Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Nektarios Liolios is CEO & Co-founder of Startupbootcamp FinTech and Startupbootcamp InsurTech, the leading innovation programs in the financial and insurance industries. The programs provide funding, mentorship and office space in the heart of London, Singapore & New York, along with access to a global network of investors and VCs, for up to 10 selected FinTech startups per class. Nektarios has spent nearly 20 years in fintech, previously with Clearstream and SWIFT, where he ran the Innotribe Startup Challenge. Today's conversation with Nektarios was a fascinating discussion about a number of approaches to partnership between incumbents and startups. Regardless of the strategy used, there are a few key elements that enable successful collaboration. If you enjoy today's show, please leave us a review on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. Thanks so much for listening today. Please welcome, Nektarios Liolios.

Shazam founder Dhiraj Mukherjee joins the show today. Dhiraj is currently Head of Innovation at Virgin Money, a prominent UK bank and part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group. After graduating from Dartmouth College and then Stanford GSB, Dhiraj co-founded Shazam, one of the best known apps of all time. Launched in 2002, the platform is alive and well today. Dhiraj is a seasoned digital innovation and experience design professional, launching digital platforms around music, movies, advertising and social networking. He has advised on innovation for Reuters and other large corporates, and now carries the innovation flag at Virgin Money. In addition to his work at Virgin Money, Dhiraj is an insightful thinker in his own right, and it's in that capacity that he's sitting down with us today. If you enjoy today's show, please leave us a review on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice. Positive feedback is instrumental in helping others find the show. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you'd like to join Rebank's insider community to receive exclusive content, event information, highlights and more, check out the sign-up page on our website. Thanks so much for listening today. Please welcome, Dhiraj Mukherjee.

Sophie Guibaud is Head of European Expansion for Fidor Bank, one of Europe's original and best known digital-only banks. Originally launched in Germany in 2009, Fidor expanded into the UK in 2015. Prior to joining Fidor, Sophie led product strategy and commercialization at Bankable, a white-label banking platform provider. Before that, she was the Chief Marketing Officer at HelloFresh, a Rocket Internet-backed ready-to-cook meal delivery startup. Sophie is regularly mentioned among top fintech influencers, appearing on the Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist, CityAM's Fintech Most Influential Powerlist and Women in Fintech Powerlist and many more. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you enjoy today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Overcast, player.fm, or wherever else great podcasts are distributed. Final note: our very first exclusive Rebank update went out to our insider community this week. Sign up at bankingthefuture.com. Thanks so much for listening today.

Dave Birch (@dgwbirch) is Director of Innovation at Consult Hyperion, a secure electronic transactions consultancy. Dave is an internationally-recognized thought leader in digital identity and digital money. He has been named one of the global top 15 best sources of business information by Wired Magazine, one of the top ten most influential voices in banking by the Financial Brand, one of the top three most influential people in London's FinTech community by City A.M, and more. Dave is perhaps Europe's most influential commentator on emerging payments and adjacent subject areas, including digital identity, blockchain and privacy. This episode is a timely follow-on to recent episodes with Pascal Bouvier (Ep 22) and Taqanu founder Balazs Nemethi (Ep 23), both of which raised the topic of digital identity. When it comes to digital identity and the technologies required to support its implementation, few are as knowledgeable as Dave Birch. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Tweet at us @rebankpodcast or @will_beeson. If you like Rebank, please subscribe on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice and consider leaving us a review. Please enjoy today's show with Dave Birch.

Syrian refugees are facing one of the most difficult challenges humans can experience. Balazs Nemethi, founder of Taqanu, wants to support them in their plight. Taqanu seeks to provide banking to anyone, regardless of background and available documents. One of their first target user groups is refugees displaced by unrest in Syria, but the potential for a solution like Taqanu extends across refugees, migrants, the financially excluded and beyond - to any user group seeking a digital solution to identity and financial services. Combining digital identity, blockchain and a geography agnostic mobile-only interface, Taqanu seeks to revolutionize financial access for the unbanked. Based in Berlin and supported by some of the most recognizable global change organizations, Taqanu is innovating in an area that could create real improvement in millions of people's lives. We recently incorporated a new discussion platform into our website at www.bankingthefuture.com to support our community and an exclusive mailing list for insider access to our show. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, and tweet at us @rebankpodcast or at me, your host, @will_beeson. Please enjoy today's show with Balazs Nemethi.

