space seems to have been reined in with sudden effect and commentary in the space shows some companies have felt the pinch.

“I think the key issue going forward will be, how to embrace those new e-commerce channels” DAVID MESSENGER

CEO, LIANLIAN GLOBAL

FINSERV

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COMING SOON FO LLOW NOW

ED U CAT E • M OTIVATE • E L E VATE

FINSERV

A commercial culture of growth However, for those more familiar with the culture of Chinese commerce, the restrictions came as no surprise. David Messenger, CEO of LianLian Global, one of China’s leading cross-border payments companies, says the moves are aimed at strengthening the industry by logical regulation and have not been unexpected for those within the industry.

Messenger is in a unique position in that he is a British national leading a China-born fintech company as it rolls out its expansion plan, first regionally, and now globally.

Founded in Hangzhou, in 2004, LianLian Group is already considered an international entity. Its main purpose is to connect merchants globally, through two-way channels whereby companies both within and outside China can have a streamlined transaction network.

He says, “When you look at fintechs in China, really, there are two areas of regulation. One is the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the financial regulations. And then the other is the Cyber Administration Authority of China, which is the data security, data privacy

“If you are one of the monopoly players in China, there's pressure to take very significant steps, make significant changes and do so relatively quickly” DAVID MESSENGER

CEO, LIANLIAN GLOBAL

regulations. In China, what often happens in new areas is the regulations are left flexible to let a market and solutions develop. Then, once the position is clear, the regulator brings in regulations that are broadly in line with the same objectives that regulators have all over the world.”

The process is, he says, a method that ultimately works best for the business climate and the customer because it closes areas of vulnerability, making the environment safer for business by providing greater stability in the financial system, data security and data privacy.

“I think most people would find it hard to disagree with the principles behind these changes,” says Messenger. “The difference is the way those principles get executed in China. I think if you're a foreign company, you need to be able to understand the Chinese process, see the direction things are moving and also be ready for the fact that in China, things move at China speed. That's true on the business side, and it's also true on the regulatory side. So, it's where China has grown so fast and innovated so well because things do move fast.”

Ultimately, he says, the goals are very reasonable and companies have to adapt to the fact that the way things get done in China is different. fintechmagazine.com

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“In China, things move at China's speed. That's true on the business side, and it's also true on the regulatory side” DAVID MESSENGER

CEO, LIANLIAN GLOBAL

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Operational challenges While many smaller companies have swiftly adapted to the new fintech regulations, the larger entities have felt the strain.

Messenger says monopoly players face the biggest challenges.

“If you are one of the monopoly players in China, there's pressure to take very significant steps, make significant changes and do so relatively quickly. If you are not in that category of data security and data privacy, the implementation is going to be phased.

And so everyone is studying those changes and needs to really understand and engage

China’s Central Bank Vows to Continue Fintech Crackdown

with the regulator to figure out the best way to meet these new obligations.

“If you're in the broader space of the ecosystem, it's a time when you need to be engaging and figuring out how to engage with the regulator, and engage with the government to understand the best course of action. That's certainly what Chinese players are doing. Foreign players find that more challenging unless they have a very strong local partner who can help them navigate those channels.”

Cross-border payment space in China While the financial environment in China is notoriously competitive – especially in the domestic payments space – the crossborder business presents great opportunities for innovative fintech companies. Over the past couple of years, there has been an international e-commerce boom. The fintechmagazine.com

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industry in China was already growing rapidly, but the pandemic has driven it faster still, and given rise to new opportunities, The new regulations have, says Messenger, opened up lots of new potential in China for those ready to adapt. “Essentially, the dominant players are forced to be more open and participate in a more open ecosystem, similar to what we have in the West. There's also increasing pressure on firms to have Chinese licenses and understand data security effectively.”

It is this ‘paperwork’ challenge that is often difficult for foreign fintech companies to navigate. But because LianLian Global is China-born it has the capability to navigate those changes. Furthermore, over the past couple of years, cross-border e-commerce has boomed. It was already growing rapidly, but the pandemic has driven it faster still, and given rise to new opportunities, he says.

“That long-term growth trend has been exciting and we see that continuing into the future. But it's also giving rise to a whole new set of e-commerce channels. TikTok is one of the big breakout stories in the last year, and there are other new e-commerce channels opening up. So it's becoming a more diversified ecosystem for crossborder e-commerce. And it's important for fintechs to really be able to navigate that and broaden their approach so that they can help their customers make the most of those opportunities.”

So are companies in general responding well to the situation? Messenger says the reaction has been mixed, but in general, positive. And that consumer demand through e-commerce channels has grown exponentially and shows no sign of slowing down.

“We see that volume and growth continuing at a very strong rate. And I think 62

January 2022

“B2B cross border trade is a huge area where fintechs can disrupt and innovate and provide new solutions” DAVID MESSENGER

CEO, LIANLIAN GLOBAL

FINSERV

the key issue going forward will be, how to embrace those new e-commerce channels, as well as the ones you as a merchant are already familiar with. The other major focus we have is working with platforms, whether it is a marketplace or a large corporation doing business in China, or needing to disperse funds into China. And that is an area which has seen very rapid growth as well.”

The future of cross border trade Ultimately, the industry shows no sign of slowing down, and continues to demonstrate dynamism, regardless of regulations.

Messenger believes we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential.

“I'm excited,” he says. “I think this is a very exciting time in China. B2B cross-border

trade is a huge area where fintechs can disrupt and innovate and provide new solutions. I think, particularly for us, we have very strong global banking partnerships with banks like Citi and Deutsche Bank. We're engaged with them in saying, how do we collaborate? Fintechs and banks, how do we create new solutions to issues that have been around for a long time?”

He adds, “I think the cross-border space in general is not China-centric. So it's supporting cross-border flows, whether they are from Vietnam or Thailand to Brazil or Europe to Singapore. The key is always that you've got to have local teams, local licences to be able to not just have core innovations, but actually be able to localise them effectively.” fintechmagazine.com

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NEW ADVENTURES IN SUSTAINABILITY FOR FINANCE FIRM FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL WRITTEN BY: JOHN PINCHING PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

Fidelity International surges forward with ambitious net-zero plans, futureproofing and bold sustainability goals or Fidelity International, the importance of sustainability cannot be ignored. The climate crisis is one of the most difficult challenges facing today’s generation and all companies have a role to play.

This year, Fidelity set a goal to reduce company-wide operational carbon emissions to net-zero by 2030, 20 years ahead of the 2050 goal most countries and many companies have set, along with a range of other sustainability goals.

While the easiest approach when setting any goal is to do the minimum required. That wasn’t good enough for Fidelity. It believes it is right that it does even more than it is asking the companies it invests in to do.

Leading by example Ben Clifford is the company’s Global Health, Safety and Sustainability Associate Director and is relishing the challenge of leading the company into a brave new era of environmental responsibility. He is a man with a wealth of sustainability experience across many industries but reconfiguring the financial landscape has been his greatest test to date.

“My role focuses on our corporate operations,” he explains. “It’s about identifying our key environmental impacts, managing those from a sustainability point of view and striving to improve them.”

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Fidelity International January 2022

“It’s about identifying our key environmental impacts, managing those from a sustainability point of view and striving to improve them”

Many of Ben’s goals sustainability involve the development performance and good of ‘energy reduction economic performance sites’ – looking at how – the two areas are the company can inseparable. It's very switch to renewable much about turning energy and reassessing the mirror on ourselves all the aspects of the in terms of how we business which have real, operate and how we practical and positive wish to be viewed. In environmental impacts. terms of approaches to Ben is under no sustainability and the illusions about the task mitigation of risks, we BEN CLIFFORD GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND for Fidelity and the wider ask our partners to work SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, industry and believes with us to find solutions.

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL sustainability should In turn, we apply these always be at the forefront practices ourselves and of all decisions. He explains: “We're a this increases credibility across the board.” financial services and investment company, and for a long time sustainable investing has Hero to zero been a pivotal element of how we operate.

Fidelity recently launched its first “We now see definite correlations corporate sustainability report. One of the between companies that have good key commitments within it was a robust 68

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commitment that aims to achieve netzero status by 2030 throughout corporate operations. In addition, it has made a netzero commitment on the investment side by 2050.

There has also been considerable activity on the governance side. Ben says: “We've done a lot on the reporting and data capture side. Without good data, you can't see the impact of any of the initiatives that you implement.

“In 2020, we implemented our corporate sustainability committee – our central body where we manage all the different programmes, whether environment or social governance related."

Above all, the company wants to be open and transparent about where it is on the sustainability journey – clearly marking the plot points along the way. On this basis, Fidelity will be setting some short-term targets around 2024 across different areas.

With this 2024 target considered, it will look to reduce energy by 25%, overall carbon emissions by 25%, water usage at Fidelity sites by 25% and waste produced by that golden figure of 25%.

“It has been a fundamentally important decision to set these targets for 2024 – it keeps us focussed on the short to medium term and has really helped us make sure that we're on track for the 2030 goal, but also that we're aligning to the 1.5-degree scenario.”

50%

TITLE: GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR LOCATION: TADWORTH, ENGLAND INDUSTRY: FINANCE Ben, a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv), is the Global Health, Safety and Sustainability Associate Director at Fidelity International and has been working in the Health, Safety and Sustainability field for over 15 years across a number of different sectors including Aerospace, Defence, Technology, Transportation and Finance.

Through his varied career, he has focussed on a number of different areas: specialising in H&S and Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Management, Energy Management and Net Zero strategy, Sustainability, Safety Culture, Mental Health, Corporate Governance and Design for Environment.

In his free time, Ben enjoys spending time with his young family, exploring the outdoors, and has a passion for cooking.

EXECUTIVE BIO

We've set 2024 as our date to reduce paper by

BEN CLIFFORD (CENV)

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

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People have spoken The last few years have witnessed an increasingly ubiquitous sustainability culture at Fidelity, not just as a company belief system, but at an individual level. Instilling these focuses among employees has been vital in terms of achieving wider targets.

Furthermore, it has created the brand of collective ambition which is necessary to uphold a true sustainability model.

“A lot of people understand that it is a big issue,” says Ben. “Whether it's climate change or biodiversity, they want to discover more about mitigating some of these impacts. We want to bring them on the journey with us, explain what goals we are aiming for, what they can do to help but also emphasise how it can benefit their normal day-to-day lives.”

“We're a financial services and investment company, and for a long time sustainable investing has been a pivotal element of how we operate” BEN CLIFFORD

GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

Not only have Fidelity employees been very receptive in terms of what we need to do, they've also been pushing the company and challenging it to be more progressive in some of the programmes that it’s set.

In the climate change era, this kind of symbiotic relationship within the corporate ecosystem is essential. fintechmagazine.com

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Make Your 'One Day' Happen

“ Using collaboration tools and digital forms of communication has definitely reduced our overall carbon footprint” BEN CLIFFORD

GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

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Ben explains: “In response to the positive staff response Fidelity has set up the Sustainability Ambassadors Programme and we now have over 200 ambassadors across the organisation, impacting on multiple different functions.

The role looks at both the investment and corporate side, enabling individuals to embed initiatives within their regional and functional teams. Ultimately, it gives sustainability a much more personal perspective.”

Digital watch The climate change crisis runs parallel with the digital era, inviting our lives to change with the ever-increasing evolution of technology. This situation is particularly stark in the finance sector which has,

FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

historically, involved considerable travel, paper usage and carbon emissions.

Ben believes that digital is and will be a considerable ally in the company’s own approach to climate change. “We've set for 2024 as our date to reduce paper by 50%,” he says. “We have also moved to more digital-based contracts and will continue moving towards more digital solutions in terms of how we operate as a business.

This is a big area of growth in finance and we will be striving to progress in the digital space over the next few years.”

The digital dimension came into sharp focus for the company when COVID-19 struck in March 2020. Ben reflects: “Many of our people began working from home throughout the pandemic and, consequently, they haven't been

printing as much, while also considerably reducing the business travel side or their job. Moreover, using collaboration tools and digital forms of communication has definitely reduced our overall carbon footprint.”

Net-zero target With Fidelity’s net-zero target only nine years away, it has applied five key principles to reaching the sustainability summit.

The first one is around the data, the verification of the data, the transparency of that data and, ultimately, the disclosure of it in external forums. “We want to challenge ourselves, but we want to make sure that we do it in a credible manner,” insists Ben. “Subsequently, we have had a big focus on data and the processes surrounding it.” fintechmagazine.com

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“We want to increase efficiency, both in terms of improving building infrastructures and looking at renewable energy sources” BEN CLIFFORD

GLOBAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

The second focus is on energy efficiency.

This aspect looks at the electricity being consumed in Fidelity’s offices – a significant proportion of the company’s operational carbon footprint. Ben says: “We want to increase efficiency, both in terms of improving building infrastructures and looking at renewable energy sources, but also making sure we’re using all our spaces as efficiently as possible.”

The third area is around business travel and, specifically, air travel. Another significant proportion of the company’s wider global operational footprint. Remote working has, in this regard, also been a revelation with far fewer corporate trips and a much greater number of virtual events.

Renewable energy is the fourth item on the manifesto with Fidelity prioritising the switch to renewable energy contracts or onsite renewable generation. This step has already been undertaken at two of the company’s offices, with other feasibility studies underway.

