IBS Intelligence Podcasts

In the face of the pandemic, digital customer services are coming into their own with consumers moving their banking activities to digital channels and institutions prioritising digital transformation. Dan Michaeli, CEO of Glia, explains to Robin Amlot why and how traditional contact centres are being replaced by what he calls engagement centres…

A new report entitled ‘Payments in a Post-Covid-19 World’ has been published by P20, the voice of the global payments industry. It explores the challenges faced by the international payments sector during the pandemic and offers suggested actions that payments companies can take to ensure effective, innovative and responsible operation. P20’s CEO Duncan Sandys discussed the report with Robin Amlot…

In the wake of the Wirecard debacle, the UK body, the Emerging Payments Association has published a review paper entitled ‘Avoiding a payments lockdown’, presenting it to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and HM Treasury. The paper seeks to identify vulnerabilities in the current payments business model, how UK institutions were impacted and what regulators need to do next. Tony Craddock discusses the paper’s findings with Robin Amlot…

When it comes to Open Banking, are consumers really seeing any benefits? Brian Hanrahan, Chief Commercial Officer at Sentenial, joins the IBS Views podcast to discuss Nuapay, the Open Banking payments provider and Sentenial subsidiary, its recent partnerships, and how the public has taken advantage of Account-2-Account payments solutions during Covid-19.

The banker is dead! Long live the banker! Chirag Patel believes the ‘traditional’ banker is no longer viable in an era where banking innovation can transform economies. He believes that the new banker must be a product-led technology enthusiast… and he’s walking the walk, having moved from ecommerce behemoth Amazon to Santander, one of the oldest financial institutions in the world.

Thomas Schumann Water Risk Indices are the first-ever index family specifically designed to minimise water risk in equities. This first iteration of the index was initially a collaboration with three FinTechs: Equarius Risk Analytics, Fuzzy Logix, and C8 Technologies. Subsequent to the preliminary index development, institutional index experts Anatase were brought in to re-engineer the index methodology and the final TSC Water Risk Indices were launched on 4 January, 2021. Robin Amlot discussed the first generation of the index with Thomas Schumann, Founder of Thomas Schumann Capital and Jonathan Webb, COO of C8 Technologies.

Banks will need to be as agile as FinTechs in the future. Retail banking is likely to be virtual post-Covid-19 but, warns Matt Locsin of Publicis Sapient, banks face a particular challenge in the threat of disintermediation by tech companies that could see revenue from fees shrinking and traditional bases of differentiation, other than price, disappearing.

The key to success in private banking is client engagement. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic that has put pressure on institutions to use digital channels in a more effective manner to maintain the personal customer experience. The onus is on private bankers to adapt accordingly.

Have we learnt anything from previous crises? With focus on resiliency and business continuity at an all-time high, Brian Collings, CEO of Torstone Technology, discusses what it’s like to provide post-trade solutions in a Covid-19 environment, and which lessons the financial sector has picked up from the global financial crisis in 2008.

One of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has been to increase the risk of money laundering through cross-border correspondent banking. Banks are reliant on counterparties to determine account owners and monitor transactions for risk – with variable results! Mark Gazit, CEO of Israeli cybersecurity firm ThetaRay warns that existing AML systems may not be up to the task of identifying new types of money laundering activity.