The definitive source of news and analysis of the global fintech sector | July/August 2018 www.bankingtech.com

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Contents

NEWS 04 The latest fintech news from around the globe: the good, the bad and the ugly.

15 Interview: Darryl Twiggs, SmartStream Blockchain – the time is now.

16 Banking Technology Awards: now open for entries! Categories, deadlines and how to apply.

18 Country spotlight: France The lowdown on the country’s vibrant fintech sector.

26 Spotlight: artificial intelligence Man and machine – the importance of education.

30 Fintech funding round-up Money making the fintech world go round.

34 Case study: DBS Build my fintech high.

They struggle with Fintech complexity. We see straight to your goal. 38 Focus: start-up life We leverage proprietary knowledge and technology to solve complex regulatory challenges, create new products The art of selling to a bank. and build businesses. Our unique “one fi rm” approach brings to bear best-in-class talent from our 32 offi ces worldwide—creating teams that blend global reach and local knowledge. Looking for a fi rm that can help keep REGULARS 43 Appointments – the movers and the shakers. your business moving in the right direction? Visit BCLPlaw.com to learn more. 43 Industry events – mark your calendars! 44 Out of office – a slice of satire.

LAWYERSOFFICES YEARSBCLPLAW COM July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 01 Managing Director & Editor-in-Chief Tanya Andreasyan +44 207 551 9010 The definitive source of news & analysis of the global fintech sector [email protected] Deputy Editor Antony Peyton +44 207 551 9010 [email protected] Monthly page views: Reporter Henry Vilar +44 207 017 5709 520,000+ [email protected] Design & Production Manager Kosh Naran [email protected] Editor’s note Newsletter subscribers: Head of Sales Jon Robson +44 203 377 3327 42,000+ [email protected] As the conference season is about to take a are charlatans out there – at the recent Business Development Executive Alec Gost break for summer holidays, here are some Blockchain Summit in London, our +44 207 017 6122 observations from the evermore busy correspondent googled one of the [email protected] sector so far: speakers, who claimed to be from a big ADVERTISE ■ Location and venue matter. Please UK bank but who gave the impression of Customer database: Marketing Manager Irena Andrisevic don’t choose just with your wallet – you’ll having just walked in off the street having +44 207 017 5379 get what you pay for. Drab surroundings, read the Wikipedia entry for blockchain. 50,000+ [email protected] WITH US bad acoustics, non-working microphones, ■ And please, please don’t turn the Subscriptions and Renewals bad layout, no wifi reception – you get the contents part of the conference into Tel: +44 207 017 5533 idea. Speaking from real-life experience a vendor fest! Another recent fintech Magazine distribution: Email: [email protected] here. event in London had a direct correlation Subscription for one year: ■ Don’t leave the organisation and between sponsors/exhibitors and speakers ■ £495 logistics to chance. Delegates should be – virtually every speaker and presenter 55,000+ ■ €625 ■ $795 able to get through the doors quickly, was from a company that was listed as presenters should know in advance when a sponsor. The higher the status of the Subscription for two years: and where they are speaking, there should sponsor, the more speakers they had. One ■ £800 ■ €880 be enough trained staff on the ground panel even had a representative from the print and online ■ $1,000 to ensure everything runs smoothly and event’s PR company, discussing a subject efficiently. that had nothing to do with either PR, ■ The vibe created around the communications or media relations. event matters. This includes marketing ■ Diversity is vital. Say no to an all Twitter @FinTech_ Futures: LinkedIn group: campaigns, the website, social media, “male, pale and stale” panel. Today there on-site atmosphere and so on. The event is no shortage of specialists from different should be, dare I say it, fun (in addition to backgrounds, ethnicity, race and gender. being useful). ■ And finally, put on a decent lunch! © Banking Technology 2018 All rights reserved; Banking Technology material ■ Think thoroughly about what makes (Do you know how journalists remember may not be reproduced in any form without the event stand out (in a good way!) from conferences? By how good or bad the the written permission of the publisher. the myriad of other fintech conferences. lunch was. I’m not kidding.) bt 33,000+ followers 2,000+ members Banking Technology is published ten times a year ■ Put an effort into creating strong content. Please at least try to avoid Address “Captain Obvious” panel discussions and Maple House 149 Tottenham Court Road presentations. Do your research: find fresh London W1T 7AD angles, unconventional points of view, Request a media pack for more information UK practical case studies and original topics. Printer The industry is moving so fast, and there Hobbs the Printers Ltd are lots of things to learn and debate on! Hampshire, UK ■ Speakers could be a major attraction Tanya Andreasyan www.bankingtech.com ISSN 0266-0865 or disappointment. Not everyone who Editor-in-Chief www.bankingtech.com claims to be an “expert” is one. There Banking Technology Contact Jon Robson Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected] July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 03 NEWS NEWS