The fifth really drills down on the carbon emissions from Fidelity’s operations it is unable to eradicate – establishing residual emissions and making every effort to create rapid solutions for carbon removal.

Dancing to a different tune Fidelity International’s sustainability efforts and impact are already resonating through the company.

The company epitomises the optimism and determination of neo-sustainability companies who reach above the general standards and have instead begun to navigate the terrain according to their own higher expectations.

Following COP26 it has become clear that the future involves company autonomy over their own responsibilities to people and the planet – effectively transcending their own service provision and making sustainability the defining aspect of what they do.

This culture shift has been accelerated by Fidelity’s own 2024 set of milestones – six years before the recommended year of 2030.

By setting this immediate ‘futureproofing standard’ the hazy non-specifics of international conferences and government recommendations suddenly become crystallised; representing something people can believe in.

That is the sign of something authentic and, above all, something sustainable.

fintechmagazine.com

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BANKING

Digital banking and the emerging markets boom AFTER COVID:

Myles Bertrand, Managing Director of Mambu Asia Pacific, tells us how the region’s markets have transformed over the past two years WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

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igital banking in Asia is swelling like a tidal wave. Despite the region having some of the highest unbanked populations globally, adoption of digital services is at an all-time high.

Increased mobile penetration and better digital services, as well as the pandemic, has resulted in a transformational shift where the development shows no end in sight.

Mambu, a global leader in digital banking terms, has been instrumental in developing the sea change in many of Asia’s emerging marketplaces. Using the latest technologies and data analytics to create strategies that better appeal to the marketplace, they have established themselves among the region’s incumbents - and are giving them a run for their money.

Myles Bertrand, Managing Director of Mambu Asia Pacific, has been based out of Singapore for almost four years, and describes the changes he’s witnessed, as “drastic”, with new market entrants as well as technologies driving the transition. fintechmagazine.com

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Experience composable banking with Mambu's SaaS cloud banking platform.

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He says, “We are very focused on the emerging markets and Mambu was founded on a philosophy of making banking better, making banking technology more accessible, really driving financial inclusion and financial literacy.”

According to Bertrand, key markets, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, will be the next big regional players in terms of digital banking growth because they have “significantly underbanked” populations.

The growth some of these regions are undergoing currently, is nothing short of “crazy”. In the Philippines for example, which has a 200 million-strong population, the potential for onboarding new customers to digital banking services is estimated to be six million within a 12 month period.

“ Because they don't have some of the technology debts that the banks have, they're able to actually get things into market very quickly” MYLES BERTRAND,

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MAMBU, APAC

Compose the bank you want to be

BANKING

really quickly, smartly, very digitised, they don't need bricks and mortar, they don't need branches. So we've seen a real acceleration of a lot of organisations coming into that space.”

Regional APAC developments through digital banking The rise of digital banks globally has had incumbents troubled for some time.

After all, if customers can manage all their transactions, savings and bill paying through a user-friendly app, the benefits are obvious.

Furthermore, many digital banks charge lower fees and offer significantly better deals when it comes to lines of credit. In areas where traditional banks are failing to serve large swathes of the population, digital solutions have swept in.

“What we've seen in particular is a number of new entrants offering financial service solutions to their existing customer bases,” Bertand explains. In short, telcos, conglomerates and big retailers that already have big customer bases, are now looking to expand and offer financial services, which has boosted the marketplace activity.

“Because they don't have some of the technology debts that the banks have, they're able to actually get things into market very quickly, they're allowed to provide services 80

January 2022

Incumbents under fire The activity has been a wakeup call for traditional banks because of the increased competition, and this in turn, has mobilised digital transformation in the banking sector.

A third factor, points out Bertrand, is the regulatory bodies in the banking sector.

“Obviously the pandemic has hit everyone very hard,” he says.

“Some organisations have been able to respond. Others haven't been able to respond in a timely manner to offer COVID loans and payment holidays and a variety of things like that,” Crypto and digital currencies in APAC Cryptocurrency has been adopted with enthusiasm, with countries like the Philippines leading the way in terms of digital transactions using DeFi. Bertrand believes that more regulations to protect users would almost certainly be helpful in stabilizing the marketplace.

“You're starting to see regulation really come into the fore and regulators are paying attention. I think you'll start to see a lot more management - not just in crypto, but in Buy Now Pay Later, because it's also an unregulated product type.”

Better regulation will, he believes, allow the cryptocurrency to develop into a mature product. The banks will also play a leading role in supporting cryptocurrency as a standardised product for themselves.

Mambu, for example, has taken a dynamic lead by introducing the first cryptocurrency bank - Kraken - to the US, which runs off its own digital platform.

BANKING

“ You see these banks launching completely new digital spinoffs because they feel that's the only way they can truly innovate” MYLES BERTRAND,

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MAMBU, APAC

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“We support deposits, transactional products and lending. And now crypto is becoming another product set that we support.”

Data, financial history and breaking new boundaries Another aspect that digital banking has brought to emerging markets is the ability to glean data from other sources, so that customers underserved by traditional banks can now gain access to loans and finance services. Credit checks in the conventional sense are no longer required.

Betrand explains, “There are some really smart initiatives by new players coming into 82

January 2022

the market. The telco sector is an example.

They already have a huge amount of data about their customers. They already know that their customers pay $100 a month for their mobile phone. They know they pay it on time. They know that they've been a good customer for four or five years. On that data they could make a decision."

It’s these innovations that are boosting SMEs and seeing massive uptake in the micro lending space across the region, and they are also leading to partnerships between fintechs.

“A lot of decisions were previously made on single data points. Now we're seeing the ability to consolidate lots of different data points from different sources and they can

BANKING

“ Now we're seeing the ability to consolidate lots of different data points from different sources and they can make a smarter decision about offering credit” MYLES BERTRAND,

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MAMBU, APAC

make a smarter decision about offering credit. The advancement of technology, particularly AI, particularly the access to data, can actually be making smarter decisions.”

The incumbent challenge But how do incumbents fit into this Brave New World of data-driven finance, cryptocurrency and mobile services? Many of them were established decades ago, and therefore must function with their embedded, core processes that are at odds with the shiny new digital trends.

One way has been to build a digital version of themselves that operates alongside the traditional bank, therefore offering its

current customers the benefits of digital services. However, Bertrand is not a fan.

“We call it they keep putting lipstick on the pig,” he says bluntly. “You see these banks launching completely new digital spinoffs because they feel that's the only way that they can truly innovate. Basically they [incumbents] do a lot of cool stuff, a digital layer and they make it look all fancy, and then they've got this monolithic hulk of a thing that's been sitting there in some cases 40 or 50 years. But it's getting to a tipping point. They've got to start looking at the core.”

Banks have to start thinking differently, says Bertrand. The future is digital, agile, flexible, intelligent and customer centric - and that's not about to change any time soon.

“I think it's going to make the industry very exciting. I see the likes of the J.P. Morgans, the Citibank's, the HSBCs, and they're all starting to think ‘I can't continue to be the way I've been, I've got to start to think about doing things differently.’”

He adds, “They see the success stories of challengers - like N26, which is now in 23 countries, and the message is clear. Digital banking is the future, and it's here to stay.” fintechmagazine.com

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DELIVERING THE FUTURE OF OPEN FINANCE THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND PRODUCED BY: TOM VENTURO

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Finastra’s Chief Information Officer, Russ Soper, reveals how ‘Open Finance’ benefits it’s people, customers and the Finance Industry

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anaging the enterprise systems for Finastra’s global workforce of 9,000 employees, as well as overseeing the hosting and operations of its client-facing technology, is just part of the daily remit of Russ Soper, the company’s CIO. But, with an extensive career in technology in the Financial Services sector, Soper brings the skills and mindset required for such a role.

Soper, who began his role with Finastra three years ago, is no stranger to business-critical operations in the world of banking and finance.

He began his career as a developer, moving into trading floor support for the Investment Banking arm of ABN AMRO where he grew his expertise in mission-critical Financial Services technologies.

From there, he progressed through a variety of high-profile technology roles, serving as Americas CIO and later as Global Head of Infrastructure from London, UK, before moving to JPMorgan (JPM) to launch its Critical Infrastructure Operations capability; a program focused on driving “always on” capability for JPM’s most critical platforms.

Excited by its vision of the future of Open Finance, he joined Finastra in 2018 as Global Head of IT Operations, before his promotion to CIO in May 2019.

Russ’s keen interest in harnessing technology to deliver better outcomes has seen him become a passionate advocate for technology for good.

He is a regular speaker on how innovation can be leveraged to go beyond improving efficiency, collaboration and productivity, to progress emotional, physical and social wellbeing.

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The platform for amazing things Lumen provide the fastest, most secure platform for next-gen business applications and data, integrating global network infrastructure, unified communication and collaboration solutions and edge cloud connectivity into a seamless experience

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Innovating to support Finastra Lumen Technologies’ Ian Cunningham discusses how the company help Finastra modernise its networks and improve its customer service Lumen Technologies is a multinational technology company that enables companies to capitalise on emerging applications and power the 4th Industrial Revolution. In doing so, the company integrates network assets, cloud connectivity, security solutions and voice and collaboration tools into one platform. This enables businesses to leverage their data and adopt next-generation technologies.

Discussing the company, Ian Cunningham, Vice President EMEA Sales and Customer Success said: “We support financial organisations, manufacturing organisations, and pharmaceutical organisations to name a few, but also we work very closely with leading cloud providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.”

One key client for Lumen is the financial technology provider, Finastra. With a relationship spanning nearly a decade, Lumen and Finastra have worked closely to understand how each other operates.

Cunningham explained that in the last three years, this relationship with Finastra has developed into a more strategic one. This began with a programme to consolidate Finatra’s WAN infrastructure. Supporting Finastra’s ‘One

Finastra’ initiative, Lumen worked to consolidate what had previously been 13 different vendors into one managed WAN infrastructure.

“Finastra has been very open in sharing the strategy and vision for the organisation and the direction in which they’re going. We’ve spent time developing a strategy with them on how Lumen can support that,” said Cunningham.

He added: “Building on from their network consolidation, we’ve worked very closely with Finastra in terms of modernising the contact centre and how they engage with their customers. We’ve introduced a new solution for them that effectively provides an omnichannel experience for their customers. It has allowed their customers to communicate with them and also engage with them through multi-channels in a way that is suitable to the customer.”

On top of this, Lumen has helped put in place a unified communications solution for Finastra.

This system was designed pre-COVID and was originally meant to be implemented just as the pandemic struck.

“With Finastra, we started talking about how they were looking to collaborate and move forward. This meant completely adapting the solution that we had designed,” Cunningham said. He concluded: “Being adaptable and understanding exactly what our customers need is very important to us as an organisation; it is ultimately at the heart of it.

We want to make sure that the success of our customers is paramount.”

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FINASTRA

Finastra: Delivering the future of Open Finance through technology

Leading with a customerfirst technology mindset Soper describes how his formative career years shaped the technologist he was to become. “I sat alongside traders on the equities, fixed income and ADR desks,” he said. “This was key in instilling a sense of urgency and a view on how crucial technology was to business processes – traders simply could not miss a trade. It also provided a very direct perspective on the customer experience. This is something I’ve carried ever since.”

From there, he has continued to focus on the applications of technology within Financial Services, to mitigate business problems and improve the operations and experiences of his broad range of clients; a task, he says, that brings variety and personal reward at Finastra.

Reflecting on his position, he says, “I’m not sure there is an average day, but regardless of the task, our primary focus is always finding ways to improve the customer 90

January 2022

experience at every step of their journey – whether the customer is a client or a colleague. It’s about finding the balance between creating efficiency through streamlined operations, managing risk and compliance, and delivering innovation and better experiences that improve the day-today roles of our customers.”

The pandemic further accelerated the need to deploy technologies to support a largely remote workforce. “Over the last 18 months, there was an immediate need

“We see our role evolving to become the orchestrator in connecting [Financial Services] players. It’s a really exciting time” RUSS SOPER

CIO, FINASTRA

FINASTRA

RUSS SOPER TITLE: CIO INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: UNITED STATES Russ Soper is Chief Information Officer at Finastra, where he is responsible for hosting and operations of the company’s client-facing technology, as well as managing the corporate technologies used by Finastra’s global workforce of around 9,000 employees.

He began his career as a developer, moving into trading floor support for the Investment Banking arm of ABN AMRO where he grew his expertise in Financial Services technologies.

EXECUTIVE BIO

From there, he progressed through a variety of technology roles, eventually serving as CIO for the Americas region and later as Global Head of Infrastructure from London, UK, before moving to JPMorgan to launch its Critical Infrastructure Operations capability; a program focused on driving “always on” capability for JPM’s most critical platforms.

He joined Finastra in 2018 as Global Head of IT Operations, before his promotion to CIO in May 2019.

Russ is passionate about the intersection of technology and humanity and speaks regularly on how tech can be leveraged to go beyond improving efficiency, collaboration and productivity, to enable emotional, physical and social wellbeing.