Pascal Bouvier (@pascalbouvier) is a full-time venture capital investor, fintech practitioner and prolific blogger. Before becoming a full-time venture capitalist, Pascal founded and ran startups, worked for commercial and investment banks, and has been at one time or another a CFO, COO, CIO… the list goes on. Pascal is currently Venture Partner with Santander InnoVentures. Prior to joining InnoVentures, he built the fintech venture arm of Route 66 Ventures into a top global fintech investor. To anyone hoping to get into venture capital: check our Pascal's bio for what high energy, proactivity and variety of experience looks like. You can follow Pascal's thoughts on Twitter, LinkedIn and on his must-read fintech blog, finiculture.com.

Financial inclusion is a global issue. In fact, it's probably more global than most of us think. Even in developed markets like the UK, US and Western Europe, there are huge numbers of unbanked people. Pockit, a UK-based neobank, is addressing that problem in the UK. Launched in 2014 and currently serving 123,000 customers, Pockit is making a profound impact on the lives of a huge number of financially underserved individuals. Virraj Jatania, Founder and CEO of Pockit, joins us in Episode 21 to talk through the problem they're solving and the strategies they're employing to do so. We get into the economics of "neobanks," non-bank fintechs that leverage third-party authorizations to offer bank-like products. Let us know what you think on Twitter @rebankpodcast or @will_beeson. Connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or www.bankingthefuture.com to continue the conversation. We hope you enjoy today's episode.

This is Part 2 of a two-part review of our first 18 episodes. Before you rip out your headphones in disgust, let me explain. I'm not a fan of the classic "year in review", I mean, we were all there, right? If we were paying attention the first time around, why do we need to get sentimental? Similarly, previews of the year to come, while sometimes fun, are often pure speculation and rarely add value. In this two-part episode, we've attempted to do something we'd been planning for a while: analysis and commentary around the most important ideas that have come from our world-class guests so far. The extended discussions in the full episodes provide necessary context and completeness around important concepts, but I find broadening the perspective from time to time in search of patterns to be extremely valuable. In Part 1, we broke down our first nine episodes, which was not only insightful but cringe-worthy at times as we ironed out our style - and our recording techniques. The holidays are a time for gratitude and appreciation, and we're hugely appreciative of the time and insight that our guests have provided and the tremendous love and support our audience has shown. We're proud of the progress we've made over the first 20 episodes, and we're excited for what we've got in store going forward. Here's the link to the New York Times article referenced in the episode: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/upshot/the-long-term-jobs-killer-is-not-china-its-automation.html Connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or www.bankingthefuture.com to continue the conversation.

Episode 19 is a special one. We're celebrating the year-end with a long-overdue dive into some of the key concepts that have found their way across multiple episodes to date. We've interviewed some of the most noteworthy founders, investors, thinkers and doers in fintech & banking innovation over the past few months. Their insight and analysis will see us well into 2017 and beyond, so we're hunkering down over the holiday break to dig into it in detail. In Part 1 of our exploration, we break down our conversations with: Jeff Tijssen (@jefftijssen) Skylar Lyon (@skyyhigh) Jason Bates (@jasonbates) Chris Skinner (@chris_skinner) Faisal Khan (@babushka99) Alex Tapscott (@alextapscott) Slava Solodkiy (@slavasolodkiy) Michael O'Connor Duena Blomstrom (@duenablomstrom) We couldn't be more thankful for the wonderful guests we've had on the show so far. Word of caution: We dug out some of our earliest episodes, so please bear with us on the audio quality. We were still learning! Let us know what you think @rebankpodcast @will_beeson.

Andra Sonea is a banking systems specialist. Until recently Lead Solutions Architect within the Innovation & Digital Development Directorate at Lloyds Banking Group in London, Andra is currently pursuing a prestigious Anthemis Fellowship to build on her work in banking systems architecture. Andra has been involved in fintech for many years and is a keen supporter of collaboration between financial services institutions and start-ups. Prior to joining Lloyds in 2014, Andra worked for over fifteen years as an international technology consultant with IBM, SAP, EY and KPMG, gaining first-hand experience building and transforming IT architecture at some of the world's largest banks. Today's episode was a fascinating dive into the challenges faced by incumbent banks struggling with legacy systems issues. Andra is active on Twitter @andrasonea. Definitely check her out.