R3 hits back at Alior, solarisBank, Raisin and UK challenger bank Project Lemonade takes financial woe Mastercard unveil European bank Imagine preps for launch wefox to court for IP story Poland’s Alior Bank has teamed with a focus on the German market during the A new London-based challenger bank is struggling to maintain a momentum, so infringement solarisBank, Raisin and Mastercard to first phase of the project. gearing up for launch in the UK, called their market share is considered by many Enterprise blockchain software firm R3 is unleash a pan-European digital bank. Daniel Daszkiewicz, head of fintech at Project Imagine. Self-defined as a “second not big enough to present a threat to New York-based insurance platform fighting back against a news article that The new offering, which is planned to be Alior Bank, says: “For example, a customer generation digital bank”, it also aims to be traditional high street banks. Lemonade has filed a lawsuit against German claimed it was running out of money. launched in the fourth quarter of 2018, will be in Germany, while opening an account a wealth management alternative from the “We want to be a mix of Monzo, Nutmeg company ONE Insurance, its parent company David E. Rutter, CEO of R3, says: “Last built on the “strengths of all partners”. with solarisBank, will instantaneously gain get-go. and Moneybox, all in one, which means wefox, and founder Julian Teicke. week a negative and inaccurate news Alior Bank will deliver multicurrency access to a multicurrency account with On its site, it claims to provide a digital current account, savings and The complaint was filed in the US article about R3 was published. We accounts with international transfers and Alior Bank and to Raisin’s savings products.” “accessible financial future for all”, and that investment all in one, with heavy focus on District Court Southern District of NY, were saddened that any of our previous deposits. He adds that with Mastercard, is “built on a keen interest in people and personal finance management (PFM),” the and it claims that ONE was the product of employees saw fit to spread false, malicious solarisBank will add the banking customers will be able to buy additional their behaviour, not numbers and stats”. CEO tells Banking Technology. “We want to reverse-engineering by wefox. rumours about the company, and were infrastructure with its technological, value-added services. The bank says it will combine original encourage savings and money management, Lemonade claims wefox is “infringing very disappointed that unsubstantiated compliance and regulatory framework. According to solarisBank, the open API finance and tech solutions to help people and help people get out of the overdraft/ Lemonade’s intellectual property, figures and comments were taken seriously Raisin through its network of partner platform will use the opportunities from save and grow their money, rather than over-spending loop – hence we will offer violating the Computer Fraud and by a reporter, who then subsequently banks, is adding various savings and the EU directive PSD2 and open banking. just enhance usability. 3.14% in deposits from the start.” Abuse Act, and breaching its contractual chose to ignore our factual response.” investment possibilities to the offering. While they have unveiled a joint website The bank is led and was founded by According to the CEO, the bank will obligations to Lemonade not to ‘copy According to Fortune, former employees Mastercard’s benefit optimisation for this development, solarisBank tells Aritra Chakravarty, who comes from launch in Q4 this year with an e-money content… to provide any service that is of R3 are claiming a recent fundraise of $15 programme will be used to offer additional Banking Technology the name of the bank HSBC, where he worked in mergers and licence, and will be looking to acquire a competitive… or to… create derivative million fell far short of what was needed for it services for the customers. The product has not been disclosed yet. acquisition, wealth and private branches, banking licence some time in 2020. works’”. to continue operations. will be available for all EU residents with Antony Peyton as the global head of digital FX and The CEO tells us they are in the process According to Lemonade, Teicke There were other claims of opulent investment products. of recruiting its 14th engineer in Ukraine, registered for insurance on Lemonade expenditure, such as short helicopter rides, On its site, Project Imagine is currently where the team is building a fully in-house under various names and for various and excessive salaries. Oracle Flexcube core banking system looking to recruit a lead systems architect, orchestration system. The core banking addresses, some of which do not exist, Naturally, R3 wants to set the record live at Invest Banca head of data science and risk modelling, system will come further down the line. in order to gather information on the straight. among others. Interestingly, 75% of the staff is female. company’s arrangement of flows. The firm says more than $120 million has Invest Banca, an Italy-based investment regulations, such as MiFID, PSD2 and GDPR”, Project Imagine will be in direct “The core product doesn’t change, but the “[The lawsuit] catalogues how been raised from more than 45 institutions bank, has become the first taker of a localised Sardelli adds, as well as facilitates innovations competition with fully digital banks such as way we approach the way we talk about it wefox’s founders used aliases and bogus and brought in over $20 million in revenue. version of the Flexcube core banking platform around robo-advisory, artificial intelligence Starling, Monzo or Atom. does. It just sets a different dynamic to the addresses to create phony Lemonade Rutter explains: “R3 has more than supplied by Oracle FSS. (AI), data science, social trading and These have managed to have an impact process,” adds the CEO. policies and initiate fictitious claims,” sufficient funding and continues to see The solution has been tailored for the blockchain. in the industry, but are nonetheless Henry Vilar writes Lemonade’s CEO Daniel Schreiber. inbound investment interest. If we decide Italian market by Cabel Holding, an IT “The attitude of the banking system Allegedly, Teicke filed seven claims in to take on additional funding it will be service provider for the financial services towards innovation is changing and at the Blockchain insurance company B3i 20 days, which prompted Lemonade to because we see the strategic value of the market in Italy. same time there is a growing interest in the cancel his insurance. A number of other investor, or because it will help accelerate Cabel and Oracle FSS have been working world of fintech,” he says. picks R3’s platform Corda executives at wefox seem to have also filed our growth to meet demand.” together for the past two years to localise the “Invest Banca, thanks to the Oracle claims at Lemonade. In fact, in May, R3 secured an undisclosed Flexcube platform. It is available as an onsite Flexcube solution, has taken a decisive step The Blockchain Insurance Industry Lemonade says it contacted wefox last investment from CLS, the market deployment or on a hosted basis. forward.” Initiative (B3i) has selected R3’s Corda August and requested it stopped. infrastructure group. It may be better in future “This is a radically innovative solution, It is worth noting that there are earlier as the blockchain platform to build its Lemonade offers a digitised signup to let people know the exact sum it got. because it is a technology that facilitates the takers of Flexcube in Italy. Mediobanca, an applications and business network. process. The firm says it redesigned its Rutter also waxed lyrical over its Corda creation of lean products and services that Italian merchant and investment bank, signed B3i reviewed the available open business model by taking profit out of platform. And to be fair, it has certainly are independent and based on completely for Flexcube a decade ago. source blockchain technologies, and each payment, and sending money to a been getting a lot of traction. different and more modern logic than Also, the International Fund for Agricultural concluded that Corda was the best based charity if there isn’t any claim filed by the Some recent examples include traditional core banking systems in Italy,” Development (IFAD), which has its HQ in on B3i’s enterprise platform strategy. It customer. Commerzbank calling on Corda for a trade explains Francesco Bosio, president of Cabel. Rome, took the system seven years ago. IFAD is understood to have left IBM and the blockchain ecosystem,” comments Markus Any proceeds generated from this finance thrust; and Deutsche Börse and Invest Banca has recently gone live is an international financial institution and a Hyperledger Fabric framework, on which it Tradt, CTO at B3i. lawsuit will go directly to Code.org, a non- HQLAx signing a letter of intent to form a with the new system. According to Stefano specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) had developed its prototype earlier. According to B3i, Corda’s design profit organisation that aims to expand partnership to create a securities lending Sardelli, the bank’s MD, it enables it “to easily dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger B3i focused on criteria such as data is based on standards, and it enables access in computer science in schools and solution using Corda. and efficiently integrate with a series of in rural areas of developing countries. privacy, scalability, interoperability and integration of Corda nodes in the IT “increasing participation by women and In addition, Credit Suisse and ING specialised solutions already in use by its retail Natixis, a French corporate and investment developer productivity. environments that are used by B3i’s clients. underrepresented minorities”. executed the first live transaction using and institutional clients”. bank, runs its international operations on “The Corda platform offers the optimal R3 is also fighting back against a story that The sued company denies any HQLAx’s securities lending app on Corda. Furthermore, it allows the bank “to keep Flexcube, including in Italy. solution in the market to deliver the B3i claims it has money issues (see p4). culpability in the matter. Antony Peyton apace with ever more demanding banking Tanya Andreasyan roadmap and our industrywide insurance Henry Vilar Henry Vilar

