Fintech World
Social Finance Nigel Walsh, Deloitte
Fintech Leaders
Benedetta Arese Lucini Co-Founder, Oval Money
Made in Italy 2.0.2.0
T i d e , R o ya l M i n t , C M E G r o u p, S p o t c a p, S o l d o , G o o r u f
DIGITAL FINANCE IL FUTURO, ADESSO
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Fintech Age Spring 2017 Editor
Denis Masetti
The Future at our doorstep During the past two years, as the concept of financial innovation expanded far beyond the payment sector, most firms have approached Fintech at a rather cautious pace, dipping one toe at a time in the water. But things are changing fast. Now big and small firms alike are jumping in deeper, with confidence: Fintech is not a fluke and innovation cannot be contained in R&D departments. Indeed, the technology is matching the ambition and even the general public is starting to feel the benefits of its application, particularly in banking services and of course in payments. Alongside this, across Europe we experience an overwhelmingly positive sense of community among innovating and traditional finance players. Whatever the political environment, there is a genuine effort to collaborate and compete in a healthy ecosystem, bringing back customers’ expectations at the forefront of their priorities. Consumers are also showing signs of a more active approach to finance as they seek new alternatives and take a bigger interest in their spending behaviour, thanks to the many PFM apps and mobile solutions. With this growing interest, the digital reputation and offering of financial providers are becoming a defining factor in people’s perception and choice. It is to encourage these trends that we have created Gooruf, a social platform for finance that creates opportunities for honest discussions and relationships between consumers and financial providers. With Gooruf, we hope to foster a community of openness, transparency and mutual assistance by removing the negative stigma from finance and empowering people to do the right choices. The platform will launch in beta in the UK in June 2017 and in Hong Kong in Autumn 2017.
Denis Masetti masetti@bluefinancialcommunication.com
Publishing House iFinance Media LTD 41 Corsham Street Wework Old Street London N1 6DR www.fintechage.com Editor Denis Masetti masetti@bluefinancialcommunication.com Editorial Director Alessandro Rossi rossi@bluefinancialcommunication.com EDitor In Chief Marco Barlassina barlassina@bluefinancialcommunication.com Editorial Team AnaĂŻs Borri borri@bluefinancialcommunication.com Federico Morgantini morgantini@bluefinancialcommunication.com Contributors Rajeevan Ratnasingham Emma Snow Oliver Waters Designer Rajeevan Ratnasingham ratnasingham@bluefinancialcommunication.com Advertisement Manager Michele Gamba gamba@bluefinancialcommunication.com Subscription Enquiries abbonamenti@bluefinancialcommunication.com tel. (+39) 0203 032 111 Printed by CPZ SpA Via Landri 37/39 24060 Costa di Mezzate (BG), Italy Exclusive Distributor MEPE Distribuzione Editoriale Via Ettore Bugatti 15-20142 Milano, Italy
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Social Finance The digitalisation of most forms of consumption are clearly changing the attitude and behaviour of consumers towards all products, including financial services. Particularly in the UK, customers expect very high standards in terms speed and clarity as well as 24/7 availability from all their providers. A major catalyst of this new form of engagement is obviously the rise of social media. Financial institutions have definitely picked up on this trend and are desperately trying to keep up with 21st century needs and interactions. Their brand reputation and credibility are increasingly reliant on their Google positioning, their followers, their Feefo ratings, their likes, their shares‌and this has added pressure to excel in the customer service departments, as they ought to show a high level of responsiveness and a high quality of human rapport on such public sites. Furthermore, the sheer amount of content that people are exposed to online makes it harder for users to access quality information and for companies to catch
by AnaĂŻs Borri
the attention of the people they could provide solutions for. However, considering the depth and quantity of data that they offer on their users, social media platforms definitely represent an important opportunity and resource for financial firms. A chance for them to share their brand message and learn directly from the people they want to serve. Thanks to this behavioural data, we can imagine a near future where we will see the development of tailored financial services that accurately respond to people’s timely needs. Moreover, the social media age is likely to shape more genuine, open and personal relationships between individuals and the providers they choose to trust. Finally, we already see that many social media apps are integrating more and more financial functionalities (e.g. transfers, payment tracking) and will most probably become major channels of distribution for financial services companies, making finance an integral part of social life.