Outside of technology, he is an active

member of the non-profit community, currently serving as Board member for 18loop; a non-profit organization using innovative Virtual Reality technologies to aid pediatric cancer patients. He is also a Board Council member and former Chairman of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music; a NYC-based non-profit providing music education and music therapy to over 8,000 inner-city children and teenagers.

Russ holds a BSc in Computer Science from the City University of New York, is an avid runner and life-long musician.

He resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and daughter.

Unlock the Value of Cloud Cloud financial management is critical to the success of your cloud journey. Do more than just reduce costs – manage your cloud spend to bring teams together and fuel innovation.

Discover how you can master the economics of cloud.

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Apptio: Create cost visibility to support Finastra’s agility and innovation goals Mallory Beaudreau, Customer Portfolio Director (EMEA), Apptio, discusses Finastra’s migration to the cloud for greater visibility with the help of Apptio Offering a suite of software platforms for every aspect of IT financial management, Apptio provides actionable insights to connect technology investment decisions for better business outcomes.

Finastra has been using Azure as part of their own digital transformation journey for some time, but in July 2020, the company announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft Azure to accelerate their own roadmap and support the needs of their customers. “They chose Azure because it provided them with flexibility and scale,” says Beaudreau.

“Azure had advanced technology solutions that meant Finastra could deliver mission-critical solutions to their own customers. Now, one of the results of that strategic partnership was that in March of 2021, Finastra migrated its entire core platform, called Fusion Phoenix, over to Microsoft Azure. But every migration

does come with its own challenges. For Finastra, the ramp-up in Azure spend created cost, visibility and allocation challenges.

“This is very normal for an organisation that sees a large scale-up in their cloud usage.

On one hand, the benefit of cloud usage is that each product team has the flexibility to choose the resources that best suit their workload. But the challenge that comes with that flexibility is there are literally thousands of choices available and the central finance team loses control over which resources those teams will choose. Those choices have significant cost implications for the organisation. And so, waiting for a monthly invoice isn’t an option anymore in a cloudfirst world,” says Beaudreau.

With Finastra struggling to gain that real-time visibility into their spend, making it harder to understand the value of that cloud investment, Finastra looked to Apptio to help make sense of the complexity. “When organisations like Finastra start to spend significantly on cloud, it is normal to turn to a third-party data platform to support their organisations’ complexities and also to help you with best practices. So Finastra partnered with Apptio and leveraged its Cloudability platform for cloud cost management. Now, right out of the box, teams at Finastra got access to real-time spend data.”

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FINASTRA

$1.9BN Revenue (USD)

9,000+ Number of Employees

2017

Year founded

FINASTRA

to support our employees to work from home. Almost 9,000 of our people found themselves in unfamiliar territory overnight.

We had to fast-track ways to help them work, collaborate and find a digital balance in this modern, flexible working environment.

“We’ve moved many of our products to the cloud, improving agility. Automation also plays a key role everywhere these days, it’s become table stakes” RUSS SOPER

CIO, FINASTRA

That’s one of the things I find fascinating about my role at Finastra - the variety and broad scope of projects, technologies and people I work with on a daily basis.”

This variety is, in part, driven by an industry that is continually evolving, both in the way consumers, businesses, corporates and other banks engage with financial institutions, and the technology and security considerations to support this evolution.

Infrastructure, says Soper, is a crucial element of delivering innovation at scale and pace. “Years ago, the options were relatively straightforward.”

“Institutions managed their environments on-premise in their own data centre. The services aspect of the industry evolved, giving rise to a wave of outsourcing deals.

And these have now evolved further still; private cloud, public cloud, hybrid models, multi-cloud. Financial Services is just one of the industries that has seen a tremendous shift. And for those who were still on the fence, the pandemic has only accelerated the need for digital transformation.” fintechmagazine.com

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The Platform Behind Your Platform Learn how cutting-edge innovators are utilizing Akamai, the world’s largest and most trusted edge platform, to disrupt traditional financial models while ensuring security and compliance for the digital imperative.

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The Akamai Intelligent Edge provides security for billions Keep apps, code, and experiences close and threats far away with the world’s largest and most trusted edge platform, from Akamai Akamai powers and protects life online. The most innovative companies worldwide choose Akamai to secure and deliver their digital experiences — helping people live, work, and play every day. The US-based company has the world’s largest and most trusted edge platform, which keeps apps, code, and experiences closer to users and the danger of threats far away.

“Our goal is to make life better for billions of people, billions of times a day,” said Steve Winterfeld, Advisory CISO at Akamai.

“We protect and deliver world-class digital experiences for financial services in a sustainable way,” said Winterfeld. “We support more than 400 financial institutions, including eight of the 10 largest banks in the world.”

Akamai brings both depth and breadth to the cyber fight: • • • • •

1,400 networks 135 countries 800+ Tbps capacity 24/7 monitoring 1,900 services experts

Winterfeld noted that threat risk tends to follow the money. “We use our deep threat intelligence to enhance our tools to stop, or mitigate these threats.

“Transformation today is built around DevOps and application programming interfaces (APIs), which we protect directly,” Winterfeld said. Many Akamai customers are moving more toward APIs. According to the APIfocused Akamai State of the Internet (SOTI) report there has been a threefold increase in attacks on APIs in the past year.

“As threats continue to evolve, Akamai helps our customers achieve situational awareness of where their risks are today,” said Winterfeld.

Finastra relies on Akamai Finastra — the world’s largest pure-play financial services software company — uses Akamai web application and API security capabilities to protect its customers.

“If someone carries out a direct attack or denialof-service attack against Finastra, Akamai security solutions step in to mitigate these types of threats so as not to impact its customers.”

To find out more, visit www.akamai.com

DID YOU KNOW? Technology & embedded finance is changing the future

• Embedding AI everywhere: This could be applied in numerous daily operational processes as well as product innovation – or help us better obsess about the customer experience.

• The expanded use of “Open” through cloud and APIs: The vast majority of innovation occurs outside your company’s walls – leveraging the partnership ecosystem will be increasingly important.

• Overall, technology evolution: underpins how we deliver continued efficiency, expand our reach into new addressable markets, connect people and improve the way we serve our customers. Essentially, as the world shifts from creating products to solving problems, technology will be at the heart of every decision.

On managing challenge

Russ Soper shares his top three tips on managing challenges within the industry.

He says, • Do the fundamentals to a high degree of quality: As technologists, we can sometimes focus on new, exciting tech – but there is no substitute for doing the fundamentals well.

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• Listen, solicit ideas and build consensus.

Your colleagues and the industry will have great input to many issues you’re likely to encounter. Broad ideation and consensusbuilding are force multipliers.

• It’s all about execution: Get a straightforward plan together, get buy-in on that plan and execute. Don’t let the plan become a greatlooking deck that didn’t deliver the intended value.

Technology designed to accelerate customers’ growth

• Finastra provides essential core systems that institutions use to run their daily operations.

• FusionFabric.cloud enables customers to access these core systems and add new functionality via APIs; they can build themselves or choose from our library and fintech partners. This could be to solve a specific regulatory or reporting requirement, add a new product feature or capability, or a new third party innovation.

• An agile approach to product development: At the onset of COVID, the company created a solution in just two weeks to help community banks and community development financial institutions issue the Payment Protection Program in the US, which it offered free to approximately 400 smaller institutions.

FINASTRA

“Open is the critical word here – the world of finance has changed and the emphasis is on connectivity, co-innovation and being part of an ecosystem to succeed” RUSS SOPER

CIO, FINASTRA

The journey to Open Finance So, how does a technology company stay ahead of the curve in a sector that is innovating and transforming at dramatic speed? The key, Soper believes, is a combination of expertise, innovation and collaborating with partners.

Soper is proud of Finastra’s vision – that the future of finance is open – and the bold moves that it makes to bring innovation, collaboration and growth to its customers through its technology and its culture.

He says, “Ultimately, we provide a complete range of Financial Services solutions to customers around the world, ranging from Tier 1 multi-national institutions to local community banks and credit unions. Our mission is to unlock the potential of people, businesses and communities by empowering financial institutions and opening up the world of Financial Services. Open is the critical word here – the world of finance has changed and the emphasis is on connectivity, co-innovation and being part of an ecosystem to succeed.”

Finastra is the world’s largest pure play Financial Services software company with over 8,600 customers and its solutions are used by 90 of the world’s top 100 banks. As an entity, it is responsible for 8% of global FX trading, 6% of daily trade finance and 25% of all US wire payments.

“Open Finance is the only way,” continues Soper. “95% of innovation is

likely happening outside of your company walls. The scale and speed of it means it’s impossible to ‘own’ it all in-house. Think of the time spent developing an app based on machine learning, or a new wealthmanagement tool. You could spend a year building and testing, and millions branding and launching, or you could collaborate and plug-in or co-develop with a fintech partner. Collaboration is the solution - which means being open. Open platform, open APIs, open standards, open ecosystems – open banking was just the start of the movement and it’s exciting to see our mission coming to life,” Soper says.

He goes on to give three examples of how Finastra is championing Open Finance: 1. First, through its core systems, which are designed to be enhanced and built upon through open APIs. 2. Secondly, through its open marketplaces – such as ICC TRADECOMM, an SME trade finance marketplace built in partnership with the ICC, designed to solve the SME funding gap by attracting alternative lenders.

3. And finally, through its open developer platform FusionFabric.cloud, which is home to around 200 fintechs and hundreds of APIs… and is growing every day. fintechmagazine.com

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Better Digital Workplaces Start with Understanding Your Users

- Gain visibility into the digital employee experience - Implement automations - Optimize IT assets Hybrid work has fundamentally changed the relationship between employees and IT. We used to work at the office, now we work in a thousand offices. For IT, visibility into the true user experience in remote settings is critical for supporting a productive and happy workforce.

Lakeside Software’s Digital Experience Cloud, powered by SysTrack, delivers that visibility by taking a more holistic view of remote environments so IT can quickly identify productivity roadblocks, thoroughly troubleshoot issues, optimize setups, and do more to improve digital experiences for remote workers.

When Finastra shifted to a proactive IT model to support a distributed workforce, it identified Lakeside as a partner that could provide rapid insights to prioritize and proactively address the most urgent challenges affecting employees’ digital experience.

“We identified that we needed to invest in a digital experience management solution so we could get that visibility and measure how well IT is doing,” said Russ Soper, CIO at Finastra. “We wanted to be able to see when users are having issues without just waiting for employees to phone the service desk. We can’t fix what we can’t see.”

Lakeside’s Digital Experience Cloud monitors all the factors that impact end-user experience directly from the digital workplace and then analyzes that data to provide IT with an accurate view into the current state of your end-user computing environment.

Finastra can now intelligently calculate an end-user experience score and view the data it needs to ensure that score is up to the company’s standards.

This depth of visibility has enabled the Finastra IT team to design proactive IT processes that ensure an optimal end-user experience and deliver better outcomes for the business. “Lakeside has enabled us to be far more data-driven and proactive in detecting an issue before it affects the user experience,” said Soper. “We now see that quickly in a data-driven way, so we can now focus on addressing it before it manifests into an incident.”

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It’s moves like these that empower customers, Soper says, and gives them the keys to their own innovation roadmap. “We’ve moved on from a world where banks own every product or innovation. And as we move towards Banking as a Service and embedded finance, Open Finance will only become increasingly important.”

Customer services and digital transformation The way customers engage today compared to ten years ago has been transformed, and digital is at the heart of it all. From neobanks, super-apps and hyper personalization to wholesale offerings as-a-Service, the technology underpinning this new world needs to be fast, secure, efficient and highly scalable, says Soper.

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Additionally, COVID has sped up digital adoption in multiple ways. Some analysts say cloud adoption was brought forward by five to seven years. Mobility and cloud became increasingly important as people needed accessible Financial Services in a remote world, he points out.

“As an example, when bank branches were closed, people needed to find alternate ways to send money or pay bills. Managing on-premise technical infrastructure also became increasingly challenging during travel bans. Cloud meant you could achieve this from anywhere, whether it was provisioning new capacity, upgrades or deployments.”

Indeed, Finastra’s own operations have shifted significantly, he explains, “We’ve moved many of our products to the cloud, improving agility. The pandemic forced us to

FINASTRA

approach challenges differently, with digital as the only vehicle. For example, we had to reimagine our project delivery processes, which typically involved in-person meetings and onsite implementations.

After reengineering many of our processes, we were able to deliver 400 implementations already in play at the start of the pandemic, without missing a beat. While there’s no substitute for a face-to-face relationship, we’ve integrated these lessons as we evolve. If you can deliver 99% remotely and you or your customer no longer needs to travel, that adds tremendous flexibility.”

He notes that this aspect also cut down Finastra’s carbon footprint significantly, which is a key part of the company’s ESG mission, alongside social innovation and financial inclusion.

Strategic partnerships built on trust and expertise With such a large-scale, global operation, Soper agrees that selecting the right partners and vendors to be a part of your ecosystem is key to your success. He describes the value of his relationships with several industry-leading companies that Finastra operates with.

“Microsoft is a key strategic partner for Finastra across a broad spectrum of areas, ranging from our journey to the cloud, to IPA (intelligent process automation), security and the employee experience,” says Soper.

He adds, “We’re a cloud-first company.