04 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 05 NEWS

CYBG confirms £1.7bn Virgin Money takeover

The UK’s Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, operation to the Virgin Money brand, Bank (CYBG) has confirmed its takeover of says: “Thousands of banking employees with the rest of the customer base Virgin Money, valuing it at £1.7 billon. have this morning [18 June] heard transferring to this brand “in due course”. David Duffy, chief executive of CYBG, through the media that their jobs are no There will also be a migration of says: “The combination of CYBG and Virgin longer secure.” Virgin Money customers to CYBG’s Money will create the first true national Unite says the combined workforce of platform. CYBG is a long-standing user competitor to the status quo in UK both institutions is 9,500. of a heavily customised version of Misys’ banking, offering a genuine alternative for Away from job cuts, both CYBG and (now Finastra) Equation core banking consumers and small businesses.” Virgin Money make a lot of noise about system. The combined entity will have six being “challenger banks”, yet Virgin Money This means the end of the road for million personal and business customers was founded in 1995. It expanded its the 10x Future Technologies project and a balance sheet of almost £70 billion. It business in 2011 when it bought the at Virgin Money, which got the deal to will also become Britain’s sixth-largest bank remnants of Northern Rock for £747 build the bank’s new banking platform by assets. million. last year. 10x is a UK-based tech start-up According to the duo, CYBG In turn, CYBG is a holding company founded by former Barclays CEO Antony shareholders will own c. 62% of the that owns Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Jenkins, with Virgin Money being its only enlarged group with Virgin Money Bank and the app-based bank B. It was known customer. shareholders owning c. 38%. formed by National Australia Bank (NAB) There will be no “big bang” migration UK trade union Unite, representing the in February 2016. to the CYBG platform. The transfer will be workforce at Virgin Money and also staff at CYBG brings its retail and SME phased over a period of three years. CYBG, has “expressed alarm at the prospect franchises and states that its “open CYBG says this technology platform of thousands of job cuts”. banking ready” digital platform is live in is scalable and has already seen the According to Unite, this deal could the market today. migration of over two million of its result in a 16% reduction in the combined “Immediate preparations” will be customers “without issue”. FinTech Futures BrightTALK channel workforce – around 1,500 job losses. made to rebrand the group’s entire retail Antony Peyton now live and ready to view Better Fintech launches for financial equality A former Green Dot employee has unveiled focusing on helping fintech companies, product design, web, mobile and digital What’s happening? FinTech Futures has joined forces with BrightTALK, a his new Arizona-based start-up Better with preference to those that promote channel development. Fintech to target the financial literacy and tools and services that foster financial It seems Green Dot is a breeding ground knowledge destination where over seven million business equality market. literacy and equality.” for other wannabe entrepreneurs. professionals come every day to consume content to self- The firm is the creation of Michael These are very early days as a website In June, US mobile banking challenger educate and get better at what they do. Panzarella, who has worked in various and blog are coming soon. Chime raised $70 million in Series C roles at Green Dot. These include chief There are no more specific details to financing, led by Menlo Ventures. The partnership allows us to create and share webinars, videos design officer, chief product officer, SVP for share – such as launch date or funding. Chime’s co-founder and CEO Chris Britt However, Panzarella has plenty of also worked at Green Dot. and host online events with the combined extensive FF and product, and VP for product. Panzarella says: “My company will be experience in the industry, specifically UX, Antony Peyton BrightTALK communities worldwide. Want to see what Visit bankingtech.com/brighttalk to see our webinars, ThetaRay is AML way for ABN Amro we’ve been up to? videos and join the digital events! ABN Amro has partnered with ThetaRay in ThetaRay’s platform enables financial busy in the first half of this year, partnering The FF channel on BrightTALK is a fantastic opportunity for our a five-year, bank-wide project to improve institutions to build customised solutions to with Singapore bank OCBC in March. clients to showcase their brand, products and services, expertise the Dutch bank’s anti-money laundering identify anomalies in data sets in real time ThetaRay is headquartered in Israel and and thought leadership to a broad audience comprising (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) regardless of source. maintains offices in New York, London, and capabilities. The product has more than 15 years of Singapore. The company has raised more finance and IT professionals from across the globe. ThetaRay uses machine learning and academic research, and ThetaRay’s approach than $30 million in funding, and includes mathematical algorithms to detect financial to fraud detection is data agnostic and rules- Poalim Capital Markets (PCM), Jerusalem Interested in webinar, Contact Jon Robson crime. The company will help the bank focus free, using “the wisdom of the algorithm Venture Partners (JVP), and General Electric among its investors. Mark Gazit is CEO. Email: [email protected] on making its post-transaction monitoring crowd” to deliver a cybersecurity solution. video and sponsorship more effective and efficient. Founded in 2013, ThetaRay was especially David Penn, Finovate opportunities? Tel: +44 203 377 3327 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 07 NEWS NEWS