EXPERT INSIGHT Nigel Walsh We reached out to Nigel Walsh, partner at Deloitte and popular influencer, to gather his views on the role that social media and online brand reputation play in a financial provider’s success. According to Walsh, nowadays having a strong digital presence is vital for any organisation that wants to engage with its customers. He sees social media as a great opportunity for financial firms to learn about who their customers really are and to form stronger relationships with them. He explained: “The conversations that used to happen privately in coffee shops or elsewhere are now happening online. I think, for the financial institutions, they can wait to be contacted or they can take part in the conversation.” As he points out, using social media has very clear advantages in terms of brand awareness, brand management, engagement but also for customer service. The speed of the interactions on social media pushes companies to give their best effort in answering queries, mainly to maintain a positive public image. For Walsh, when you are on social media, “you’re on stage and it’s a show”. Although some have successfully embraced this shift, especially high street banks and some new insurers, others still don’t seem to get it. “One of the things that infuriates me is that some brands say, “We’re here on Twitter from 9 to 5”, they’re missing the point!” said Walsh. Indeed, social media presence shouldn’t be limited to traditional office hours since many people are likely to seek help outside of these hours and expect to get an answer at any time of the day. In order to improve their engagement, Walsh also advises companies to have a very clear vision of what they want their brand to represent and then to infuse all their online content with their brand’s tone and DNA. He adds that companies should utilize their online reach to educate the public and to improve the level of financial literacy.
At a Glance Nationality: British Lives in: UK Role: Partner at Deloitte, Technology Transformation and Financial Services Education: BA in Business Studies, University of Salford Twitter Followers: 8.417 Fun Fact: Aside from being “in love with insurance”, he is passionate about new tech gadgets, running and cycling.
Financial Socialites by Federico Morgantini
Here are some of the most popular financial firms on social media.
218K
585K
7.5K
24K
870K
6.1K
325K
13K
6.8K
17K
5K
0.2K
Social Media in the Financial Space Social media platforms and their messenger applications are rapidly stepping into the sphere of financial services either as distributors or providers, with Tencent’s WeChat leading the way in China and abroad.
A Social Platform for Finance? Among the giants of the social media world, there’s a surprising newcomer that is entering the market. Gooruf is not quite the usual social platform as it is entirely dedicated to money matters and aims to democratize the access to financial information. Directed at a B2C audience, it provides a database of financial providers, news articles and educational content, as well as a Community area where users can ask questions and get help from other members or from providers. Financial firms who are subscribed can customize their profile and interact with the users, thus optimizing their brand reputation and engagement. The beta version of the platform is due to launch in the UK in June and in Asia in the Autumn of this year.
Turning the tide by Anais Borri
Pictured (left to right): Valentine Hutchings, Head of Community; Monica Mirchandani, Founder Member Manager; Laurence Krieger, COO In the buzzing Old Street station hub, we had the chance to meet Laurence Krieger, COO at Tide Banking, to talk about the start-up’s new product and ambitions. Tide is a digital current account aimed at small to medium sized businesses. Through the app, SMEs can open a bank account, receive a card, send invoices and access other bookkeeping tools. Although the start-up is not looking to apply for a banking license, it is creating a very attractive alternative to traditional business banking. What is the most important thing to think about when designing a bank account for SMEs? The most important thing is speed and making the experience as painless as possible. Having gone through that pain myself with my own businesses, normally it takes two or three weeks to open a business bank account. Because we’re digital and new, we have been able to turn everything on its head and think about how technology can take all that stress away. You can now open a Tide account in less than five minutes - typically it takes two minutes. Once the account is open, everything’s there on your mobile or on the web and in a couple of touches of your finger, you’re able to do everything you need to do.
