IBS Intelligence Podcasts

Michael Vrontamitis, Lead Industry Principal, Lending Business Unit, FinastraAfter a 25-year career in trade finance, including as co-Chair of the ICC Banking Commission’s digitalisation in trade finance working group, Michael Vrontamitis joined Finastra as Lead Industry Principal of the tech provider’s Lending Business Unit. He discusses the tech opportunities and challenges in corporate banking with Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence.

Liam Jeffs, Sales Director, Icon SolutionsIcon Solutions’ IPF is a cloud-native, collaborative payments platform. The firm recently won the award for ‘most impactful project in the category Best Payment Hub/Wholesale Payments Implementation in the 3rd Global FinTech Innovation Awards. The project was for the implementation of IPF for BNP Paribas. Liam Jeffs, Sales Director at Icon Solutions discusses all things payments with Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence. 

Gabriele Columbro, Executive Director, FINOSIn January 2022, the White House convened an important cross-section of the Open Source developer and commercial ecosystem with top officials that saw the Linux Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium, reinforcing the importance Open Source Security in financial services. Gabriele Columbro, Executive Director of FINOS, the financial sector arm of the Linux Foundation, discusses the key role of open sourcing in today’s modern economy and governance, as FINOS and the Linux Foundation continue to be at the forefront of this movement.

Tom Bentley, Chief Commercial Officer, VodenoRetailers are increasingly stepping into the financial services space by embedding financial products within their customer experience. What does that mean for banks and BaaS? Which services will flourish? Tom Bentley, Chief Commercial Officer of Vodeno believes the ones to watch are decoupled debit, B2B BNPL and merchant financing. He outlined the potential benefits of BaaS and the future of FinTech-driven retail to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence. 

Matthew Coquillon, CEO and Co-Founder, Mama MoneyThe international remittances market in South Africa is estimated at around $1.9 billion per annum, a figure that excludes the country’s vibrant informal money transfer segment, and that is based on an expanding migrant population of about 3.2 million. Mama Money, a Cape Town-headquartered social business and money transfer operator, helps foreign nationals to send money home to support their families across the continent in an easy, safe and low-cost way. Founded in 2013 by social entrepreneurs Matthew Coquillon and Raphael Grojnowski with no external founding, the company is now expanded its service offering, providing a banking platform for its customers. CEO Matthew Coquillon spoke about the journey with Gaia Lamperti, IBS Intelligence’s Reporter. 

Jean-Philippe Bersier, Director, Business Development; Benoît Jacquat, Director, ERI ERI won twice at the IBSi Global Fintech Innovation Awards 2021. Both awards recognised its work with Stern International Bank in the US. ERI’s solutions offered a one stop-shop covering all business functions and enabled Stern International Bank to have a master online account with the New York Federal Reserve to process USD payments and other transactions as a direct clearer in the US financial system. Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence spoke with ERI’s Jean-Philippe Bersier, Director, Business Development (pictured), and Benoît Jacquat, Director, ERI, beginning with a broad discussion of the digital payments landscape. 

Rajesh Mirjankar, Chief Executive Officer, Kiya.aiKiya.ai is the new identity for Infrasoft Technologies, together with the tag line ‘Digital future made real’. So, what is behind the new brand and what message is being sent by Kiya.ai, which describes itself as an ai-based omnichannel and open finance solution? Rajesh Mirjankar, CEO of Kiya.ai has embraced artificial intelligence and the opportunities it presents to take digital banking to the next level with enthusiasm and he explained the logic of the company’s new identity to Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence.  

Al Lukies, CBE, Founder & CEO, Pollinate, and Chair of the FinTech AllianceRegulation is coming to the BNPL sector. That is inevitable but what will it mean and how will it impact the industry? What is certain is that a lucrative financial product has been established and that banks are late to the party. Some may say ‘again’. This underlines the importance of understanding the true value of customer data if established banks are to compete successfully against FinTechs like the buy now pay later operators. It is more important than ever to be able to have a holistic view of banking customers to help drive profitability. Al Lukies, CBE, Founder and CEO of payments platform Pollinate, and Chair of the FinTech Alliance, discussed the issues with Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence.

Michael Chin, Chief Executive Officer, Broadway TechnologyElectronification is coming to the fixed income market, but fully automated trading is unlikely to replace human-to-human interaction completely. Quite simply the deals are too complex, too big and, in some cases, too illiquid to be easily encompassed by the kind of trading software solutions that dominate the equities markets. However, that said, the next stage of fixed income electronification will tackle some of the more complex instruments and trading strategies as Michael Chin, CEO of Broadway Technology told Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence

Jeroen Plag, Head of Corporate Strategy, ING GroupHow can banks stay a step ahead of the changes and evolutions in the financial services world and deliver products that customers really need? What does “Innovation” mean in 2022 and how can it be implemented across different verticals? Jeroen Plag, Head of Corporate Strategy at ING Group, explains to Gaia Lamperti, IBS Intelligence’s Reporter, how the bank is creating better customer experiences by embracing innovation with its dedicated business area ING Neo.