Mobile banking app preps for Amaiz-ing UK launch HSBC to invest $15-17bn in new tech A new mobile banking app, Amaiz, is The R&D team of Amaiz is based in St fund protection and a 24×7 service, the HSBC is looking for growth again as it To achieve this mighty ambition, HSBC Throughout the period from 2018 gearing up for launch in the UK. Petersburg, Russia, but its sights are firmly app provides smart analytics to manage plans to invest $15-17 billion in new has eight priorities – some of which are to 2020, HSBC says its plan assumes its The app seems to fill in the niche that set on the crowded UK market and it has and monitor all payments, categorised by technology. explained below. common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio will Monzo’s prepaid card left – a Mastercard a business office in London. tags and create spending reports. In its latest strategy update, John It will look for happy hunting times in be above 14%. The bank’s CET1 ratio has debit card that you can transfer money Amaiz calls itself a neobank and its There is no specific launch data yet, Flint, HSBC group chief executive, says it Hong Kong by investing in the Pearl River been above this level for the last five instantly and for free from debit and credit website doesn’t offer a lot of details at the and Amaiz is currently recruiting for more will use its “size and strength to embrace Delta (PRD), the Association of Southeast quarters. cards, Apple Pay or Android Pay. Users moment. developers. new [unspecified] technologies” but Asian Nations (ASEAN), and “Wealth in To achieve these financial targets, it can also top-up by bank transfers, local The firm intends to let users access and The company is led by Sergey adds that this is “subject to achieving Asia” (including insurance and asset aims to deliver mid-single digit growth in PayPoint stores or by depositing cash at a monitor funds in different bank accounts Dobrovolskiy, its founder and CEO. positive adjusted jaws each financial management). revenue, low to mid-single digit growth post office. as well as make payments. Alongside Henry Vilar year”. Like many others, it wants to tap into in operating expenses, and c.1-2% annual Flint wants the bank to make a the China-led Belt and Road Initiative and growth in risk-weighted assets (RWAs). mint and explains: “After a period of the “transition to a low carbon economy”. HSBC adds that it expects this to result Smith & Williamson in tech overhaul with Avaloq restructuring, it is now time for HSBC Other stuff will see investment in in an improvement in reported revenues to get back into growth mode. The digital capabilities and future skills, and as a percentage of reported average RWAs Smith & Williamson, a UK-based investment, It is understood banking tech firms such banking services to a range of clients, from existing strategy is working and provides look for partnerships. Same as all other from c.5.9% in 2017 to c.7% by 2020. tax and accountancy services firm, is believed as Temenos with its T24 system and ERI with individuals and families to entrepreneurial a strong platform for future profitable banks. Back in April, HSBC was making plenty to have concluded its system selection. Olympic were evaluated alongside the Avaloq businesses, mid-large corporates, professional growth. In the next phase of our strategy The other goals are very vague – such of noise about having spent $2.3 billion The contract has been awarded to Avaloq, Banking Suite. practices and non-profit organisations. we will accelerate growth in areas of as “turn around our US business” and “gain on improving its artificial intelligence (AI) Banking Technology understands. Avaloq Smith & Williamson is the UK’s eighth Avaloq already has a number of clients in strength, in particular in Asia and from market share and deliver growth from our and digital capabilities around the globe. declined to comment on the deal. largest accountancy firm, with revenues of the UK, including Barclays Wealth, Canaccord our international network.” international network”. Antony Peyton Smith & Williamson went to market for £244.6 million for the year ending 30 April Genuity Wealth Management, RBS’s private a new core processing system in H2 2016. 2016, and 1,700 people on the payroll. banking subsidiaries Coutts and Adam & Co, Local consultancy Goodacre assisted with the It provides accountancy, tax, financial and also Rothschild Private Banking & Trust. Scottish banking start-up Nexves readies for launch selection. advisory, investment management and private Tanya Andreasyan Aberdeen-based start-up Nexves is flying “Don’t forget, not one of them was the flag for democracy and preparing to prosecuted for their reckless behaviour N26 aims for 100 more engineers by 2019 unleash its financial platform which will which flushed the economy down operate like a bank account. the drain. Their CEOs continue to German challenger bank N26 aims to The new office in Barcelona will N26 established a team dedicated to The idea is to let a “swarm of individuals” pick up salaries in the millions, while have over 100 engineers by the end of primarily be focused on product the Spanish market in January this year, as collectively act together in mutual self- simultaneously receiving an entitlement 2019. development and technology, but it will it became one of the bank’s core markets. interest. All investments are made from the to options and shares which are worth The bank will open its second also give the bank’s employees more In March, N26 closed a $160 million interest accrued on the money deposited. even more. You’re welcome.” European office in Barcelona on 1 flexibility in regards to their location. Series C funding round. It has recently It will also simultaneously offer a I think you get the idea. September, as it believes it will enable it Valentin Stalf, CEO of N26, says it surpassed the milestone of processing €1 network of data, which enables “everyone These are early days for Nexves as to tap into a larger talent pool. wanted to “reach more talent and offer billion in monthly transactions with over to lower their recurring monthly expenses” its website doesn’t offer specifics yet on In total, N26 currently has more than more international opportunities for a one million customers. and “will be collected with users’ costs launch dates. However, it is asking for 430 employees. highly diverse workforce”. Henry Vilar negotiated down automatically”. sign ups. Essentially it’s an ecosystem of With regards to the launch date, integrated products and services. Nexves Nexves told Banking Technology: “I Insurtech Kakau inks two deals in Brazil, eyes Europe doesn’t offer any timelines yet, but says suspect it will be in the next three- a suite of services will emerge which are five months, at minimal functionality. Kakau, an insurtech start-up in Brazil, has Its star product at present is a mobile phone He emphasises the company’s “all interlinked yet independent”. The Obviously it’s very ambitious but we signed deals with insurance firms American loss cover, which is a popular option in Brazil, commitment to making a social impact – start-up wants its account to replace He adds: “Now we are charged for the have several prominent and important Life and Generali. says Henrique Volpi, co-founder of Kakau. from the outset, Kakau has partnered with Un intermediaries. privilege of storing our money in their people involved who we think will help Set up in 2016, Kakau provides a digital He says the company’s goal is to make the Techo Para Mi Pais (TETO), a Latin American Like many other firms, its inspiration is institution. The same companies whose us cross the chasm.” insurance platform that uses artificial insurance a social and financial inclusion tool. non-governmental organisation that builds rooted in a lack of love for big banks and business model evolved from arbitrators Along with being the founder, Herd intelligence (AI) technology and big data He adds that Kakau was fortunate to sign emergency homes and runs social housing the old order. of truth, to taking risks which equate to is an ICO/blockchain consultant; and to offer more practical and economical its first client, American Life (a small insurance programmes. Christopher Herd, Nexves’ founder, reckless gambling. Your capital still funds a business consultant/marketing and insurance products for users. Kakau’s platform firm), followed by a much bigger customer, Kakau is now looking to expand to Europe, says: “Collectively we fund the banks. Their their pursuit of unfathomable riches, only media manager for Front Letter – an comes with a virtual assistant, Anna. Generali. and is in talks with a number of European current accounts harbour our savings you are now covering their exorbitant enterprise operating within the real The company says its offering is a “The first two hundred meetings they are in firms. Volpi says the scheduled date for and expenditure while our benefits have bonuses and losses too, even after feeling estate, restaurant and food industries in “complete revolution in the product and user doubt, but then it gets better,” he jokes about entering the European market is 2020. eroded over time. How many people now the pinch of currency devaluation due to Aberdeen. experience”. the start-up’s interactions with big firms. Tanya Andreasyan pay ‘account fees’?” the 2008 financial crash. Antony Peyton

