Rebank: Fintech Analysis

In this special episode, we're joined by Lex Sokolin for analysis of a few important recent fintech developments. Lex is the author of the Future of Finance newsletter, the CMO & Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys and a genuinely next-level thinker. In this conversation, Lex and I examine the recent SoFi acquisition of Galileo, Moven's decision to close its B2C digital bank and what if any impact rapid fintech product developments in response to COVID-19 will have on the future of financial innovation. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Today we're joined by Abhishek Gupta, Head of BBVA Open Platform, BBVA's banking-as-a-service offering. As most people listening this podcast know, BBVA is a leader in financial innovation among incumbent banks, having taken a very proactive approach to the role of technology in banking. The Open Platform is the productized, public facing version of BBVA's core banking infrastructure, offering bank accounts, cards, payments and KYC via API to fintechs and brands. In this conversation, Abhishek and I discuss the emerging banking-as-a-service industry, the most compelling fintech and brand use cases of bank APIs and BBVA's broader approach to financial innovation. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Abhishek Gupta.

The fintech industry has rapidly matured in recent years. Once a collection of aspirational early stage founders catering to tech early adopters, fintech companies are increasingly offering highly respected, professional grade solutions to mainstream consumers and businesses. Challenger banks, online lenders, payments companies and API connectivity layers once competed for fringe customers in a handful of urban centers. Now, they're pursuing global rollouts, pushing $10 billion valuations and piquing the interest of incumbent acquirers from FIS to Fiserv to Visa. How far will private funding take fintech? Will a wave of IPOs follow? Will M&A entice leading startups before their valuations make takeovers uneconomical? What will happen when local fintech successes clash at the global level? This special episode was recorded live at a Rebank event in London hosted by Shearman & Sterling, a global law firm with a specialist fintech practice. Visit fintech.shearman.com to find out more. In this conversation, we're joined by Noel Monro, Director at Rothschild & Co, an investment bank, Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, a venture capital firm, Ian Sutherland, CFO of Tide, a business banking service and Pawel Szaja, Capital Markets Partner at Shearman & Sterling. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Noel Monro, Tim Levene, Ian Sutherland and Pawel Szaja.

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Adrian Nazari, founder and CEO of Credit Sesame. Credit Sesame is a free credit score monitoring and management service. Credit Sesame has 16 million registered users and has raised $120 million since its inception nearly ten years ago. In this conversation, Adrian and I discuss the company's new banking offering and how it fits into the core business. We also discuss the competitive landscape in retail digital banking in the US and how Credit Sesame intends to differentiate. We also discuss the extremely pressing subject of supporting Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck is the midst of a global pandemic and recessionary fallout. Credit Sesame and other mass market fintechs have a tremendous opportunity to contribute in this time of social and personal distress. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Adrian Nazari.

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Hussein Kanji, a London-based venture capitalist. Hussein co-runs Hoxton Ventures, a firm he started in 2013. Hussein has invested in and/or served on the boards of some amazing companies, including Deliveroo, Babylon Health, DarkTrace, Behavox and many more. Prior to starting Hoxton, Hussein worked on product at Microsoft and then at Accel, one of the world's premier venture firms. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Hussein Kanji.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital connects with Steve Toland, founder and CEO of TransFICC, an e-trading technology company providing solutions for fixed income and derivative markets. Steve has over 25 years experience working in the global capital markets. He was previously the Head of LMAX Interbank, led global sales for MarketFactory, and held the positions of Head of FX Sales for EMEA and America at ICAP and Head of Sales for Americas at Thomson Reuters. Aman and Steve start by discussing why there has not been much innovation in capital markets infrastructure compared to traditional retail brokerage and how trading desks at various product groups like fixed income are waking up to the new wave of API driven technology to provide the best speed of execution in highly regulated markets. It's interesting to think about how trading desks at big banks and asset managers will need to adapt to an increasingly competitive and technology driven marketplace. Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Steve Toland.

Victor Trokoudes is the founder and CEO of Plum, a personal financial assistant that sits atop your existing bank accounts and automates financial success. Plum is a leader in the personal finance management, or PFM, space, and Victor has interesting views on what the future of the segment will look like. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Victor Trokoudes.

Magnus Larsson is the Founder and CEO of Majority, a digital bank for migrants in the US. As anyone who listens to this podcast knows, digital banks are making headlines all over the world. Some people are beginning to see the market as saturated, with seemingly dozens of offerings vying for consumer spending power. Early results suggest digital challengers are struggling to convert customers at scale or to bank them profitably. We're extremely early in the redesign of the stagnant, centuries old retail banking industry, and we've yet to see much business model innovation. Majority is an early example of what I expect to be a wave of banking offerings rethinking the role banks play in people's lives and the relevant combinations of services to deliver value around money and the experiences it enables. Magnus is a serial entrepreneur with decades of experience in telecom. Prior to launching Majority, he was the CEO of Rebtel, a digital telecommunications company serving migrants in Europe. Magnus brings deep insight into the challenges faced by migrants, including but extending well beyond access to financial services. Majority's launch proposition includes free banking, international calling and remittances all for a low monthly subscription. Banks have been subsidizing checking accounts with lending and fee-generating products for decades. Majority is doing the same with intrinsically linked ancillary services that reinforce community around its offering. For all of our past episodes, and to subscribe to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Magnus Larsson.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital connects with Wayne Marc Godfrey, founder and CEO of Purely Capital, an entertainment finance platform. Wayne is a prolific film producer and financier, having raised over $300 million and produced over 125 films with over $1 billion in production spend. He recently closed a $150 million facility for Purely Capital from a leading institutional lender. Media and entertainment is one of the biggest industries in the world, grossing over $700 billion annually. Underpinning all those receipts is a web of financing and distribution deals with networks and streaming operators. Aman and Wayne discuss the media financing value chain and why now is the right time to build a finance technology business in this space. They also explore how traditional funders are reacting to changes in production and consumption habits, and more. This is a fascinating conversation about how financial services are interpreted and reinterpreted in other industries, and how rapid technological change in other sectors, in this case media, is impacting innovation in financial services. In addition to the audio version of this podcast, today's conversation is also available on video on our YouTube channel, thanks to LaunchPod studios. Link in description. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome Wayne Marc Godfrey.

Platform banking's role in the growth of fintech can hardly be understated, with companies including Monzo, N26, Revolut, Chime, Acorns, Betterment, MoneyLion and many, many more starting or expanding on top of regulated third-party banking partners. Similarly, the promise of embedded finance, where non-bank brands and consumer experiences deliver banking and other financial services directly to customers is predicated on the availability of platform infrastructure. Platform banking offerings are clearly fit for purpose, right? Far from it. In today's conversation, Aman and I are joined by David Jarvis, founder of Griffin, a seed-stage platform bank in London, to discuss the current state of platform banking, the shortcomings of existing offerings and the role of the next generation of platform banks in delivering the future of finance. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, David Jarvis.