What kind of technology is bringing change to the banking system? The big change that we’ve seen is in AML and compliance. Of course, financial businesses have to abide to a lot of rules and there is a lot of diligence that a bank needs to do. Traditionally that’s been done with lots of paperwork, forms, in branch visits… nowadays people don’t have the time or the patience for that. Technology has allowed us to do all that process very quickly online. The other improvement has been in using AI to intelligently help businesses. For instance, in order to keep your books, you need to be able to categorise transactions. With Tide we do that intelligently. You could set up a category for your office expenses and next time we see those transactions coming through, the app will automatically categorise it into “office expenses” so that the right information is readily available to your accountant. Storing receipts, automatic invoicing...there are lots of features within the account that are using technology to save time and money. Discover More Catch up on the full video on fintechage.com
How do you think the changes in the UK regulatory landscape will impact the Fintech and banking industry? The opening up of APIs is obviously a very interesting opportunity for Fintech players like ourselves. Regarding PSD2, from the big banks’ point of view they have a good reason to be cautious about how they go down that road. From our point of view, we are very happy to embrace it once it is available, but we are not reliant on it. The other significant change is Brexit - that’s an interesting one as well. I think all the banks and Fintechs are speaking to regulators in various countries, looking at the landscape and deciding where they’re going to be. At the moment we’re present in the UK only but we are looking to branch into Europe. We might do that through passporting if that’s possible post-Brexit but we’ll also have another financial licence elsewhere. At the moment the location of our European base is yet to be determined.
In March of this year you opened a temporary shop in Old Street station to raise brand awareness. Would you imagine having high street shops in the future? Personally I don’t think so. If you look at what’s happening in traditional banking, right now stores are actually closing down, the reason being that people find that mobile banking is far easier and smarter than having to wait in a massive cue in a store. The other part of it is that we are able to really compete with the banks because we don’t have those huge costs of having retail premises. That wields in huge efficiency which we then give back to our customers. For example, the reason why Tide is free to download and without monthly fees (other than a fee per transaction) is because we’re able to do everything digitally. I think that is very true to the core of our brand so we’ll carry on being a digital provider.
Gold Rush on the Blockchain by Anais Borri
We caught up with Vin Wijeratne, CFO at the Royal Mint, and Sandra Ro, executive director at CME Group, to discuss their latest collaboration. The two global firms are developing Royal Mint Gold (RMG), a complete bullion solution based on blockchain technology and aimed at bringing innovation in the way gold is traded. FA: What is the biggest change you wanted to bring in the trading of gold? VW: The problem with the way that gold is transacted today is that it’s got a lot of friction and we are endeavouring to take a lot of it away. So what we’re offering is direct ownership of gold, without management fees and storage costs, with very competitive transaction fees and pricing that is driven by market conditions. SR: To add to that, it is also about price and back-end transparency. If I own RMGs, I can verify that on the network. In 2020 people will have more smartphones in the world than they will have running water or electricity in their homes, it’s a staggering number of people who will have access to products like RMG overtime through their phone. So we’re aiming for transparency, ease of use through mobile technology, as well as accessibility. FA: Why did you chose blockchain to build Royal Mint Gold? VW: Compared to the friction in our other traditional methods, there’s something better in blockchain.
The efficiency, the speed, the robustness, and the resilience of blockchain or DLT allow certain benefits. One of which is obviously the price that we’re able to offer. SR: Blockchain technology is developing and evolving rapidly. I think we’re at the beginning of trying to truly understand what you can do with tokenized assets. So I think we’re going to have a lot of fun figuring out what other use cases there are as well as incorporating smart contracts and other things into what blockchain can offer. FA: Why did you decide to partner up with other Fintech firms for this project? SR: We realised that this digital gold product actually entails building a network. We have to build a ledger, wallets and a secondary trading platform to be able to trade it. There are many pieces to this, alongside the securing of the digital assets as well. So we’ve partnered with a number of Fintech firms to help us with different elements of the infrastructure. I actually think that this is a trend worth noting: big institutions linking up with small start-ups and with brand names outside of their industry to collaborate and create pretty cool things. The CME Group and the Royal Mint with our tech partners is just one example of more that will be coming down. Every party brings something to the table that’s different and when you put the right combination of things together that execution piece, albeit still challenging, becomes realisable in a much more efficient and faster way.