Azure provides the scale and geographic reach we need.” Finastra’s 9k employees also rely heavily on Teams for daily use and Finastra has embraced the full Microsoft 365 suite as well as Microsoft’s cloud-native Sentinel.

Apptio is another close ally, he says, “If you’re running legacy platforms with limited elasticity, or if you haven’t institutionalised certain operational rigor, it can be challenging to ensure you’re operating as efficiently as possible in the cloud. Cloudability helps us ensure we run the right blend of commitment discounts, elastic workloads and optimise our financial efficiencies in the cloud.”

“In Financial Services, trust is essential, and security is absolutely crucial. It’s integrated into all of our processes, partnering with industry experts to ensure we maintain pace with best practices.

Akamai is one of those key partners,” says Soper. “We leverage Akamai’s Global Business Intelligent Network with visibility to over 30% of global internet traffic, complementing Finastra’s own operations.” fintechmagazine.com

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A new age of financial software is here

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for innovation, collaboration and banking with unlimited potential

FINASTRA

Lumen also plays a significant role.

The company partnered with Finastra to modernise its network, evolving from single fixed bandwidth circuits to a scalable and resilient SD-WAN architecture designed to be ‘always on’. “Lumen partnered with us to flex our capabilities, particularly during the pandemic and as our location strategy evolved.

Reliable and scalable connectivity is absolutely crucial, as it underpins the increasingly interconnected world enabling digital collaboration. We’re also modernising our UC&C portfolio, leveraging a cloudbased contact center fully integrated with Microsoft Teams,” Soper says.

Finally, empowering Finastra’s employees is another area where digitisation has transformed the experience. Lakeside Software has given Finastra the foundation to drive an improved user experience. “I mentioned earlier how COVID created new challenges for people working remotely –

Lakeside’s Systrack enables us to be far more data-driven and proactive in detecting an issue before it affects the user experience,” says Soper. “This is particularly helpful in modern flexible working environments, whether the employee is in the office, working from home or from a coffee shop.”

An inspiring and technology-filled future The evolution of Financial Services and the speed of change makes the industry incredibly dynamic, and an exciting place to work. For example, the acceleration and opportunities offered by Banking as a Service and embedded finance, which Soper sees as game-changers.

Embedded finance is a movement that sees banking services moving away from traditional channels, to be offered in the right point of context for the user journey. This could be, for example, embedded buy-nowpay-later lending features on a merchant website, right through to embedding wholesale trading capabilities to Corporate Treasurers through agent banks.

“This is a big area for us,” Soper says, going on to explain that it relies on cloud and API connectivity.

“Banks can offer their specialties products or services - ‘as-a-Service’ to a far wider audience at a far lower cost. They can wholesale to other banks, or provide banking capabilities to the hundreds of fintechs on our platform - we connect those parties together.”

He adds, “FusionFabric.cloud connects buyers and sellers, manufacturers and distributors, so we see our role evolving to become the orchestrator in connecting these players. It’s a really exciting time.”

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INNOVATIVE PAYMENT SOLUTIONS ACROSS THE FINTECH LANDSCAPE WRITTEN BY: DERIN CAG

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DIGITAL PAYMENTS

Discover the most innovative digital payment solutions, from the cryptocurrency craze to the buy now pay later frenzy

T

he financial technology industry is rapidly evolving with the introduction of innovative payment solutions. Consumers increasingly prefer to pay using their smartphones by taking advantage of features like contactless payments, buy now pay later (BNPL), and cryptocurrencies.

Traditional banking and financial institutions are under pressure to compete with new players entering the market. In this feature, we explore the recent innovations in the field of payments leading to an increase in competition.

“ I believe 2022 will finally be the year the QR code goes mainstream in Europe” MICHAEL SCHREZENMAIER CEO OF EUROPE AT SUMUP

Contactless smartphone payments Contactless payments using a point-of-sale system with near field communication (NFC) was popularised

by Apple Pay and Google Pay. It has helped the two companies challenge existing finance industry players like banks and credit card providers.

One might sit and wonder what the difference between contactless smartphones and cards are to be precise. According to Dickson Chu, CEO at Copper and a former Managing Director at Citibank, "Smartphone-based NFC uses a different chip, the Secure Element (SE), which essentially emulates the same functionality as the 'chip card'. So, from a user and merchant standpoint, it's pretty much the same experience - tap to pay. However, smartphone-based fintechmagazine.com

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Learn more

TWITTER FACEBOOK LINKEDIN YOUTUBE

DIGITAL PAYMENTS

Circle CEO on fintech's developments in crypto

“ The future promises significant flexibility in using crypto as part of a currency bundle including a user's cash, credit, and other assets” BILLY ROBERTS CEO AT WEDGE

NFC has some additional benefits that have yet to be fully utilised.”

Consumers have grown to prefer contactless and digital payment methods with as few steps as possible. Greg Goldfarb, VP of Commerce Products at GoDaddy, said, “Options like Apple Pay offer consumers a quicker and more seamless experience, regardless of if they’re paying online or at a physical storefront.”

Buy now pay later (BNPL) The concept of lending has existed for more than two millennia. Even the Bible notes, “The borrower is the slave of the lender,” in Proverbs 22:7. More recently, a modern fintechmagazine.com

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“ A huge trend we’ll continue to see in the upcoming years is the adoption of integrated payments” CHARLIE WRIGHT

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AT EPOS NOW

version dubbed buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) became mainstream thanks to Swedish fintech company Klarna. The firm offers credit terms, allowing consumers to pay for goods in instalments. It has attracted more than 90 million customers and 250,000 retailers worldwide.

BNPL is trending in many other parts of the world too. For instance, in Mexico, there is Kueski, where 60% of the population lacks access to banking services. Adal Flores, Co-Founder and CEO at Kueski, said, “In the near future, BNPL solutions will become even more integrated into traditional financial ecosystems, allowing consumers to make interest-free purchases both online and in brick-and-mortar stores – even without a debit or credit card which is important for markets with low card availability and penetration.”

Siamac Rezaiezadeh, Director of Product Marketing at GoCardless, thinks “Another trend to watch for in 2022 is BNPL for business.

A few companies such as Biller have popped up in this space, and it's likely more players will enter the fray.”

The fintech ecosystem is changing ever so rapidly. According to Ralph Andretta, President and CEO at Alliance Data, "The shift in spending power across generations and the impact of the pandemic on shopping behaviour are key drivers in the accelerated adoption of buy now, pay later, and we see this trend continuing.”

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DIGITAL PAYMENTS

43% of Gen Zers have missed their BNPL payments at least once this past year. It’s clear that a big part of consumers don’t truly understand the dynamics behind this option and are racking up on more unnecessary debt in the process. The average American household owes around $14,200 in credit card debt alone.

However, there are also dangers surrounding BNPL, as it could turn into a harmful addiction for consumers who use it excessively. Daniela Corrente, Founder and CEO at Reel, said, "Unfortunately, as a society, we have been led to believe that going into debt is the only way to buy what we want, and adding more debt-driven options like BNPL is just deepening that dependency even further." Jimmy Fong, Chief Commercial Officer at SEON, added, “Fraudsters are paying attention to this, and we’ve already seen that they are developing ways to commit fraud by exploiting the gaps in BNPL security.”

Payment processing and interoperability Many businesses across the world are turning to merchant account providers such as Square, Paysafe, and Stripe to accept payments. These merchants also offer card readers, which are relied upon by millions of users across the world. For example, UK-based SumUp’s products are used by a range of organisations from the Church of England to boutique clothing stores and fast-food outlets.

The card readers are generally batterypowered and have Bluetooth capability for mobile point of sale applications. They are also compatible with contactless NFC transactions using physical payment cards or mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, along with magnetic-stripe swipes.

Charlie Wright, Director of Operations at Epos Now, noted, “A huge trend we’ll continue to see in the upcoming years is the adoption of integrated payments. Now more than ever, merchants are integrating thirdparty payment solutions on their platforms.

By fully automating payment acceptance, merchants can offer their customers a frictionless, seamless checkout experience, fintechmagazine.com

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as well as save time, money and eradicate human error.”

Some fintech businesses such as Jobber, headquartered in Canada, even offer rewards. The company’s card reader is connected to their app and lets customers save 0.2% on every transaction they process with it. The real game changer will be when payments are embedded alongside a range of other financial services - like lending, card issuing, bank accounts, and insurance," said Laura Collinson, FinTech Director at Jobber.

Cryptocurrencies There is no denying the topic of crypto has probably been mentioned on almost every dinner table in the civilised world.

So where can it go next? According to Billy Roberts, CEO at Wedge, “The future promises significant flexibility in using crypto as part of a currency bundle that includes a user's cash, credit, and other assets. In this paradigm, crypto can be used strategically, automatically, and when advantageous to the user.”

Some experts believe digital currencies will further integrate into everyday society.

For example, Eugene Shapovalov at Innowise Group, said, "Cryptocurrencies have been the trend for some years already, and they are being implemented into modern economics step-by-step."

Ted Claypoole, a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson who leads the firm’s Fintech Team, added, “With 200 Coinstar Kiosks now inside Walmart stores, the trend of ATMs dispensing and cashing bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies is reaching deeper into the standard in-person retail environment.”

Central banks are also getting in on the action by deploying their own digital currencies. Parijat Banerjee, Global Business 112

January 2022

Analytics Head for BFSI at LatentView Analytics, thinks that “maverick experiments like the Central Bank Digital Currency (CDDC) are looking to disrupt the space tremendously. This is also to reduce the volatility that creeps in with the likes of cryptocurrency.”

Growth trends to watch in 2022 Although many of these technologies are still in their infancy, they hold great promise for the future of finance. Michael Schrezenmaier, CEO of Europe at SumUp, said, “I believe that 2022 will finally be the year that the QR code goes mainstream in Europe.”

In terms of other trends to watch, Daniel Kornitzer, Chief Business Development Officer at Paysafe, stated, “One element of the payments landscape we expect to see a lot of progress in the next 12 months is the elevation of real-time payment rails to a global level.”

The fintech industry is rapidly evolving with new innovative payment solutions now revolutionising the payments landscape for consumers and businesses alike. It is evident the payment market is undergoing a period of immense change, with traditional card payments and cash beginning to be replaced by digital solutions offering convenience and simplicity for consumers around the world.

“ In the near future, BNPL solutions will become even more integrated into traditional financial ecosystems” ADAL FLORES

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO AT KUESKI fintechmagazine.com

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THE

GOLD STANDARD IN

DIVERSE SPEND WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

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Through mandates, mentorship and mobilisation, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is promoting diverse spend throughout its supply chain to enact real change

I

n an era where Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) is rising rapidly to the top of corporate agendas, prioritising diversity is not, on the surface, a novel idea. In fact, JPMorgan Chase has been committed to supporting diverse suppliers for almost 30 years, with the philosophy that an inclusive supplier base that mirrors the communities in which the bank does business generates wealth, creates jobs and fosters economic growth. Currently, JPMorgan Chase dedicates about $2bn annually - to diverseowned and managed companies. And in October of 2020, JPMorgan Chase made a commitment to increase its spend with Black, Hispanic and Latino businesses by US$750 million as a part of the firm’s $30bn commitment to help close the US racial wealth gap.

JPMorgan Chase’s global procurement function oversees $19bn in annual spend, across 6,500 suppliers encompassing technology, professional services, real estate, legal, and every category in-between.

Given the impact of this significant spend and its ripple effect on the global economy, the team is cognizant of the importance of purchasing responsibly.

Jim Connell, Chief Procurement Officer and Head of Global Supplier Services aims to drive diversity further through the bank’s procurement function.

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Example of an image caption

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

“Supplier diversity is a top priority across Global Supplier Services, which really involves every part of our team - even payment operations and supplier assurance services, who historically wouldn't be involved,” Connell says. “I think it's important that we all play a part in driving supplier diversity forward.”

JPMorgan Chase is “doubling down” through a unique approach that leverages its own scale to systematically promote best practices and commitments throughout its supply chain. The firm is mobilising key suppliers to spend more with diverse companies; mentoring those with emerging supplier diversity programs; enhancing discoverability of diverse suppliers; and promoting increased spend targets with key business communities, specifically Black, Hispanic and Latino.

The strategy is built upon JPMorgan Chase’s Gold Supplier program, an initiative launched in 2017 that brings together industry leaders 118

January 2022

to generate shared, incremental value and strengthen relationships with its most strategic and highest performing suppliers, from bluechip market leaders to small and agile innovators -both publicly traded and privately held.

Connell and his team understand that simply demanding that Gold Suppliers spend more with diverse companies may not provide the desired results. To help drive results they needed a better understanding

JIM CONNELL TITLE: CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES INDUSTRY: BANKING

of each company’s current capabilities and how much room there is to grow.

"Around a year ago, we engaged with over 100 of those top suppliers to figure out where they are in their journey toward a sustainable supplier diversity program,” Connell says.

“We conducted a comprehensive end-toend supplier diversity benchmarking survey, which allowed us to tier them into three different groups.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: USA Jim Connell, as Head of Global Supplier Services (GSS) for JPMorgan Chase & Co., is responsible for Sourcing, Procurement, Third Party Oversight (TPO), Payment Operations and supplier control assessment for a $19B supplier spend portfolio, distributed across 31,000 engagements with 6,500 suppliers.