08 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 09 NEWS

IBM criticism brings more blues to RBC boss sees TSB tech issues CA$3.2bn tech Oh say it isn’t true Big Blue. IBM has about 2,000 TSB partners as customers. spend in 2018 brought more misery to TSB and its According to IBM, it has not seen massive tech overhaul issues by saying evidence of technical information Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) president the go-live criteria wasn’t ready. available to TSB, e.g. architectures, and CEO Dave McKay has said at an As reported in April, TSB’s migration configuration and design documents, investor meeting that the bank estimates to new systems caused chaos with online monitoring information, test outcomes it will spend CA$3.2 billion ($2.4 billion) and mobile banking. For over five days etc. in technology during 2018. customers could not bank remotely and Along with that, performance testing This number is an increase from last reported multiple problems with their did not provide the required evidence of year’s CA$2.9 billion, or even CA$2.6 accounts and transactions. capacity and the lack of active-active test billion in 2015. In an IBM report on TSB’s IT problems, environments have materialised risk due The CEO highlights that CA$520 million published by the UK government’s to issues with global load balancing (GLB) “will be moved from ‘Run’ to ‘Change’”, as Select Committee today (21 June), the across data centres. the bank is looking for ways to invest in revelations are not happy reading for the A TSB spokesperson says: “The IBM transformation to lower operational costs. bank. document contained a preliminary work The bank also states that throughout IBM says it has not seen evidence of plan with very early hypotheses based on the past four-year period, infrastructure the application of a rigorous set of go-live observations to date, that were produced and support costs remain relatively flat. criteria to prove production readiness. after only three days of engagement with RBC also estimates to double down on It would expect “world class design TSB, almost eight weeks ago. The content cybersecurity spend. This is an important rigour, test discipline, comprehensive is therefore now very much out of date. area, since a catastrophic breach could operational proving, cut-over trial runs The hypotheses were not final, nor were make the positive profit and savings and operational support set-up”. they a validated view of what went wrong projection collapse. But in its view there were a limited or of the actions that have subsequently The bank estimates, given the past four- number of services (e.g. mortgage been taken. Without this context, this year period trend, to save around CA$430 origination, ATM and head office document could be misinterpreted to the million through increased automation, functions) that were launched on the new detriment of TSB’s customers.” system consolidation and “re-use”. platform and a broader set of services to Antony Peyton Conversely, around CA$400 million will be redirected into next-gen delivery UK start-up Yulife to bring platforms, data and artificial intelligence (AI) tech, APIs and modularity, and cloud life to insurtech and other infrastructures. These investments aim to reduce Yulife claims to be the first lifestyle underwrite all insurances issued by Yulife. operational costs in the future, at the insurance business in the world, and The company was founded by Sam same time the banks keeps up with the will launch later in the year offering Fromson and Sammy Robin, who now hold 33% year-on-year growth in mobile life insurance plus wellbeing tools for the COO and CEO positions, respectively. transactions and 8% year-on-year growth businesses and individuals. Robin was the founding CEO of insurer in core systems transactions. The firm uses game design and rewards Vitality Life. For reference, the bank explains to “give you the TLC (tender loving care) “Rapid advances in consumer health that, by “next-gen delivery platforms”, it you need”, but traditional life insurance technology and shifting attitudes mean refers to its mobile banking app NOMI, lacks. that people want more from their its wealth management app MyAdvisor, On the website, Yulife claims to draw insurance company,” says Robin. its capital markets service Aiden, and its from tech, psychology, wellbeing and “We’re a new type of insurance investor and treasury services. behaviour change fields to create the company that uses behavioural science It has also invested CA$225 million product. and artificial intelligence (AI) to help build over four years in its AI and data analytics Yulife says it will draw data from other deeper and more rewarding relationships platform, and expects its data lake to wellbeing apps to help users manage their with our customers,” adds Fromson. grow tenfold in the next two years. insurance and provide them with rewards. Yulife is based in Camden, London, with Across the pond, HSBC has committed This upcoming insurer is backed by UK a team of 20 people at this moment. to a huge tech investment too (see p9). insurance company AIG Life, which will Henry Vilar Henry Vilar