Lending 2.0 INTERVIEW WITH NIELS TURFBOER, MD AT SPOTCAP What’s the mission of Spotcap? Our mission is to be a trusted lender for SMEs and give them access to the appropriate finance. I think we’re slightly different than other companies as we’re in the heart quite a traditional company. We believe what we actually do is innovate and improve but based on a traditional model. So we’re very much a tech enabled finance company. How does the technology improve the lending process? The tech side is not only to speed up the process but also to put the customer more centric. We very much follow what the clients expect from modern finance companies. For instance, they preferably want to be introduced to us by a trusted advisor, so that’s why 70% of our business comes through very traditional companies that work with us. We use AI, predictive data analytics and algorithms in the entire process towards the client. It doesn’t show for the customer but it shows in the way that it goes through our funnels. So we’re a very data driven company and we try to make the best choices for the customers based on that data. What has been your expansion strategy so far? We started in Spain for a couple of reasons: there was a big funding gap and there was not a lot of supply. Also, I lived myself in Madrid for two years. If not everything is 100% correct, they’re quite okay with that. So they have a little bit of a laid-back approach whereas other countries (Australia, UK, Netherlands, New Zealand) expect very high standards. If something sort of breaks they will immediately go away and if you don’t get it right the first time they’re not coming back. So we learned our first lessons in Spain and we launched in Holland half a year later. From then on, we have actually built our global reach based on similar economies. How does the Spanish market compare to the Dutch market? I think there are many cultural differences, although they call the Dutch “the Spanish people from the North”. But if you look deeper into the quality of certain parts of the SME sector, at how the banks operate, at where the gaps in funding are, there are similarities as well. In Spain it was easier as a startup to get things launched. There was no regulation that we could actually seek because it was nonexistent. Also, the number of people using online banking in Spain is very different than in Holland, it’s only half of the population. So even though people might like our product they actually can’t apply because we need online banking data. The readiness to share data was actually higher in Spain and it was standardized, whereas in Holland it’s all over the place, there’s no common standard. In contrast, the use of online banking was extremely high in Holland, roughly 90%, so apart from maybe my grandmother everybody has an online bank account. However, there’s a big trust factor in Holland, so you really have to build a reputable brand before the adoption is there. What would you advise to SMEs who want to access loans more easily? I would advise them to seek independent advice. I think anybody that runs a business and wants to do well should make that small investment. There is added value in someone really looking at your company and telling you what kind of
Niels Turfboer Niels is the Managing Director of Benelux and UK at Spotcap, an online lender which offers business line of credit to SMEs using cutting edge technology. Prior to this, he held senior positions at ING and ABN AMRO. Niels speaks five languages and loves rollerblading in the park (but he assured us he doesn’t wear spandex).
TrailBlazer Interview with Benedetta Arese Lucini - Oval Money
We had the chance to meet Benedetta Arese Lucini, one of the trailblazing women in Fintech and the previous manager of Uber Italy, to talk about the personal finance app she co-created, Oval Money. What is Oval Money and who is it for? We believe that people should have one solution where they can track their finances, learn about how they are spending, put some money aside and use this money to access financial products. When users open our app they insert their online banking credentials and in this way we read their transactions. Every financial
transaction is anonymised but categorised for machine learning so that we can see their behaviour and give them advice. On top of this, users can read a crowdsourced blog in the app. We like people who write about their attitude to finance because we feel that’s more resonating. Moreover, we are really interested in the fact that people should put money aside. Obviously we’ve started by doing the roundup, but our real focus is on the concept of “steps”. The idea is that there are rules that you give yourself where every time you spend, you commit to saving some money too. For example, every time you spend on category “shopping” you put 5% more of what you’ve spent away. What we’ve seen is that this is also very social because some people choose to make the same step (eg. take a yoga class) and save money together. It creates this micro-saving behavioural community which is what we’re really pushing for. The last part of Oval that we’re working on and that we have applied to the FCA for, is a marketplace of investment solutions or financial products where users can put their savings in.