Prior to this role, Jim was the Head of Third Party Operations and Controls for the firm, overseeing the firm wide TO program, Supplier Assurance Services and Payment Operations. Before this, Jim led the firm's Corporate TPO group, inclusiveof the PO policy, technology, regulatory engagement and cybersecurity.

Before joining the firm in February 2014, Jim served as CPO for RBS Citizens Bank, managing Strategic Sourcing, the Contract Management Center of Excellence and a supplier spend profile of $1.7B per year.

Prior to accepting the CPO role in 2012, Jim held various leadership positions within BS Citizens Bank's sourcing function, including management of the Marketing, HR, Technology, Facilities & Operations sourcing teams. Prior to entering the financial services industry in 2008, Jim practiced strategic sourcing for 7 years at Comverse, Inc., which followed a successful 5 year tenure as a corporate technology sales representative. Jim holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Merrimack College, and lives in Connecticut with his wife, Dorin.

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SPREAD OND OR INUM

Overland-Tandberg is a global technology company serving over 100 countries. We spoke to its Chairman and CEO, Eric Kelly.

As Chairman and CEO, Eric Kelly takes a dynamic role in leading the company in its global growth strategy.

This has involved an important collaboration with one of the world’s leading banking corporations, JP Morgan Chase, that is expanding the company’s mandate of improving global diversity in the corporate and technology sectors.

Kelly says Overland-Tandberg was on the lookout for a partnership with a bank to fit the company’s growing, global footprint. “We actually started off discussing the banking relationship, and then it quickly moved into a symbiotic partnership—they became our corporate sponsor. The collaboration has gained momentum and velocity, with Overland-Tandberg carrying out business with JPMC on the supplier diversity side, working with their chief procurement officer and their supplier diversity group.

Established trust and success Kelly points to Overland-Tandberg’s long history when he speaks about the company’s robust reputation in the marketplace. As one of the longest

established black-owned global technology companies, it has built up a respected position.

Our vision of “Global Intellect and Inclusiveness” is the ethos that drives the organization – this vision allows us to have a comprehensive understanding of diversity and inclusion.

Diversity and data challenges Multinationals and foreign companies face the same challenges as US companies when trying to find black-owned businesses, says Kelly, it comes down to a lack of access, availability and awareness.

“There are organizations here in the US that showcase specifically black-owned businesses, and diverse companies,” he elaborates. “But I think that from a multinational standpoint of foreign companies, it’s one of access and availability and awareness. How do you find and develop partnerships at scale with diverse companies when there’s no technology platform that’s designed to provide that information?”

Kelly continues, “The world is digital and getting smaller. If you’re a US company you’re directly or indirectly doing business globally.

This challenge has been constant, which led me to leveraging my history in technology to focus on creating a platform that could align these resources across industry and essentially play a key role in closing the digital and diversity divide.” It’s called Bridge 2 Technologies.

Learn more

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JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

“WE VIEW SUPPLIER DIVERSITY NOT ONLY AS A MORAL IMPERATIVE BUT AS SMART BUSINESS” JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Very nascent supplier diversity programs, or those still in the planning stages, are labelled ‘emerging’. Relatively successful supplier diversity programs that have been established for several years are categorised as ‘established’, while industry-leading, bestin-class supplier diversity programs are considered ‘mature’.

“That benchmarking allowed us to approach each supplier in a different way,” Connell explains. "We asked them to draft and submit a growth plan that would show us over a three-year horizon how they're going to improve supplier diversity, in general, and specifically with Black, Hispanic and Latino companies. We then benchmarked those growth plans against each other, and once we felt they were sufficiently ambitious, we accepted them.”

To date, almost 40% of Gold Supplier growth plans have been determined ambitious enough to have an impact.

Collectively they will increase diverse spend by $6.2bn over the next three years, $1.2bn of which is earmarked for Black, Hispanic and Latino suppliers. Financially, it is a major step in the right direction for diverse businesses, and Connell expects that figure to balloon further as more Gold Suppliers are fully onboarded. What’s even more motivating to Connell and his team is ending 2021 with about a dozen Gold Suppliers initiating a supplier diversity program for the very first time.

“Most exciting is the exponential impact of this,” he says. “Around half of our Gold Suppliers have also committed to replicating this initiative with their supply chains, cascading the mandate that diversity is a priority for them. We're excited about the idea of magnifying and multiplying that impact. If we can, in some small way by evangelising the methodology that we use, fintechmagazine.com

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BRIAN SHORTER

NOEL WASHINGTON

TITLE: HEAD OF THE GOLD SUPPLIER PROGRAM

TITLE: VP OF SOURCING, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & SUPPLIER MENTORING PROGRAM LEAD

Mobilising Key Suppliers “I created the Gold Supplier Program in 2017. My vision for the programme then, as now, was that it be differentiated from traditional ‘preferred supplier’ programs and create real value for JPMorgan Chase, our Gold Suppliers, and the communities we serve. This is a highly influential group of companies with combined revenues of over US$2 trillion, wielding very significant spending power. It’s in this context that we have developed our supplier diversity initiative over the last year, and have the potential, collectively, to make very material improvements for diverse suppliers and diverse supply markets.

“My hope for the future is simple: I want supplier diversity to become businessas-usual for our Gold Suppliers, with supplier diversity programs, and diverse suppliers, that are fully incorporated to the Golds’ sourcing, procurement, and vendor management practices.

“The most encouraging sign that my hope may be achieved, though, are the reasons why Gold Suppliers are participating. It’s not just because JPMorgan Chase asked them to get involved. Gold Suppliers tell us that they view supplier diversity as a way to invest in and improve the communities they serve where their employees and customers live and work. In short, it’s good business."

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Mentoring Suppliers “I partner existing suppliers that support the organisation, but do not currently have a supplier diversity program (mentees), with other external strategic suppliers of JPMorgan Chase that have well-established supplier diversity programs (mentors).

“Mentees and mentors will work together over the next 18-24 months to design and implement a sustainable supplier diversity programme. We hope the organisations we are mentoring will create a long-term sustainable diversity department that will in turn create more opportunities for diverse-owned businesses. Our goal is to have opportunities translate into awarded business, and increased revenues for diverse companies; and access to a broader selection of innovative businesses for our Gold Suppliers.

“A majority of the mentees have secured leadership buy-in to hire a Head of Supplier Diversity or assign a dedicated resource to drive the effort. Many of the companies have recognised the importance of inclusion of diverse suppliers and identified opportunities to shift how they procure products and services to drive awareness to the utilisation of the diverse business community.”

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

TED ARCHER

WILLIAM KAPFER

TITLE: HEAD OF DIVERSE SUPPLIER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF SUPPLIER DIVERSITY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Discovering Diverse Suppliers “Not being able to find or discover qualified diverse-owned businesses is a pervasive misconception. There are diverse businesses in just about every industry. In my role, I work closely with colleagues across the firm to match excellent diverse businesses with the opportunities that will lead to their success.

JPMorgan Chase is committed to growing minority and other underserved businesses more broadly. My team connects these businesses to resources directly provided by the firm or provided indirectly through partnerships with other organisations.

“Black, Hispanic and Latino-owned businesses often face greater challenges than their counterparts when navigating relationships with large enterprises. This can sometimes lead to challenges with being ‘corporate ready’ when an opportunity arises and once an opportunity is awarded it can be difficult to scale up to meet all the demands from a large corporation.“According to the JPMorgan Chase Institute, Black, Hispanic and Latino households have median family wealth of just 13 percent and 19 percent of white households’ median family wealth, respectively. If black businesses achieved parity with non-black businesses, we would have US$676 billion in more business revenue, 1.6m more jobs, and 25m more wages.”

Supporting Black, Hispanic and Latino “Just as we know that a diverse organisation leads to better problem-solving and innovation, so does a diverse supply chain. Focusing supplier diversity programming on Black, Hispanic and Latino companies helps us to play a role in addressing the racial wealth gap, while promoting and increasing economic mobility for the country’s most historically underrepresented segments. Advancing racial equity requires a more intentional focus on the challenges faced by these communities of colour and a commitment to becoming an inclusive institution.

“We have set a clear, quantifiable goal to spend an additional US$750 million with Black and Latino-owned businesses by 2025, as part of the firm’s overall US$30 billion commitment to racial equity. Our program is distinguished by the fact that we don’t limit our internal relationships to simply sourcing and procurement. Our team cohesively aligns its efforts with JPMorgan Chase’s firm-wide DE&I initiatives allowing us to raise awareness about supplier diversity throughout all levels of the business. “We are off to a strong start – and remain encouraged by the firm-wide support that this strategy has catalysed—as we continue to further accelerate work already underway to address racial equality and opportunities in the communities in which we live and work.”

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make supplier diversity an integral part of doing business for these big companies, it can really have a transformational effect on diverse communities. That's an exciting notion for us that really mobilises the team.”

Though supplier diversity is a mandate for these suppliers, JPMorgan Chase recognises that not every organisation has the resources or expertise to transform overnight - and is supporting them through these challenges. For suppliers with emerging diversity programs, the firm offers access to mentorship.

“We're pairing them up with those that are best-in-class, industry leaders in supplier diversity,” Connell says. “We're creating mentor-mentee relationships where they can learn from the best, and providing them with tools, templates, and training modules.

For suppliers with established but growing diversity programs, the bank is helping to overcome one of the most common hurdles: discoverability. In the US, the inability to find a deeper pool of diverse suppliers is more a perception than a reality. Connell and his team help to point the way to getting started.

“Many suppliers are daunted by the idea of finding diverse businesses and it's a blocker to initiate their programs at all,” Connell says. “We tell people to start small and analyse their own spend, because they're probably spending money with diverse suppliers today that they don't even know about.

“There are tools you can use to analyse that, but more importantly is creating relationships with some of the key diverse business certification organisations like the National Minority Supplier Development Council or the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. They can give you the support you need to build your program, expand your databases with eligible suppliers, 126

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“CREATING MORE INCLUSIVE SUPPLY CHAINS ACROSS THE WIDER BUSINESS COMMUNITY WILL CHANGE THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE FOR DIVERSE SUPPLIERS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.” JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

and your network of other companies that you can share best practices with.”

Through the Gold Supplier program, JPMorgan Chase also shares its own list of diverse suppliers, with teams in place to ensure that minority and underserved businesses share the same level of visibility as more established competitors.

“We have over 100 of the biggest companies in the country, and together we've created this community where we

share diverse supplier lists,” Connell says.

"Through practices like this, we help each other succeed.”

Improving spend with diverse suppliers supports a wider ESG agenda at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “There is an expectation now that companies that we do business with also share our values.

We believe that procurement spend can be leveraged for social good, whether that’s racial equity, environmental

sustainability or good governance. It is not a box-checking exercise,” Connell says, “but a vital pillar for the future of the bank and its stakeholders. We view supplier diversity not only as a moral imperative, but as smart business,” he explains. “We compete with other banks for clients, customers, and talent. And so we know that a bank that is firmly rooted in these communities is going to have a positive long-term impact.” fintechmagazine.com

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"COMPANIES SHOULD EXPECT THAT ESG IS GOING TO BE AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF HOW THEY'RE MEASURED”

JIM CONNELL

CPO AND HEAD OF GLOBAL SUPPLIER SERVICES JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

When society wins, so too does the overall business community.

"Companies should expect that ESG is going to be an integral component of how they're measured in their relationships,” he adds. "And it all boils down to: are you spending your money in the right way, in a way that helps the community? It's a hard thing to measure until you start looking at it in specific domains around diversity, sustainability, and governance. We're taking a programmatic approach to this, getting quantitative around our Gold Supplier community and how we would seek to influence both our direct spend and our suppliers’ spend.”

In the coming 12 months, the bank anticipates firm progress in the growth plans that have already been submitted, with more opportunities as further Gold Supplier growth plans are approved. But it is the longterm vision that will enact real change, and bring the bank’s true ambition to life.

“The larger purpose of all of this is to have companies develop sustainable programs that will create new diverse spend for decades into the future,” Connell says.

“We'd like to see this initiative cascaded to thousands of businesses because creating more inclusive supply chains across the wider business community will change the competitive landscape for diverse suppliers for generations to come.” fintechmagazine.com

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TECHNOLOGY

SAV VY CROWDFUNDING & COMMUNIT Y - EMPOWERED FINTECH STARTUPS WHEN IT COMES TO RAISING CAPITAL, NOT EVERY FINTECH STARTUP TAKES THE SAME ROUTE. MOST RAISE MONEY THROUGH TRADITIONAL WAYS, WHILE A FEW TURN TO CROWDFUNDING WRITTEN BY: DERIN CAG

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F

or most startups, raising money is an arduous process involving months of pitching investors. While pitching has its advantages in terms of giving founders time to prepare their pitch presentations, it's not for everyone. Some entrepreneurs may be looking to do things faster, and there are others who want to give away products or services, often in place of equity.

According to Michele Schueli, Lecturer of Finance at Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), "Conducting a crowdfunding campaign is especially valuable for B2C fintech companies as it generates strong network effects and enhances the fintech's relationship with its customers. The offering participants not only provide capital but are also very likely to convert into customers and become 'true fans' of the company's products. It creates a strong community invested in the company's success that can help scale the company faster."