July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 11 NEWS NEWS

Visa reveals over 5m payments affected by June outage Westpac moves all core banking to cloud Visa has disclosed that its pan-European committee. It’s a common occurrence for and 2.4 million failed to process properly. Westpac has made the jump and moved considerably increase the efficiency and transferred over the next three years. outage at the start of this month affected these committees to investigate many things. “At its peak, the disruption affected all its core banking applications into its reduce manual work. The CEO reports a 40% saving in set-up 5.2 million card transactions, almost half of According to Visa, the issue went on for people in the midst of returning home from brand new private cloud environment, This move is in preparation for open costs on the cloud so far. which were in the UK. ten hours from 1 June. work, socialising in restaurants and pubs, and which will allegedly make its banking, with mainly regulatory apps Curran says Westpac would be more As reported in June, Visa said that some Visa Europe chief executive Charlotte doing end-of-day shopping,” Hogg explains. development ten times faster and three having been moved, as well as a giant resilient as it would have two separate card payments were failing across Europe. Hogg writes: “Overall, for cards issued both She adds: “Visa, together with our times cheaper. customer service hub. environments running concurrently, as In the UK, bank customers were still able to in the UK and elsewhere … 51.2 million Visa financial institution partners, has quickly This move may lead the bank to save Westpac’s new private off-site cloud a response to National Australia Bank’s obtain cash from ATMs. transactions were initiated and sent to Visa’s implemented a compensation programme millions of dollars in technology costs is based on IBM Cloud technology, and is outage in June . On 2 June Visa resolved this “technical European systems for processing.” for cardholders.” each year and speed up its product roll- housed in two Sydney IBM data centres. The CEO also remarks on the bank’s issue”, which “was the result of a hardware She says: “Of these, 5.2 million failed to Also in early June, and just after the out considerably. Through the bank’s hybrid-platform-as- focus on keeping customer data secure failure in one of our European systems and is process correctly”. outage, Hogg had to begin her presentation The move to cloud started last year a-service (HPaaS) model, the bank aims to on the cloud. not associated with any unauthorised access The glitch was the result of a “very rare at Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam with with a partial move to the cloud. CEO make systems work together whether they The bank is a long-standing user or cyberattack”. partial failure” of a switch in one of Visa’s data an apology for these events. Dave Curran tells The Australian Financial are hosted in-house, in its offsite private of the Hogan core banking system In the latest revelations published today centres. It has since been fixed. She reassured customers that there was Review that even though they were cloud or on public cloud platforms. from US-based CSC. In 2010, the bank (19 June), the details have come to light In terms of the UK, Visa says 27.6 million no cyber breach. planning moving 20 applications, the The bank plans to make sure that every embarked on a lengthy upgrade of the in a letter from Visa to a UK parliamentary transactions were made during the outage – Antony Peyton number is now over 30. single one of its hundreds of applications legacy core to the newer offering from The company reports over 100 is transferred onto the cloud, without CSC, Celeriti. automated integrations, which would exceptions. 70% of these apps will be Henry Vilar Wells Fargo under fire over remote deposit capture patent French savings firm Cashbee preps for flying launch The United Services Automobile Association Wells Fargo hasn’t commented yet on USAA provides banking services to current (USAA) is suing Wells Fargo on grounds of the matter. or former members of the armed forces, Paris-based Cashbee, a business-to- Its algorithm then identifies the best and Wizypay. The former is a mobile intellectual property charges for unspecified USAA targeted Wells Fargo as it’s one and is largely considered a digital bank. Its consumer (B2C) fintech company banking offers (such as premiums or app that matches people with job damages, over USAA’s remote deposit of the biggest users of remote mobile customers are often deployed around the providing automated, digital cash boosted rates). Money is deposited into the opportunities. The latter is a B2B prepaid capture patents. deposit capture and has failed to license the world. deposits and savings, is readying for highest paying account. and gift card platform. San Antonio-based USAA claims to technology while benefitting from its use, McKinley referred to the technology as launch. There is no launch date yet but it says Garbois is currently founder and MD at have invented such tech, and thus started claims USAA. “one of the most significant advances in Cashbee says it plans to offer users the it will go live soon. The start-up is calling 101 Advisory – a team of consultants and demanding licensing fees from banks around “It is improper for Wells Fargo to use, digital banking within the last decade”. best promotional offers on the market for interested parties to sign up on its site. technology advisers. a year ago. without permission, patented technologies USAA developed its technology internally without them having to change banks. Cashbee says its solution is available to Tempelman has a lot of experience “We’ve been abundantly patient with that USAA has spent immense resources to in 2005, before launching it to customers in Users’ money remains in an account in French individuals and families. with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. This Wells Fargo,” Nathan McKinley, a USAA invent, develop, implement, and perfect,” 2006. USAA has also had legal quarrels with their name. The company was founded by three includes vice-chairman of global capital vice-president and its head of corporate USAA said in a complaint filed in US District Mitek over patents related to mobile RDC According to the firm, customers can individuals – Chaker Nakhli, Cyril Garbois markets; and MD, co-head debt capital development, said in an interview with Court for the Eastern District of Texas. technology, which ended in 2014 with neither sign up with information that it needs to and Marc Tempelman. markets and corporate banking (EMEA). American Banker. “Now is the time for us to USAA claims it has suffered “immediate side paying the other. open bank accounts in that person’s name. Nakhli has worked as a CTO at Kudoz Antony Peyton get the court’s assistance.” and irreparable harm”. Henry Vilar Nationwide seeks start-up action with £50m fund Infosys powers Santander UK’s core banking revamp Nationwide is launching a new £50 million The first investment has been that will benefit our members both now Santander UK has turned to Infosys’ Finacle Misys) with its Equation core banking system. According to Infosys, LMS will fintech fund to support its future tech announced, and will see the proptech and in the future, allowing us to deliver our for the launch of a new inter-bank cash Now Santander says it will introduce the enable multi-bank reporting and cash strategy and the society’s members. start-up acasa receiving an undisclosed ambitious future technology strategy.” management system for its corporate new portal. management capabilities including Investments will focus on creating long- amount of funding. Acasa is a home As part of the investment, Nationwide customers. The bank will use Finacle’s digital offerings, sweeping, target balancing and notional term partnerships with companies that can management platform which automates will have a senior member of staff with As Banking Technology reported which includes Finacle Online Banking, pooling. help develop products and services, which and streamlines the process of moving relevant experience to provide support, exclusively last year, Santander UK was Omnichannel Hub, Payment Solution and Corporate treasurers will be able to means delivering benefits to members in, managing and moving on for the guidance and expertise to the start-up. embarking on a core banking software Liquidity Management Solution (LMS). design liquidity structures. The open APIs over profits alone. resident, utility companies and landlords. There are seven main themes that the overhaul. Bart Timmermans, head of global will also enable corporates to embed cash Nationwide claims that in the last year it The platform will become a fully-fledged fund will be looking at: house and home; The bank has a multitude of systems, transaction banking (GTB), Santander UK, says management services within their own has grown the number of its active mobile marketplace for households. personal data and identity; financial which it inherited from two UK banks, Abbey this deal “represents a significant part of GTB ERP solutions. banking members by 44%, with 200 million Tony Prestedge, Nationwide’s deputy wellness; communities and society; National and Bradford and Bingley, which UK’s channel strategy, helping to prepare the The Finacle solution suite will be made more logins, which will be driving the CEO, says: “By investing in early stage start- Banking-as-a-Platform; operational were taken over by Santander. Among major bank for its shift towards serving its digitally available in a cloud hosted environment. aim of its investments – in spite of some ups, we can be at the forefront of helping efficiency; and “new segments”. and long-standing suppliers is Finastra (ex- enabled corporate clients”. Antony Peyton occasional down time. develop innovative products and services Henry Vilar