How does the technology powering Oval help people save better? We do what is called collective intelligence in the technology world. It’s mixing the community behaviour to data analysis. Banks have had this transactional data forever but they never used it to really understand who their customers are. Our generation is changing: we move and pay in different cities all the time, we love flexible jobs...so banks are not used to that. We think that with true transaction data we can show to financial providers that these people are just as reliable as anybody else. We like the idea that all these freelancers and gig economy workers can have access to products that banks would have never suggested to them. That’s why it’s so core to us: if we don’t use the data we can’t show that there can be good behaviour in any person, not just those who tick the boxes. Do you think one day bots will be able to replace human advisors using behavioural data? I really believe that the world of AI and machine learning in general is going to change a certain type of job: the repetitive jobs. So in advisory we will see that common questions will be answered by a machine. But that’s good because the people who are going to stay in these jobs are going to be motivated to take care of the harder, tougher questions. However the machine is just the backbone, then there’s the community. People follow each other and people will start to believe in each other more than in experts. It’s happening already, look at Airbnb. In finance it’s a bit harder, but generally we see ourselves moving into a place where financial advisors will be replaced, not by machines, but by peers in the community. How has your experience as manager of Uber Italy informed your decisions as an entrepreneur? Uber gave me the opportunity to be part of a culture of a bigger startup but own my area. This is something that Travis as a leader did really well, he let the managers around the world really own their country. This has taught me how to be a bit more of an entrepreneur because I didn’t have anybody telling me what to do, even though I wasn’t the CEO. Also when drivers were able to earn more and grow their business and give back to their families, it made me realise that it’s very nice to be in a company where you have a bigger mission. That’s why for Oval I want a mission that is profound and socially strong. Transport is such a difficult market, my goodness...But it’s funny because a lot of Uber people are going into industries like healthcare and finance because they’re as over regulated and badly managed as transport. So, there’s a lot of ex-Uber people in Fintech and Healthtech: it’s the Uber-mafia!
“I really believe that the world of AI and machine learning in general is going to change a certain type of job: the repetitive jobs.” Benedetta Arese Lucini, Co-Founder, Oval Money
Must-Haves & Favourites Here are our top picks of fintech products that you can put your hands on this season. by Oliver Waters
Best Book:
Equity Crowdfunding This is an absolutely vital guide for any ambitious entrepreneur looking to boost their start-up growth through equity crowdfunding. This book highlights all the major benefits, pitfalls and tips related to this new form of financing. Although it packs in a lot of information, it is very easy and pleasant to read. Moreover, Nathan Rose definitely knows his subject through and through as he is the Director of Assemble Advisory, a leading agency which helps entrepreneurs with their equity crowdfunding campaigns. He has also many years of experience as a mentor and speaker in major events and organisations, such as the Crowdfunding Hub.
Best App: Vitality Vitality is one of the most popular life and health insurers in the UK and that is partly because of it’s innovative offering. Their app is one of the best examples of how insurance can use wearable technology to enhance their services. Through their app, Vitality can collect valuable data about their customers and use it to reward healthy behaviour. For instance, the more the user exercises, the bigger the discount on their premium and the more perks received by the user. Although some glitches have been reported with the Apple Watch, the Vitality app works very well with FitBits and other smart bracelets as well as with smartphones..
Best Wearable: Vue Finally, a pair of smart glasses that we would actually wear! Vue allies style, functionality and cutting edge tech in the most elegant of ways. Using bone conduction audio and bluetooth, this pair of regular looking glasses connects to your phone allowing you to listen to music and make hands-free calls. You can also use them as an activity tracker and you can even control your phone with the mini touchpad on the frame. They are available as prescription glasses or sunglasses and, without the awkward camera, you’re safe to go about your daily activities without looking like a creep. Vue glasses can now be pre-ordered on Kickstarter and you can expect them to arrive in July.
