IBS Intelligence Podcasts

 The Shareholder Rights Directive 2 (SRD2) is a European Union (EU) directive, which, among other things, sets out to strengthen the position of shareholders. It also aims to improve communication by share issuers. Does this matter if you are not in the EU or even the EEA? Yes! The directive explicitly outlines its applicability to non-EU/EEA intermediaries. SRD2 will be implemented as of September 2020 but is the industry ready? Robin Amlôt sat down with Les Turner, vice-president of global proxy, Broadridge, to talk shareholders’ rights. 

In the first instalment of IBS Intelligence’s International Women’s Day series, Sunniva Kolostyak sits down with Anne Boden of Starling Bank to discuss women in power, entrepreneurship and the continued development of one of the UK’s most prominent challenger banks. 

Over the last few years, the torchbearers of the innovations have been the new age FinTechs and this is somehow forcing bigger payments and financial services companies to play catch-up. Ajay Adisheshann, Founder of Indian B2B payments company PayMate talks to Priyanka Pani of IBS Intelligence on the strategies adopted by global card networks such as Mastercard and Visa to remain relevant in a very agile market and bring out better products and services. He also talks about why it is difficult for large organisations to innovate faster. He also talks about PayMate, which has Visa as a strategic investor and partner, on its global expansion strategy. 

 eToro is a global multi-asset investment platform with some 12 million users worldwide. It was one of the first platforms to offer 0% commission on stock trades. The eToro platform claims to be the only venue where investors may hold traditional assets such as stocks or commodities alongside ‘new’ assets such as Bitcoin. The firm has also pioneered social trading – allowing investors to follow other successful traders. Robin Amlôt asked Iqbal Gandham how he sees investing evolving in the future. 

Cube is a global wealth management services company that helps people, across 50 countries, invest in emerging markets including India and other developed markets.  In this Podcast, Cube’s Founder Satyen Kothari talks about how technology can help the millennials and aspirational salaried class to be able to invest smartly to grow their personal wealth instead of depending on bank savings, fixed deposits or recurring deposits. Cube is largely focused on the busy young urban professionals, who do not have time or expertise to make their own investment decisions. Cube has dedicated advisors who recommend plans after checking a persons risk profile of investors. It  is also Satyen’s fifth start-up and second in the FinTech space. He founded India’s leading digital payments company Citrus, which was later acquired by Naspers-backed PayU. Satyen is an angel investor and has backed over 14 companies. He is also an active member of the Stanford Alumni Association of India and Stanford Angels. 

 Yobota is a London based FinTech. It has developed a cloud-based core operating platform for financial services. In 2018, Yobota enabled Chetwood Financial to launch its LiveLend and SmartSave Bank brands. Chetwood was the only bank fully authorised by the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in 2018. Yobota co-founder James King spoke to Robin Amlôt about the company’s platform and the advantages of being cloud-based. 

 Digital identities benefits both companies and customers across onboarding and KYC processes, but are potential pitfalls, such as data safety, risks that are too substantial for financial services? Hardik Shah, Group Head of Product at Currencies Direct, discusses the concept, as well as what a universal solution could mean for the industry, with Sunniva Kolostyak. 

In this episode, Sunniva Kolostyak speaks to Jason Harrell from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) about operational resilience and the risks associated, industry and regulatory responses such as public-private partnerships, and the idea of a third-party resilience framework. 

 Founded in 2010, Netherlands-based five°degrees offers a next-generation, digital core banking software platform. The company’s Matrix product offers a fully automated banking services solution that supports any segment, product, or channel via a mid-office environment, connected either to legacy back-office, or to the Matrix back office. Robin Amlôt sat down with Thomas Muth of five°degrees to discuss the future of banking. 

 How do financial technology companies adapt to accommodate for changing consumer behaviour and rising online commerce? In this episode, Peter O’Halloran from Fiserv discusses the rise of digital commerce with Sunniva Kolostyak, and how it forces merchants and regulation to change with it.