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FOUNDER AND CEO AT ZIGLU

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TECHNOLOGY

Crowdfunding is one of those options that can help fintech startups get off the ground quickly while still offering the option to distribute shares or not. It's essentially a way for companies to raise money from a large number of people, typically through small donations. Crowdfunding is still relatively young as an industry, but that's not stopping many fintech companies from taking advantage of it.

Ziglu - (Total Raised: c£12m) The Ziglu app, which was developed by Mark Hipperson, a co-founder of Starling Bank, is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and aims to bring digital-only banking and cryptocurrencies to the masses.

They offer a simple way of transferring money and buying digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In September 2021, Ziglu’s crowdfunding campaign for £1m was oversubscribed on Seedrs, and within a month, they raised more than £6.33m. “Never underestimate the passion and strength of your customer.

While market research and analysts can tell you what they think, it’s only our customers who truly know what they want and what they expect from us.” said Mark Hipperson, Founder and CEO at Ziglu.

“ CROWDFUNDING GIVES YOU MORE FREEDOM AND FLEXIBILITY REGARDING THE USE OF THE FUNDS, WHEREAS VCS TEND TO BE MORE RESTRICTIVE” BRIANA MARBURY

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT THE INTERLEDGER FOUNDATION

As the fintech industry continues to evolve, more and more startups are leveraging crowdfunding platforms to accelerate their growth. In total, Ziglu has received £12 million in funding from two crowdfunding efforts, the first of which took place in 2020 and the second in 2021.

Lend-Grow / Konduit Works - (Total Raised: c£740k) Konduit Works, which was known as LendGrow at the time of their crowdfunding, ran a campaign in the fourth quarter of 2021 and raised around £740k. They were featured on Angels and Entrepreneurs, a platform that connects startups with investors.

The team previously worked at big banks Capital One and Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed). They decided to start a fintechmagazine.com

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fintech company to connect banks with other fintech firms and borrowers. It began as a lender-to-borrower marketplace, but they've since expanded into a loan information aggregator known as RateBunni, which is a brand name operated by them.

When asked about the pros and cons of crowdfunding a fintech startup, Harris Schachter, Co-Founder at LendGrow, said, "Crowdfunding for a fintech has an advantage I did not expect; an instantlyengaged fanbase of over 1,000 people. For a fintech solving real problems in consumer 134

January 2022

finance, it is helpful to have an invested and engaged audience to leverage when needed.

Crowdfunding makes it easier for companies to meet their seed round, but depending on the product, can also help you iterate faster."

Investly - (Total Raised: c£640k) Investly has the ideal combination of characteristics, which appears to be functioning well for the financial technology sector. It has a diverse array of talent, including Baltic technical expertise but is based in the fintech heartland of London,

TECHNOLOGY

“ CROWDFUNDING FOR A FINTECH HAS AN ADVANTAGE I DID NOT EXPECT; AN INSTANTLYENGAGED FANBASE OF OVER 1,000 PEOPLE” HARRIS SCHACHTER

CO-FOUNDER AT LENDGROW

UK - an excellent location since it offers a well-developed financial services industry, large GDP per capita, and a receptive regulatory jurisdiction.

The company raised £640,000 on Seedrs in 2018, and the stock is still available on the secondary market. Its primary service is invoice finance, and it has helped to fill the gap in cash flow financing available to small businesses caused by the financial crisis.

"I like them because of the sector they operate in, their tech is good from what I can see, and they have that essence that a lot of fintechmagazine.com

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TECHNOLOGY

Baltic platforms have, a drive to succeed.", noted Andrew Holgate, CEO at Equitivo, a dedicated fintech management consultancy.

The pros and cons of crowdfunding a fintech company Fintech startups choose the crowdfunding option because of the benefits these platforms offer. In addition to being able to raise capital, they can also get exposure for their brand and build a supportive community of investors who are willing to provide feedback on product development.

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Of course, there are disadvantages too; as Schueli indicates, "Aside from general issues associated with not meeting the campaign's target, fintech companies have the added complication of having to comply with various finance regulations. Running a campaign might add more regulatory burden that becomes challenging for the company to manage."

Fintech startups should be cautious about the sort of campaign and the platform on which they will carry it out, so the community is the right one for them. "This is

“ CONDUCTING A CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN IS ESPECIALLY VALUABLE FOR B2C FINTECH COMPANIES AS IT GENERATES STRONG NETWORK EFFECTS” MICHELE SCHUELI

LECTURER OF FINANCE AT UNIVERSITÀ DELLA SVIZZERA ITALIANA (USI)

especially true in the case of fintechs whose target customers are institutional investors, as doing a retail-focused crowdfunding campaign might dilute the brand in their eyes.", adds Schueli.

Briana Marbury, Executive Director at the Interledger Foundation, also contributes her thoughts; “If a firm is able to raise enough capital to support their endeavours, crowdfunding can be an excellent alternative to VC funding. Crowdfunding gives you more freedom and flexibility regarding the use of the funds, whereas VCs tend to be more restrictive with stipulations and lots of oversight, including mandatory board seats.

Also, many VCs require benchmarks that may have an adverse effect on progress by disrupting the natural creative process and

shifting priorities to meet imposed goals.

The upside to VCs is they often share their business expertise and connections with the firm in an effort to make sure its investment is successful.”

Overall, crowdfunding allows entrepreneurs to identify their customers and adjust the product they are developing.

They can have a better idea about what is important for people and learn more about how to improve their services. However, crowdfunding may not work for every fintech incumbent, and some may choose a different path. Ultimately, it depends on what the startups are offering and their target audience. fintechmagazine.com

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TRANSFORMING AND DIGITISING PROCUREMENT WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

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PRODUCED BY: THOMAS LIVERMORE

EQUINITI

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Michael Burt, CPO at Equiniti, discusses his role in spearheading the company’s procurement transformation and the challenges to overcome along the way

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ichael Burt, CPO, Equiniti started his career as a engineer designing missile systems at BAE Systems in 2002. “I was seconded into procurement to help on a major cost reduction programme at BAE Systems.”

In 2007, Burt joined Capgemini as a Senior Consultant, specialising in procurement transformation. Since then, he has held a number of senior procurement positions including Head of Supply Chain Management for The Metropolitan Police Service and Chief Procurement Officer for Colt Technology Services, a global network and voice services company. In his current role at Equiniti, Burt is responsible for the global procurement and supply chain management for the group as well as all properties and facilities.

Who is Equiniti?

Founded in 2007, Equiniti provides three core services; “Firstly, we offer share registration services, which are focused towards supporting public companies with all the activities that go with being listed in the public market. There are many services that we offer, but the major ones are helping to manage a company’s share register, dividend payments and employee share plans. We also help organisations list through supporting Initial Public Offering (IPO’s). We serve over 70% of organisations

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Michael Burt, CPO, at Equiniti

EQUINITI

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“ OUR WORK IS MISSIONCRITICAL FOR AN ORGANISATION, SO WE CANNOT AFFORD TO MAKE MISTAKES, THEREFORE WE ARE METICULOUS IN WHAT WE DO” MICHAEL BURT, CPO, EQUINITI

listed on the FTSE 100 and 15% of those on the NYSE. “We also provide specialist technologyled solutions to regulated businesses, such as complaint remediation, Know Your Customer (KYC) and loan administration.

Finally, we have a division that focuses on pension administration, which delivers software, payment and complex administration solutions,” says Burt.

“Our work is mission-critical for an organisation, so we cannot afford to make mistakes, therefore we are meticulous in what we do. We are a unique organisation in the services and technology that we provide and there is a very high chance that you are one of the 36m people who benefit from our services.”

Spearheading Equiniti’s procurement transformation When Burt joined Equiniti, there had been several short term leadership changes within the department that had caused a significant impact on staff morale and performance.

“There was limited strategy, lack of 142

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processes, and insufficient management information creating the perfect storm. You often hear people refer to Procurement Greenfield sites, well this was definitely a Procurement Brownfield site, with a lot of clean up required, all doable, but it required careful management and a lot of hard work.

The function had great potential for what it could achieve and this was one of the reasons why I took the job.”

EQUINITI

MICHAEL BURT TITLE: CPO INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES

But where to start?

People. Burt knew that in order to be successful and make the job easier, he needed to get the people element of the business right. “The first challenge was to get the team to trust me and to get them working together. It was way too soon to discuss any kind of vision, besides they had likely heard it all before from my predecessors. In these situations, actions

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Michael Burt, CPO, Equiniti started his career as a systems engineer designing missile systems at BAE Systems in 2002.

“I was seconded into procurement to help on a major cost reduction programme at BAE Systems.” In 2007, Burt joined Capgemini as a Senior Consultant, specialising in procurement transformation.Since then, he has held a number of senior procurement positions including Head of Supply Chain Management for The Metropolitan Police Service and Chief Procurement Officer for Colt Technology Services, a global network and voice services company. In his current role at Equiniti, Burt is responsible for the global procurement and supply chain management for the group as well as all properties and facilities.

Are you concerned about managing supplier risk?

Increasing efficiency, compliance and collaboration with Medius Spend Management

Learn more

Medius and its partnership with Equiniti Shannon Kreps of Medius discusses how Equiniti is harnessing Medius supplier management solutions Shannon Kreps, Vice President Product Marketing and Marcom at Medius started her career in the purchasing department over 25 years ago as a buyer. The spend management process is one that Kreps is very familiar with. At Medius Kreps’ job is to serve as a conduit between the company’s research and development team, as well as its Salesforce, and its customers.

“At Medius we like to say that we simply help our customers find the right suppliers to buy and pay for what they need with full control over cost and compliance. We really are a spend management suite. It is our role to make sure that our customers are able to purchase items that they need, pay for them with confidence, and do everything across the whole source of the pay platform,” says Kreps.

How Equiniti is harnessing Medius’s supplier management solutions “Equiniti is a great example of a company that’s using supplier management to the fullest. They actually begin at the start of the process with a feature in Medius that we have called demand capture. it allows anyone in the organisation to request a new supplier to come on board.

When that happens, it’s routed throughout the organisation. They have some pretty stringent requirements on what they need to ask regarding new suppliers coming on board, and it really varies depending on the type of supplier that they use.

So Equiniti has supplier questionnaires that are completed internally to make sure that the right information is being captured as well as externally for their suppliers to make sure that they’re providing the right requirements that they need.

“Equiniti then uses a robust approval process, so that once a supplier has answered a set of questions that is routed to the appropriate person they’ll review that information before moving onto the next stage of the process. Equiniti really uses this process to make sure that its suppliers are properly vetted and managed. They also use supplier management for the ongoing maintenance of their suppliers. It’s not useful for organisations to spend all of that time setting up your supplier to begin with only to then let it fall. It is important to conduct ongoing management.”

EQUINITI

Equiniti: Transforming and digitising procurement

talk much louder than words, so I decided to focus the team on one very key objective, where everyone could come together to deliver. It needed to be something in the short term which would make them feel instantly good when they achieved their objective.”

With this in mind, Burt focused the team’s efforts on achieving a set savings target for the year-end, ensuring their remuneration was linked to it. “There was one goal for the remaining 5 months and I deprioritised all others. I wanted laser focus and I wanted to see how the team would come together. It was amazing to see people’s motivation and confidence grow week on week, as we edged closer to the target. We ended up smashing the target and people were buzzing, it was great to see smiles back on people’s faces. At that point, the team began to trust me and so 146

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“ BUSINESSES CANNOT AFFORD TO BE ON THE BACK FOOT ON ESG AND PROCUREMENT IS PERFECTLY PLACED TO HELP WITH THE CHALLENGE” MICHAEL BURT, CPO, EQUINITI

it was then time to start to introduce them to my vision.”

Since joining, the procurement department has evolved significantly, by building a strong culture of delivery in the team, Burt emphasises that this has earned the team the respect and trust of the business, allowing the team to regain control.

“We have gone through 3 phases of maturity in the past 4 years,” says Burt. “The first was about establishing our purpose, our team and our operating model. Defining what activities we perform centrally and those that are decentralised. It’s important to set expectations with your stakeholders around what you are here to do. The second phase was about systemising, offshoring and optimising. We built a shared service centre in Chennai which performs all our

procurement & property operations, leaving our category leads to focus on strategic procurement and value generation.

“Our third phase has been about integrating deeper relationships with our critical suppliers and our stakeholders, with a focus on unlocking hidden value. We don’t measure ourselves purely on savings generated.”

Centralising and digitalising timesensitive operational work As part of the company’s wider transformation strategy, Burt and his team have been working to centralise and digitise time-sensitive operational work. “The first stage was to define each and every process procurement and property should perform. We took a very lean approach to this and ensured we only focused on those activities that were fintechmagazine.com

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Modernise your IT and ride the waves of change A modern IT infrastructure lies at the very heart of ensuring businesses can meet the demands of an increasingly digital and dynamic world.

Yet while the business case is obvious, modernisation can be costly, time consuming and fraught with risk – especially when critical business systems are dependent on legacy infrastructure.