Best Platform: Algome
Algome is a brand new platform aimed at fostering a culture of innovation within one of the most traditional segments of finance: asset management. The website acts as a sort of match maker between professionals, looking to increase their knowledge and keep up with innovation, and mentors who can answer their questions. Additionally the platform uses advanced machine learning and proprietary algorithms to aid talent search for financial companies. Founded by Rob Carter (ex- Aberdeen Asset Management) and Luuk Jacobs (ex- Aviva) and supported by the head of Lemonway, SĂŠbastien Burlet, the start-up really benefits from the expertise of its seasoned team as well as from their will to innovate.
USA
Japan
Ripples in the settlement waters
Blockchain for better banking
Ripple has positioned itself as a serious competitor to Swift for bank settlement technology and has even snatched up one of its veterans, Marjan Delatinne. Ironically, she was the leader of the Global Payment Innovation (GPI) service at Swift which was greatly criticized by its younger rival, as reported by Finextra. Delatinne stated that Ripple is considerably different to Swift in that it is not owned by a bank and therefore it does not create solutions around existing infrastructures. So, in her eyes the two firms are actually not really in direct competition.
The Japanese Bankers Association (JBA) is looking to provide a common basis for members to experiment with blockchain technology to enable more convenient financial services. According to the «Nikkei Asian Review», money transfers over a blockchain in Japan could potentially see charges drop up to 90%, when compared to existing costs for instant payments. Last year, in Singapore IBM and Bank of TokyoMitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) had already launched a prototype of smart contracts on a blockchain to improve the efficiency and accountability of service level agreements in multi-party business interactions.
FINTECH WORLD by Federico Morgantini
South Africa Coders crack open the bank
OfferZen and Standard Bank have teamed up to launch Root, a lightweight bank account with a programmable credit card, online interface, mobile app, and APIs. This initiative will be lead by South African entrepreneur Louw Hopley with the aim of eliminating the barrier to entry for innovation in the financial sector. A Root account allows any developer to build a Fintech product without special access to the banking world. “It is like a 24/7/365 hackathon,” said John Campbell, Head of Standard Bank EDGE.Coders can also share their work with their peers and Standard Bank will supply both the underlying framework and an opportunity to launch apps to clients.
Europe DLT tech too immature for the ECB
The European Central Bank (ECB) has stated that blockchain technology lacks the necessary maturity to be part of its market infrastructure. The statement was made within a special report titled Technological innovation: Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – challenges and opportunities for financial market infrastructures. While the report acknowledges the various benefits of DLT, the technology still does not meet the standards for safety and efficiency. The report cited issues around governance and privacy as well as operational risks such as scalability and interoperability. Nevertheless, the ECB foresees future use cases of DLT such as in Target2Secrities, the pan-European securities settlement platform.
UAE Fintech for migrants
Inspired by the rise of challenger banks in the UK, Katherine Budd and Ian Dillon designed an app fit for the 21st century which also addresses a gap in the UAE’s banking system. NOW Money is made primarily for migrant workers who do not earn enough to open a bank account. It turns out this is a huge market: according to Budd, low-income migrants represent about 70% of the UAE population. While it isn’t a bank, it allows users to receive their salary, pay bills, make remittances through the app as well as take out cash through a card. The start-up also won the Financial Inclusion award at the Innovate Finance Global Summit 2017.
iStarter: Made in Italy 2020 by Oliver Waters
We attended the second edition of Made in Italy 2.0.2.0 held in the heart of Westminster, which was organized by iStarter, the accelerator of Italian start-ups. The event brought together a selection of 10 promising digital startups which all had an Italian founding member and who pitched their innovative idea to an audience of tech investors.
The Mission The mission of Made in Italy 2.0.2.0 is to help Italian tech enterprises become worldwide leaders by the year 2020. Later this year the event will also be exported for the first time to Beijing and New York.
The GOal iStarter endeavours to help Italian start-ups with a global appetite scale up abroad thanks to its network of international investors and experienced mentors. Each year it selects, among hundreds of applications, the ten best start-ups to incubate in their programme. In the UK, the accelerator is managed by Simone Cimminelli (pictured right).
