319. News: I'm sorry, banks

May 6, 2019

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This week we have some great stories for you as David and Simon are joined by a couple of great guests:

Samantha Bedford, Head of Innovation and New Ways of Working, CYBG
Freddie Villis, Google Account Manager: Finance at Snowdrop Solutions
Oscar Williams-Grut, Senior Correspondent at Yahoo Finance

We kick off the episode by taking a look at Central banks becoming the world's newest climate change activists. An open letter in support of climate change came from the Network for Greening the Financial System (the NGFS). Simon comments that customers are making eco-friendly choices all the time as shown by the growing presence of challenger banks (03:17).

You can read up on Simon's views around eco-friendly finance here.

Next up, we talk about Open Banking one year on. According to the OBIE, in addition to helping individuals with their finances, Open Banking is using technology to combat societal issues such as access to mortgages and debt advice, with benefits for the UK SME community also being perceived. Oscar remarks that Open Banking will only be a success when we're no longer talking about it (15:16).

We also have an interview with Chris Woolard, Director of strategy and competition on GFIN's first eight firms for its sandbox (25:55).