Partners for more than 30 years, Computacenter and Dell Technologies can deploy globally, at massive scale, with a wealth of experience of sourcing, transforming and managing IT infrastructure for large corporate and public sector organisations. Together, we can help you ride the waves of change by modernising your IT faster and smarter, and become more customer-focused, elastic and responsive to business needs and market drivers.

computacenter.com

WHY BIG IS BEST FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE EXPONENTIAL AGE Bottom line: The corporate world is ramping up its digital transformation plans and looking for the quickest route to market. But there is no room to get this wrong. Managing risk is everything and the financial services sector has the most to lose. Why? According to Arash Ghazanfari, Dell Technologies’ CTO in the UK, “The pandemic has moved us all, irreversibly, into an Exponential Age.” But financial services firms cannot embark on this transition on their own. Despite building resilience in the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008, great swathes of the financial sector are still burdened with technical debt. There are organisations with critical business capabilities that are dependant on legacy hardware and software, in some cases more than half a century old. Some of these critical systems can’t be replaced overnight. Such modernisation efforts can be expensive, time consuming and fraught with risk.

This is where Dell Technologies and its lifelong partner Computacenter come in.

Ghazanfari says “The partnership with Computacenter has always been vital but in the current pandemic environment this connection is more important than ever.”

He adds “Nobody is immune to the supply chain challenges the industry is facing. Whilst Dell Technologies has remained resilient, we recognise the importance of strategic partners such as Computacenter to scale

our capabilities and assist our customers in accelerating their digital transformation efforts. Our customers are rationalising their vendor and partner relationships to simplify and de-risk their procurement strategies.

They look to partners like Dell Technologies and Computacenter to accelerate their business transformation.”

Mark Griffin, Client Director at Computacenter agrees. ‘It is the skills and expertise we have in our core business. That’s designing the right infrastructure for each of our clients and being able to leverage that expertise at massive scale.

“If you pivot that approach across to our relationship with Dell Technologies, many large enterprises need to accelerate their digital transformation in the tens of thousands of users and often in multiple geographical locations. You can only do that with a focused ecosystem of core vendors such as Dell Technologies and service and solution providers such as Computacenter who can deploy that, at scale, globally.”

“You can’t do this without depth, experience and massive scale and that explains why government departments and the largest corporates across UK industry, such as Equiniti in the financial services sector, are drawn to Computacenter and Dell Technologies” says Griffin.

Learn more

EQUINITI

absolutely necessary and that created value.

We then centralised these processes into the team and assigned a nominated process owner with a clearly defined service level agreement (SLA).

“It was important that we could measure the time and quality of each process.

Depending on the complexity of the process and the capability required to run it determined whether we offshored it to our shared service centre or kept it onshore.

We formed internal contracts between the teams for each process and set review sessions to hold each party to account.

It’s very much like our own outsourcing agreement, it keeps all parties accountable for performance,” explains Burt.

Achieving this, Burt and his team moved on to selecting the right technology to become truly digital. “For P2P we use Workday, for contract management we selected HighQ and for supplier onboarding and supplier management we decided upon Medius. It was important that we matched our department’s process maturity to the functionality of the platforms. There is no point in owning a Ferrari if all you want to do is drive to the shops,” adds Burt.

“It was during the implementation where we maximised the automation opportunities, our ethos is always to have as little manual intervention as possible. In practice this means enabling smart forms to guide users, setting workflow rules to only flag exceptions for approval and also using scheduling and reminders to ensure activities are being completed. We also use statistical analysis to help identify where we should set our optimum manual procurement intervention points.”

Equiniti is also looking at evaluation platforms that harness emerging technologies such as Blockchain and AI, “but I 150

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EQUINITI AND ITS SUPPLIER ECOSYSTEM “It has been one area where we have had to focus a lot of time and effort on. Before forming any partnerships it’s important to understand each other's roles, responsibilities and expectations. We have done this by creating a procurement network which we use not only to educate the business of their role in the different procurement processes but also to seek feedback on what is working and what is not, making adjustments where necessary. Partnerships are built through strong working relationships to common goals. We listen to our stakeholders goals, translate them to procurement objectives and then ensure they are cascaded to the relevant suppliers. “Our supplier ecosystems have been built to enable two-way feedback, focusing not just on their performance as a supplier but on our performance as a customer. We need to listen carefully to what they say and try to be as easy to work with as possible.

“Sometimes it can be difficult to get their honest feedback, after all, who wants to tell the customer their behaviours are counterintuitive, but it’s important that all issues in the relationship are tabled and discussed. Our ultimate goal is to become the customer of choice and this is the biggest benefit of investing so much time in developing the relationship. We think of the supplier account managers as an extension to our team, they are the people who will advocate for us in their own organisation, solve problems and help to fight for scarce resources” Michael Burt, CPO, Equiniti.

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“ THE FIRST CHALLENGE WAS TO GET THE TEAM TO TRUST ME AND TO GET THEM WORKING TOGETHER” MICHAEL BURT, CPO, EQUINITI

2007

Year Founded

5,288

Number of Employees

£472m Revenue

think they have a little way to go before we can adopt them,” says Burt. “I can definitely see their application in the evolution of procurement, perhaps in 2-3 years time. The benefits of Blockchain on verifying supplier information would be of huge benefit. It amazes me how much time is spent verifying supplier data.”

Over the next 12 to 18 months, Equiniti will be moving into the next phase of maturity for its supplier management programme, which will look to improve the resilience of the company’s supply chain. “We will be looking at performing audits of our key suppliers to understand in greater detail our second and third-tier suppliers and how they are being managed,” says Burt.

“The next big question I will be asking the function is how we can best support our business to be an even more responsible business. We will be looking to set specific ESG targets for our suppliers as well as making sure we incorporate ESG into our procurement evaluation criteria. In the very near term, I can see carbon reduction targets being equally weighted in importance as cost reduction targets. Businesses cannot afford to be on the back foot on ESG and Procurement is perfectly placed to help with the challenge,” concludes Burt.

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GENERALI VITALITY

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GENERALI VITALITY

Incentivising Health and Wellness WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY

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GENERALI VITALITY

Peter Stockhammer, MD of Generali Vitality, talks us through the company’s new wellness initiative that uses data and digital technology to improve customer health

G G

enerali Vitality GmbH launched six years ago as a new digital arm of the European insurance company giant, Generali Group. Its purpose has been to develop and roll out a new wellness programme throughout continental Europe.

Peter Stockhammer, Managing Director of Generali Vitality, has enjoyed a long career in the Life insurance space and is a passionate advocate of advancement and innovation within the sector. He says that to truly drive forward new strategies, operatives need to understand how to liaise with each other and provide suitable support.

Originally, Stockhammer ended up in the life segment by chance following a new career opportunity. But the shift in perspective is one he’s embraced. He explains, “What attracts me now about the sector is the challenges it presents. We're living in a fast-moving world, and despite that, life and health insurance contracts have very long durations. So, it means you have to make a decision based on risk factors over long, long periods.

For example, say someone is buying a retirement plan in his early 30s. His contract runs for 35 to 40 years, and the health proposition runs alongside the main customers for the rest of their life.” fintechmagazine.com

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Generali Vitality and digital transformation The life and health insurance industry is undergoing seismic changes as digitisation transforms the global business market.

The new technologies that have emerged over the past decade have made it possible for established, traditional companies with core legacy systems, to consider new modes of operation.

Generali Vitality is a transformative subsidiary of a 190-year-old industry heavyweight, which made the decision to revamp its core services and offerings to fit in with the changing industry, back in 2015. Today, it is positioning itself as one of the most progressive operatives in the 158

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“ The priority for Generali Vitality is that customers must have full control over their data. Privacy and security is critical” PETER STOCKHAMMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, GENERALI VITALITY

GENERALI VITALITY

PETER STOCKHAMMER TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR LOCATION: BAVARIA, GERMANY

marketplace. Considering Generali Group’s reputation and global customer base, it has become a force to be reckoned with.

The concept of incentivising wellness via the Vitality initiative, was first established in 1997 by the Discovery Group in South Africa.

It is the world’s largest, scientifically proven wellness programme and has expanded its global operations to countries all over the world with over 10 million members.

Generali Vitality combines actuarial, behavioural and clinical tools in a stepby-step programme that helps members improve their health through wellness activities and healthy lifestyle choices.

Members receive rewards for getting

EXECUTIVE BIO

Peter has been managing director of Generali Vitality GmbH since 2015 and is based in Munich. He has held executive positions in many international insurance companies throughout his career and has worked in the insurance industry for 30 years.

Prior to that, he had been CEO Life of Zurich VersicherungsAktiengesellschaft in Austria since 2007. Prior to 2007, Peter held several management functions at the UNIQA Group and its predecessor companies.

GENERALI VITALITY

Generali Vitality: Incentivising health and wellness

“ What attracts me now about the sector is the challenges it presents. We're living in a fastmoving world, and despite that, life and health insurance contracts have very long durations” PETER STOCKHAMMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, GENERALI VITALITY

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healthier, and this has a positive impact on the mortality and morbidity experience in the insurance business and in society.

Stockhammer explains how the relationship between a wellness app and one of the world’s oldest insurance companies was forged.

He says, “It started with a journey six years ago. Generali was founded in Trieste, Italy, and is celebrating this year its 190th birthday so we are nearly 200 years old.”

“In terms of digitalisation and innovation, you have to bear in mind when the company was set up. It was in a time when cars didn’t even exist. So our challenge was rooted in trying to move a 184-year old insurer into the digital era.”

Stockhammer and his team were tasked with creating a legal entity and startup within the global group to bring a digital, app-driven

GENERALI VITALITY

product to its customers. They then decided to add prevention as an additional service to the protection cover they were offering.

Digital differentiators Today, as well as offering comprehensive and intelligent life insurance solutions, Generali Vitality provides holistic, preventative incentives that are centered on customer wellness. As part of this drive, the company can access data directly from mobile fitness apps and trackers to assess customer health and offer incentives and rewards based on their proactive responses.

Stockhammer says the team drew on their experiences in the insurance space, as well as bringing in new talents from the technology industry to work on aspects like customer experience and journeys. The combination of a global customer base

alongside an innovative entity, is, he says, an exciting and dynamic opportunity.

“We have this startup mentality in an international environment. When we launched the team six years ago, there were around 25 of us from 14 different nations. That meant we had a very international outlook and it helped us in terms of trialing products for different cultures as well as collaborating with new partners. It’s also helped us engage with our internal and external stakeholders.”

Wearables for wellness Generali Vitality, says Stockhammer, is specialising in wellness motivation. The focus of the company is to create products that encourage customers to live healthier lifestyles. If they embrace the concept, they are rewarded with points that can be redeemed in a number of different ways. fintechmagazine.com

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Local software engineering capabilities for agile delivery make the difference Accenture’s local software engineering capabilities in combination with global development-teams create unique value for clients like Generali Vitality seeking to accelerate their digital agenda – and bring their new digital capabilities to market with unprecedented speed.

Accenture: Transforming services through technology Nils Müller-Sheffer is a managing director for Accenture. He tells us why Accenture’s German software engineering business is at the heart of change for customer needs As digital services explode globally, customers are demanding more streamlined and flexible services from providers. Accenture, one of the world’s leading professional services companies, has a reputation for stand-out innovations, responding to client needs and adapting and transforming to market requirements.

Müller-Sheffer points out, “that as society consumes more services digitally, and mobile adoption increases, companies are increasingly turning to partnerships to help them expand on their digital offerings. We’re positioned uniquely covering from strategy consulting and technology implementation work, down to operations of solutions, later on. We’re covering the whole value spectrum. And I think that’s differentiating for Accenture in the marketplace.”

Marketplace changes for Accenture “The greatest challenge is finding the right talent to help on our engineering projects.”

Says Müller-Sheffer. “Accenture is often seen as the consultancy, as though only

people with suits go and work there, but there is a whole different side to Accenture.

We have a very sizable cloud and software engineering practice. I’m responsible for a team of roughly 1500 people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that work across the whole value chain of software engineering.

And we are looking for many more talented and driven software engineers.”

Müller-Sheffer says, “Our mission is to help our clients change their business and adapt to their customers’ need. This comes down to a digital transformation story, oftentimes also involving cloud-based technologies.”

He adds, “Speaking of cloud, traditionally you needed sizable operations teams to take care of the solution once in production. But, the challenge is often not only to create an application initially, but also to then operate and maintain it later on.”

Müller-Sheffer concludes: “With cloud, you get a lot of that essentially for free or at least baked into the overall cloud offering.

And that’s a huge differentiator for Generali Vitality and many of our clients.”

Learn more

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The app provides hints, tips, and notifications that alert customers about better living and work on changing negative behaviors. “We want to give them a nudge in a healthy direction,” says Stockhammer, “and this is obviously quite a different offering provided by traditional life insurance policies.”

Every Generali Vitality customer downloads the app and is permanently using it to upload data on their health status. This can be done using wearables, and when uploads of workouts are carried out, rewards are offered.

The company also has a strict data consent policy so that no information is recorded without the express permission of its users.

The app is adaptable to a range of IoT devices and can be plugged into the vast majority of existing hardware. Stockhammer says popular options with customers are Apple watches, Garmin, Polar, and Fitbit.