12 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 13 NEWS INTERVIEW: DARRYL TWIGGS, SMARTSTREAM

Georgia’s TBC Bank launches digital neobank Space Blockchain – the time is right, Georgia’s TBC Bank has unveiled its digital and physical presence,” says Nika Kurdiani, from people and processes, to our culture. and autonomous neobank, Space. Deputy CEO at TBC Bank. “TBC, in a way, The biggest advantage of our model is TBC says the fintech-inspired initiative created its own competitor. We think this the ability to leverage the resources and but we’ve only just started was taken from concept to launch in eight challenge brings a new reality not only experience of TBC Bank while operating months. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) core to TBC but also to the Georgian banking independently.” In an exclusive interview, Darryl Twiggs, SVP Strategic Initiatives at financial transaction lifecycle management banking engine Mambu is powering Space. sector. It aims to change the way people Gurgenidze adds that Mambu is API- solutions provider SmartStream, discusses why now is the right time to embrace blockchain. Space provides customers with a range access their daily financial services.” driven which was “strategically important” of retail banking services including loans, Lasha Gurgenidze, project leader at for the integration of products and Good timing is everything. Too soon and Darryl Twiggs, interbank payments system, and they saving products and payment cards. Space, adds: “We put a special focus on features and “that is the power of the right potential failure looms. Too late, then it SmartStream still have private network payments and “A year ago, several TBC team members differentiating by design, customer care, technology”. could be a game of constant catch-up. RTGS. Just switching technology is not decided to create a neobank that exists price transparency and instant service This is Mambu’s first client in Georgia. For Twiggs, SmartStream has taken enough. only as a mobile app, without branches delivery. We are a fintech in every sense Antony Peyton the right approach, and moment, when it “If you look at more complex comes to using blockchain. situations – which end up in a payment – “We’ve been monitoring blockchain then you really start to see the benefits.” LeasePlan Bank in major tech overhaul with Ohpen for a couple of years now. Looking from a technical point of view initially. Secondly, ON THE WAY LeasePlan Bank, the online savings bank IT infrastructure, which is what LeasePlan “power of one” motto. at the potential impact it would have on In terms of specific plans and what lies based in the Netherlands, has chosen Ohpen Bank specialises in. “We have one core banking engine financial services overall.” ahead, Twiggs says it has been validating to upgrade its whole core cloud banking “Migrating LeasePlan Bank’s customers running in the cloud, one code base, one Now it sees blockchain as a its data, and its solutions will integrate – engine, Pieter Aartsen and Angelique to the Ohpen core banking platform will version of our platform for all countries. “fundamental revolution” for back office notably with Hyperledger Fabric. Schouten, global board members at Ohpen, reduce the complexity of their savings The fact that it’s one solution and cloud- to middle office processing. The result of that evaluation is that it tell Banking Technology. and deposits IT architecture and make based means that it is faster, more reliable To SmartStream, the technology set up an innovation lab, with blockchain The bank will do a full-stack upgrade of LeasePlan Bank more agile,” says Aartsen. and we can release our new software to all principle of a decentralised central ledger, as one team and artificial intelligence as its core engine and all other tech, which Ohpen has been gaining traction over clients at the same time, which happens immutability and a complete audit trail another. moves away from Oracle FSS’s Flexcube, an the last few years. Knab, a challenger bank every month,” she says. has “huge benefits” and the option to It has always had an R&D team but on-premises system onto Ohpen’s cloud- subsidiary of Aegon, moved to Ohpen’s Aartsen adds: “We were the first ones streamline fractured processes. now it is “externalising” to do “greater native engine. core from Sopra Banking Software’s going all-in cloud, fully cloud natives and For those who may wonder if there will validations” without impacting its This move will cover both the Dutch system. Aegon is also a customer of Ohpen. programmed a whole new bank from always be a requirement for reconciliation, “Blockchain now is production environment. and German operations of the bank. Former Delta Lloyd Bank, which was taken scratch and have been running it in the he is very clear on the subject. SmartStream is looking to set up an Although the bank is headquartered in over by Nationale Nederlanden (NN) Group cloud and offering it as a Software-as-a- “I often smiled when some of our clients starting to get to innovation office in Cambridge (UK), the Netherlands, a part of its client base is last year, also made the jump onto Ohpen’s Service (SaaS) for nine years now. very cheekily said to us – ‘with blockchain following a first one in Vienna. based in Germany. tech, alongside NN Bank. On the way out are “This means that our tech is now future- we’ll lose the need for reconciliations’ – and the point where The firm can offer a lot. Twiggs says The implementation began on 4 July. Temenos with its T24 system and Able (a local proof, and we can adapt it in the future I said to myself – ‘will that then suddenly it is robust, fully its solutions support the principle of The bank’s whole system, bar the website, banking software provider). without the deployment demands of on- improve the fat finger of the trader who endorsement and message exchange. In will be provided by Ohpen’s tech. For the When asked about the reason for this premise architecture.” puts an extra zero on the trade value?’” encrypted, secure… addition, it can provide services, such as bank it is the retail savings and deposits momentum, Schouten cites Ohpen’s Henry Vilar He states that reconciliations will network operations. move from a post-settlement operation and it can perform.” Twiggs comments: “We are over to real time. Darryl Twiggs, SmartStream the hype that was generated by Coventry BS selects Temenos for digital revamp cryptocurrency. All the central banks HERE’S PROOF have made a statement, in terms of UK-based Coventry Building Society has T24, Temenos Channels, Financial Crime 1.4 million members with savings accounts, SmartStream has been looking at how it regulatory jurisdictions, and have also chosen Temenos’ T24 core banking system Mitigation and Temenos Payments Hub and 350,000 members who are borrowers. can participate for a while. produced reports in the last six months, for a digital revamp. solutions. Coventry BS is a long-standing user Twiggs explains that SmartStream in how they view blockchain as an As Banking Technology reported in Peter Frost, chief operating officer, of the Mortgage and Savings Suite (MSS) products have been architectured for DON’T DISMISS SWIFT operating network. They are in favour 2016, Coventry BS had embarked on a tech Coventry BS, says Temenos has a “worldwide from Sopra Banking Software for its core cloud operations for more than ten But there is also a note of caution of it.” modernisation project and was looking for reputation for robust, innovative banking processing; and FIS/Sungard’s Ambit years. “A blockchain to us is another for banks. SmartStream is looking to launch its a new core system. systems” and its platform will “help drive Treasury Mangement/Quantum system for manifestation of cloud technology.” “In my view they have evaluated offerings next year. For Twiggs this is Earlier this year, Coventry BS had more simplicity and efficiency”. treasury operations, Banking Technology Last year, it did a proof of concept the tech capability but they haven’t most definitely the right time. than 80 IT roles up for grabs at its head This is Temenos’ first building society understands. with Ripple. It integrated its liquidity understood, yet, the pure impact “To our business and customers, we office as its overhaul was ramping up. deal in the UK. It is understood Accenture is the management solution to take the potential. saw that blockchain now is starting In the latest development, the society The society is the third largest in the UK, implementation partner. payment off the block – and updated its “They’ve been looking at something to get to the point where it is robust, has opted for a front-to-back revamp using with total assets of more than £34.1 billion, Antony Peyton solution with a transactional balance and very narrow. So they often looked at fully encrypted, secure… and it can validate the position on the block itself. interbank payments. Well, Swift is an perform.”bt

14 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 15

13 December 2018 London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square Now in their 19th year, the Banking Technology Awards recognise excellence in the use of IT in financial services worldwide, and the people who make it happen.

The Awards are now open for entries!