The Selection Primo ChatSIM Debut Velasca Eucardi
Worldz Viniexport Soldo CharityStars Bemyeye
iStarter in numbers:
3 teams in Europe 16 incubated start-ups 100 investors 4,53 millions offered
Soldo
Carlo Gualandri One of the ten finalists in this year’s selection was the Fintech start-up Soldo. A seasoned entrepreneur, Carlo Gualandri created Soldo to address a relatively simple, common problem but still untackled by adding “intelligence on top of the infrastructure that already exists.” Soldo is a multi-user spending account which allows businesses to delegate expenses in different departments. The platform also enables the streamlining of accounting and administrative tasks with several bookkeeping tools, such as receipt logging and report generation. Moreover, it offers spending cards which can be controlled at a granular level and dedicated to specific types of spending (eg. office supplies). Although the company is very much B2B focused, it has now also extended its offering to families. Soldo is currently available in the UK and in Italy but Gualandri plans to expand to the rest of Europe in the near future.
Upcoming Events Key dates for your calendar May 23-24 Self Service Banking Europe 2017
by Oliver Waters
May 18 Wired Money London, UK
London, UK Bringing together 600 banks, independent deployers, payment providers, hardware vendors, software suppliers, schemes, networks and service companies as well as a range of key industry stakeholders, this promises to be an important date for the banking technology calendar. This will be a unique opportunity for industry suppliers to connect to leading stakeholders, new challenger banks and fintechs.
June 01-02 5th Annual Retail Banking Forum Berlin, Germany The event will focus on the most innovative developments in the realm of digital banking, the latest trends in Fintech and their effects on the banking industry. It will explore also at the rise of robo advisors and their potential place in the future of the industry. The agenda includes presentations from leading new entrants to the industry as well as talks on AI, Bitcoin and Blockchain technology followed by Q&As.
June 01 -02 Blockchain Expo Europe Berlin, Germany Don’t know what blockchain is? Really? Okay, This might be the event for you. Boasting almost 4,000 attendees, it promises to be a great networking and educational tour de force for the blockchain sector. Featuring a series of top level keynotes and interactive panel discussions, this event will highlight case studies focussing on building partnerships with the growing Blockchain sector.
WIRED Money is one of the most important events in the annual financial calendar. Focusing on the disruption of the financial industry with new technologies, the event is one of the biggest in Europe featuring industry leaders and influencers from financial institutes, banks, paytech, insurance and fintech startups. The event will host talks by some of the biggest names in finance and fintech from a range of sectors such as RegTech, insurance, security, AI, financial inclusion, algorithmic trading and next generation banking. It’s also a great place to meet industry leaders between talks and rub shoulders with the likes of: Arvind Krishna, Director of Research at IBM, Andrew Brem, Chief Digital Officer at Aviva, John Fawcett, Founder of Quantopian Joern Leogrande and COO of Wirecard, Tom Blomfield, Co-founder and CEO at Monzo, Jürgen Schmidhuber, Machine-learning innovator, Diana Paredes, CEO and Founder of Suade.
June 6 NICE interactions London, UK
Conference and breakout sessions looking at optimising organisations and building better customer experience, operational efficiency and compliance. Keynote speakers include broadcaster and author Nigella Lawson to help keep things from getting too dull.
June 26-28
June 7
Money 20/20 Europe Copenhagen, Denmark
Fintech Trade Finance Briefing Day Europe 2017 Geneva, Switzerland What was the impact of digitisation on Trade Finance and what are the potential applications and benefits of Fintech? The conference is focussed on the Trade Finance industry with the aim of highlighting relevant areas of change and opportunities arising from new technology.
June 7-8 Harnessing Fintech in Retail Banking London, UK One of the most important events in Europe for innovators in the financial industry. A space to catalyse new ideas and partnerships, Money 20/20 Europe is a leading space to experience world class innovation and meet senior investors and innovators. Bringing together the world of financial service providers, marketing services, data companies, mobile, retail industry, advisory firms and governmental bodies. With nearly 500 CEOs from nearly 1500 companies across the world, this is a huge event and one not to be missed.