Generali Vitality’s team is also keeping a close eye on the market so that the company can innovate its products to keep up with the latest health monitoring options.

Currently, they are working on ways to measure customer blood pressure, oxygen and glucose levels as well as heart rate for an indicator of wellness.

When customers first log into the app, they receive an initial health assessment and then are provided with a ‘Vitality age’ which, says Stockhammer, is usually quite a bit higher than their actual age. With the wellness incentives, they can reduce their Vitality age and bring it further in line with biology, as well as lowering their premiums, he explains.

“ When we launched the team six years ago, there were around 25 of us from 14 different nations. That meant we had a very international outlook” PETER STOCKHAMMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, GENERALI VITALITY

Managing the data Naturally, with so much data being used to assess customer wellness, management and privacy is a key area of focus. fintechmagazine.com

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Stockhammer says the insurance industry has always dealt with vast amounts of data, even from its inception.

“When you are a health insurer, you're getting a lot of data, meaning by someone signing up. Customers have to fill out a medical questionnaire sometimes based on their insurance, while others carry out a medical check.

“Today, it’s even more pronounced.

Think about yourself, what you're really doing on your smartphone through social media - and how much data you're offering up. The priority for Generali Vitality is that customers must have full control over their data. Privacy and security is critical.”

Technology partners Managing the technology for such an operation has, says Stockhammer, resulted in Generali Vitality working with a large ecosystem of partners, all of which bring value to the operation in different ways.

From data analytics and insights to the gamification of wellness - and the incentives offered, the digital insurer has teamed up with several big industry names, from Apple Watch and adidas to Expedia and Amazon. Accenture has also played a vital, supporting role through its range of products and services.

The Generali Vitality brand has scaled quickly as a result of its innovative products and services.

Stockhammer explains that entering new markets as well as adding new services to the proposition is a top priority. While there is already an established presence in Germany, Austria, and France, the company also rolled out its services in Spain and Italy in October. In 2022, Eastern Europe will be targeted, with services first launching in the Czech Republic, and then Poland.

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“ Our challenge was rooted in trying to move a 184-yearold insurer into the digital era” PETER STOCKHAMMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, GENERALI VITALITY

The future of Life insurance In terms of the future, Stockhammer believes that more and more traditional insurers will adopt mobile technologies to stay relevant within the space. The Life insurance industry will also undergo radical changes, not only because of new technologies but because of changing health demographics.

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and although long-term contracts will, in the main, remain, the nature of cover will change to reflect the needs of the customer.

“People are living longer,” he says simply.

“Each person on this planet (especially those born this year in Western Europe), will, in all likelihood, live until they are over 100. But our main objective has to be; "If you're getting 100 years old, how many of those 100 years will you live healthily? While people are living

GENERALI VITALITY

longer in the West, we are also seeing trending health problems like obesity, poor nutrition, and the general negative impact this has. If we can reduce this by incentivizing our products to help people, it’s a great motivator.”

And mobile technology is the critical vessel, through which, people can be encouraged, and helped, he says. “Smartphones have changed the world, and I, for one, am curious to see what will be the next.”

He adds, “Already, stats show us that there are more mobile phones on this planet than there are people. That’s an incredible reality if you can help by reaching out to people and helping them to achieve a better lifestyle.”

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Ethical

CAR INSURANCE for the

community

WRITTEN BY: JOHN O'HANLON PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY

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CURE AUTO INSURANCE

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CURE CIO, Douglas Benalan, discusses the commitment to providing affordable car insurance using cutting edge technologies to serve its customers

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eadquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, CURE auto insurance is a not-for-profit insurer founded in 1990 by former New Jersey Insurance Commissioner James J. Sheeran and awardwinning insurance expert Lena Chang, Ph.D. Originally heralded as the “cure” for the auto insurance crisis in New Jersey, the CURE business model is different in many ways. The insurer prioritises how a person drives versus their socio-economic status.

This unique approach is shaped by the philosophies of its founders and current leadership. The risk assessment model of most car insurers takes into consideration a host of different factors. Among the typical factors include driving history and driving record, but there can be others, such as education, occupation, credit score, and home ownership. Sadly, and unknown to to most drivers, is that most car insurance companies often charge more to drivers who are more likely to have lower incomes than those that are wealthier, regardless of their driving record. Is this fair? Even those who may know very little about car insurance would say no. CURE agrees, and with the help of its 200+ employees, has insured hundreds of thousands of drivers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and now Michigan as of 2021, without taking these socio-economic factors into account.

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CURE Insurance on its ethical auto insurance policy

“ Under my leadership, our IT team successfully achieved 70% of the planned projects within a few months, with the remaining 30% scheduled for completion before year end” DOUGLAS BENALAN

CIO, CURE AUTO INSURANCE

Solutions for an unprecedented challenge In direct response to New Jersey’s comprehensive PIP reform, CURE has become an unrelenting proponent of offering fair rates, based on driving record, and not socio-economic factors. “CURE has a responsibility to the community and, since 1990, we have continued to offer affordable car insurance to responsible drivers,” affirms 174

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Doug Benalan, who joined the company as CIO in 2020. “We base our rates on how well a customer drives, not their education, job or credit history.”

With more than 20 years of experience in IT leadership and digital transformation and having worked for major insurance and financial service businesses, such as Insurance Service Office (ISO), UBS

DOUGLAS BENALAN TITLE: CIO INDUSTRY: INSURANCE LOCATION: USA

Financials, Chubb and NJM Insurance, Benalan’s goal is to put his expertise to work at CURE. Yet despite his initial plans of upgrading IT and driving the transformation, when he first joined CURE there were more immediate challenges to face: “As a traditional work environment, almost all our employees worked in the office before the pandemic. The Covid crisis required our IT

EXECUTIVE BIO

Doug Benalan is the Chief Information Officer of Cure Auto Insurance responsible for building efficiency for business operations through automation and innovation. As a technology executive and visionary thought leader, he is recognised for bringing cost-effective solutions and speedto-market tools for enterprise-wide technology solutions.

Doug has 20+ years in the Information Technology, during which time he has architected and managed complex, multimilliondollar transformation projects to drive competitive advantage and return on investments for various insurance and financial organisations.

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“ In my eyes, being transparent, building trust, appreciating good work and making employees key players is what will transform a good organisation into a great one” DOUGLAS BENALAN

CIO, CURE AUTO INSURANCE

team to develop a cost-effective and secure remote solution so that all employees could work from home without any business disruption. Timing was critical.”

Despite the life-changing nature of Covid, the pandemic provided opportunities, it catalysed cloud-based solutions and stimulated the IT team into resilient and flexible working patterns. “IT has taken centre stage for some time and the pandemic only catapulted it further.

Almost every aspect of the organisation – from sales to operations – now relies on digital processes. As CIO, I had to make quick decisions, balancing strategic and tactical growth opportunities. But it wasn’t me alone. I have to applaud the way my IT team handled the pandemic with a creative approach, always supporting both internal and external customers.” As in many businesses, it made people acutely aware of the value of a trusted and dependable technical team!

The Guidewire implementation CURE and CIO, Doug Benalan, have a clear goal for its digital transformation – one that delivers customer-centric, omnichannel, cost savings with easy-to-use tools which provide measurable business value and ultimately customer satisfaction as a test of its success.

The first and most important driver for this transformation was the imminent expansion of CURE into Michigan. “We considered expansion based on the growth potential as a result of the state’s personal injury protection (PIP) /no-fault reform, some of which took effect in July 2021. The state’s prior mandatory unlimited PIP medical benefits proved too expensive for many Michigan families and some drivers just couldn't afford costly unlimited coverage,” Benalan explained. “We strongly believe CURE will make a difference in Michigan and provide affordable car Insurance there as we have done for 30 years in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.” Immediately after the launch, CURE saw a tremendous response from the public. The very first policies were for a mother and son in Pontiac, Michigan who had been paying a combined $3,600 annually. With CURE, their rate dropped to fintechmagazine.com

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$1,820, a pattern repeated across the state and reflecting an average savings of more than 50% for many drivers.”

This positive response was made possible largely by the recent and successful Phase 1 implementation of a new suite of Guidewire products. This includes adopting InsuranceNow to accelerate speed-to-market and business growth. “Speed-to-market was an important driver when considering a new system to help facilitate our goal of further expansion into new markets. Specifically, Guidewire InsuranceNow met our criteria – scalability, configurable, user-friendly and affordable,” said Benalan. “Also, its cloud and all-in-one aspects were both attractive and critical to help our IT staff increase efficiency by shifting maintenance and support to Guidewire so they are now able to focus on mission-critical business objectives that will accelerate our growth.”

“The system architecture runs in a highly scalable AWS cloud with all the DevOps for deployment and monitoring.” Benalan adds.

“Based on open API technology, integration is efficient with opportunities to share data between systems and came with Business Intelligence and a Looker tool for data reporting and dashboards. This program was delivered on time and within budget, while never losing sight of enhancing customer values. With the automation and scalable Guidewire system, management and internal users are now confident we can continue to explore expansion opportunities.”

Benalan has great hopes for the Guidewire InsuranceNow product, which allows insurers like CURE to launch innovative enhancements in weeks – meeting rapidly changing customer needs and quickly scaling up with a single core system. “It's a multi-million-dollar initiative, where our entire policy, claims, and billing system are moving from legacy 178

January 2022

“ As a technology leader, I enjoy being part of business growth and finding creative ways to further satisfy both our internal and external customers” DOUGLAS BENALAN

CIO, CURE AUTO INSURANCE

platforms to a modern system.” The transition required thorough planning and coordination across business units with user testing and acceptance. “My vision for this modern system is long term ROI, increased automation, scalability and the flexibility to be used across different platforms and browsers. I also seek to deliver better data reporting to help make quick yet well-informed decisions.” Expansion and growth would be far more difficult using the previous, less scalable system.

Root and branch transformation Change is not always easy, or welcome.

However, by showcasing detailed projected

Eric S. Poe CEO, CURE Auto Insurance and Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons

ROI over a five-year period, Benalan illustrated the value of his proposed changes and convinced CURE’s various business units and key stakeholders. “The application design is a microservice architecture pattern, also comprised of small reusable services running in AWS cloud. It has a disaster recovery zone and a highly scalable database for faster performance. The application connects to complex third-party integration services with REST API. The design also has database replication for live reporting, where tools like Looker are used to slice and dice the data for the customised dashboard. One example is our use of the DocOrigin tool for

designing complex insurance forms, which has increased accuracy and efficiency.”

At the same time, Benalan is establishing best practices for quality agile development.

Since some of the integrating modules are out-of-the-box solutions with little flexibility for customisation, Benalan and his team architected expandable interfaces that were quickly implemented and accepted throughout the business. The CURE CIO keenly recognises any technical transformation has to be accompanied by a culture change. “The most important factors to this project’s success were user awareness and corresponding training fintechmagazine.com

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programs. We used a tailored awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement (ADKAR) model, in which all our business users were involved in each step in the systems development life cycle (SDLC), and their feedback was integrated throughout the process.”

IT delivering value today and tomorrow Changing and modernising the IT infrastructure was another key task, such as leveraging CISCO technologies like Meraki and Umbrella to improve the health and security of the CURE ecosystem. Upgrades 180

January 2022

to the communication systems were also required to handle the expected growth in business and technological needs. To ensure the call centre had the tools needed on the digital journey, the IT team implemented a modern Genesys Cloud solution through which the number of dropped calls decreased while efficiency increased by 10%.

Benalan emphasises that every change he and the IT team introduced were designed to serve the organisation's mission: to provide affordable car insurance based primarily on one’s driving record. To achieve this end and ensure constant improvement

CURE AUTO INSURANCE

Thanksgiving food drive donatons

to the applications, the team implemented a monthly feedback process involving review by all business stakeholders in order to improve IT strategy. Customer input was also part of the ongoing development and enhancements. “We have a number of measurable goals. One is a system where customers can buy policies online, reducing the need for manual operations and call centre costs. Under Benalan leadership, IT team successfully achieved 70% of the planned features for the online sales portal within a few months, with the remaining 30% scheduled for completion before year end.”

Although maintaining the old system was costly, the Guidewire implementation has already delivered measurable efficiencies, Benalan says. Because CURE refused to use certain socio-economic factors for rating, the need to consider credit history, occupation, college degree, and related factors is eliminated. The IT solution brings automation and easy customisation to policy generation, billing and affordable payment plans, delivering lowering premiums for customers with a good driving history.

With these new systems in place, Benalan has now turned his attention to the customer experience, investing in interactive voice response (IVR), chatbots, secure claims submission and other advanced solutions so customers can access information 24/7. In the very near future, he will introduce predictive analytics for customer retention, and OCR technology to scan and upload policyholder information for complete automation. This will be complemented by seamless processing and integration with third-party partners for claims assistance such as Enterprise car rental and Safelite® AutoGlass.

Since its start 30 years ago, CURE has remained wedded to the principle of ending unfair practices and discrimination in the insurance industry. The IT team, under the leadership of Doug Benalan, has furthered that principle while simplifying every interaction with its ever expanding customer base. Since CURE does not consider credit score, occupation, or education level as factors when determining rates, it's no wonder that it has been able to steadily grow its footprint nationwide.

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