July 7-14 London Fintech Week 2017 London, UK
This conference will be dedicated to retail banks and the effect of fintech on the sector. Discussions will focus on how retail banks can utilise the developing fintech and cooperate with new startups. Moving from a perspective of disruption, the focus will shift to one of collaboration and partnership.
june 12-13 FindDEVr London, UK This two-day conference is a chance to catch the latest emerging technologies. It is aimed at developers who are looking to harness the latest tools, platforms and opportunities available to be at the forefront of fintech.
Jun 22 Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Saint Petersburg, Russia
Growing into one of the biggest fintech events of it’s kind in the world, London Fintech Week is a seven-day fintech immersion. Filled with conferences, workshops, hackathons, meetings and all the networking you can eat.
Blockchain with vodka, sounds about right. Join the russians as they delve into the world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and bitcoin at this conference bringing together industry leaders to discuss their vision of cryptocurrency. A great way to explore the changes in the Russian Federation and get ready for summer all at once.
Top 10 Fintech Influencers
FINTECH
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UNRAVELLED
1. Jim Marous Internationally recognized financial industry strategist, co-publisher of The Financial Brand and the owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report. 2. Spiros Margaris Margaris is the co-founder of Margaris Advisory, a financial software company based in New York, which brings accountability to investment advice through a proprietary tracking and rating system.
88% of incumbents are increasingly concerned they are losing revenue to innovators
3. Mike Quindazzi Quindazzi is the Managing Director for Southwest area of PwC. Previously he was the business development leader at BearingPoint and High Tech business development Director at KPMG. 4. Claire Calmejane
77% of incumbents expect to adopt blockchain as part of an in production system or process by 2020
Calmejane is the director of innovation and of the Digital Centre for Excellence at Lloyd’s Banking Group. Prior to this she was manager at Capgemini. 5. Brett King Australian banker and author of several best-selling books on banking innovation, founder of mobile banking app Moven and host of the Breaking Banks radio show.
54% of incumbents believe the main regulatory barriers to innovation concern data storage, privacy and protection.
6. Roger Ver Ver is a blockchain specialist and angel investor. He is currently the CEO of Bitcoin.com and a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation. 7. Oliver Bussmann Founder and Managing Partner at Bussmann Advisory, which provides consulting in the areas of digital transformation. Bussmann is also a mentor at the start-up accelerator Level39
30% of large Financial Institutions are investing in Artificial Intelligence
8. Eileen Burbidge Burbidge is the Chairman of Tech City UK and a founding partner of Passion Capital, a leading early-stage technology VC investment firm in London. Recently, she co-founded the start-up Tide Banking. 9. David M. Brear Brear is the co-founder and CEO of 11:FS as well as non-executive director of the fintech aggregator Bud. Prior to this he was Global Director of Digital Banking in Gartner.
20% is the expected annual ROI on FinTech related projects by incumbents
Walsh is a partner at Deloitte specialised in Technology Transformation and Insurtech. Prior to this, Nigel led the UK Insurance business for Capgemini.
1) source: Klear
10. Nigel Walsh
(source: “Global FinTech Executive Summary - Redrawing the lines: FinTech’s growing influence on Financial Services”. Pwc)
FINTECH JARGON: Tokenization Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive data with unique symbols that retain all the essential information without compromising its security. These “tokens” allow businesses to reduce the amount of data they keep on hand and to simplify their data storage by turning complex information into short codes. It has also become a popular way for SMEs to strengthen the security of credit card and e-commerce transactions while minimizing the cost and complexity of compliance with industry standards and government regulations. In a credit card transaction, the token typically contains only the last four digits of the card number. The rest of the token consists of alphanumeric characters that represent cardholder information and data specific to the transaction underway, making it very difficult for hackers to obtain the card details.
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THE VOICE OF DIGITAL FINANCE
P R E M I AT I EDIZIONE 2017
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