JUDGED AWARDS FINTECH FOR GOOD AWARD Enter your projects, products and services in the following categories: A new category at this year’s Awards will honour an organisation for its outstanding contribution to a charitable cause. ■ Best Tech Overhaul Project ■ Best Use of IT for Lending

■ Best Use of Emerging or Innovative Technology ■ Best Digital Initiative In partnership with Comms for Good, the Fintech for Good Award celebrates organisations that put the ■ Best Fintech Partnership ■ Best Mobile Initiative wider community first and demonstrate the values of ■ Best Use of Biometrics ■ Top Digital Innovation connection, collaboration and generosity above and beyond the usual confines of business goals. ■ Best Use of IT in Private ■ Best Use of Cloud

Banking/Wealth Management ■ Best Use of AI LEADERSHIP AWARDS Nominate inspiring individuals ■ Best Use of IT in Retail Banking ■ Best Consumer Payments Initiative and high-performing teams for:

■ Best Use of IT in Corporate Banking ■ Best Corporate Payments Initiative ■ Woman in Technology (W.I.T.) Award

■ Best Use of IT in Treasury and ■ Best Use of Data ■ Tech Leadership Award

Capital Markets ■ Best Use of RegTech ■ IT Team of the Year

Deadline for entries is Friday, Get in touch for more information: NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN! 31 August Irena Andrisevic @FinTech_Futures www.bankingtech.com/awards e: [email protected] | t: +44 (0)207 017 5379 #BankingTechAwards COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: FRANCE COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: FRANCE

Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, France “Our role as a regulator is to make sure we have La vie en rose a level playing field between firms offering the same type of services. As such, we don’t The French fintech market is going full speed ahead. Cécile Sourbes investigates. distinguish fintech from incumbent players. We simply think that, in most cases, new players need regulatory responses more than regulatory changes.” Domitille Dessertine, AMF

the fintech practice at KPMG in Paris. “We believe that those regulations are “But with PSD1, a number of fintechs a clear advantage for the new entrants suddenly emerged and they started to because it allows them to present process cash flows without getting a full themselves as a regulated entity, which is banking licence.” reinsuring for both the customers and the Requesting a banking licence is often investors,” says Pierre Bienvenu, a member seen as a daunting process, in part due to of the ACPR Fintech Innovation Unit. the heavy capital requirements involved. Instead, PSD 1 allowed the new entrants NEW REGULATORY OVERSIGHT to simply register as payment institutions. For many fintechs, though, the regulatory With this new status, firms such as the process has sometimes been a path full payment platform Leetchi, the peer-to- of roadblocks. This was the case for Cyril peer (P2P) payment app Lydia, the bank Tramon, who launched WeShareBonds, a accounts aggregation service Linxo and lending platform for SMEs in Paris between the new digital bank Compte Nickel July 2015 and May 2016. emerged. “It took the regulator several months to A second wave of regulation in 2014 understand our project because they had helped boost the French fintech market. never seen that before, “ he says. “It was a At the time, the Ministry of Economy constant back and forth and, to be fair, it decided to regulate the crowdfunding wasn’t a process whereby we could talk sector with the introduction of two new to the regulator and discuss with them. The French fintech market has come a long of France Fintech, the association So, how did the French fintech sector statuses. On one side, the Conseil en When we had a question, the regulator way. For years, the firms willing to launch “Contrary to what representing fintechs in France and abroad. really launch? Investissement Participatif (CIP) aimed to decided when and whether they had time in France found it difficult to make a place “But, it is true that it took some time for regulate equity crowdfunding platforms, to answer it.” for themselves, often struggling with the most people think, the sector to take off. Today, though, THE REGULATORY BOOST which falls under the supervision of To respond to the new entrants’ tight regulatory oversight, the low level France was among the firms are active in every sector ranging For market participants, the introduction the financial markets and securities needs, both the AMF and the ACPR set up of funding and the mindset of French from payments to accounts aggregation of the first European Payment Services regulator, the Autorité des Marchés dedicated teams in 2016. The teams each customers who preferred to stick with their early adopters of the and from insurtech to robo-advisors and Directive (PSD1) in 2007 – which was Financiers (AMF). made up of four members are in charge traditional banking providers. But, as new crypto-asset wallets.” transposed into French law in 2009 – On the other side, the regulation of taking the start-ups through the heavy regulations came into force and customers digital financial system France currently counts some 300 served as the trigger point. At the time, the created the Intermédiaire en Financement regulatory process involved with their started to lure alternative financial with the creation of fintechs. And, if the level of fundraising European Commission (EC) was seeking to Participatif (IFP) for crowdlending platforms. activity. But, as Domitille Dessertine, a offerings, France eventually embraced the is any indicator, the local fintech market make cross-border payments as easy and These are supervised by the financial member of the Fintech, Innovation and fintech disruption. the first digital banks in seems in good shape with a total of €318 secure as possible and looked to introduce services regulator, the Autorité de Contrôle Competitiveness team at the AMF points “Contrary to what most people think, million raised in 2017 across 64 deals, more competition in a sector that was until Prudentiel et de Résolution (APCR). It’s out, the teams are not here to re-write the France was among the early adopters the 1990s.” against €172 million the year before, then the banks’ core remit. under the IFP status that Lendix, one of the rules for the newcomers. of the digital financial system with the Alain Clot, France Fintech according to a recent report from KPMG. “Back then, the only option for you most promising fintech in France which “Our role as a regulator is to make sure creation of the first digital banks in the In comparison, French firms raised only €5 to make a payment was to go through raised another €32 million in June this year, we have a level playing field between 1990s,” says Alain Clot, founding chairman million in 2010. your bank,” says Mikael Ptachek, head of launched in September 2014. firms offering the same type of services,” >>

18 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 19 COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: FRANCE

News sites can be confusing. There is too much going on in the world. Sometimes it’s difficult to spot the most she says. “As such, we don’t distinguish important topics. Articles drag on and on before fintech from incumbent players. We simply think that, in most cases, new players need they get to the point. regulatory responses more than regulatory changes and that’s why we set up this We don’t do that (intentionally). team.” Many fintechs in France welcome the Every day we’ll send you a digest of the industry’s move and recognise the help both the AMF top news and subjects so you don’t have to search for and the ACPR have provided. This, they say, contributed to their successful launch. Eiffel Tower, Paris updates anywhere else. But the regulatory changes were not the only factor behind their successes. Just like in any other market, French firms had a “In the first place, they found our service too Sign up to the FinTech Futures knack for exploiting customers’ frustration with the banks’ old services. small to be relevant. But then, we started to free daily newsletter – get some sizing traction and banks competed your go-to resource on all things tech. FIERCE COMPETITION “My business partner and I really tried to fiercely with us.” put ourselves in the shoes of the customer,” says Bruno Van Hastedaele, co-founder of Philippe Gelis, Kantox the banks account aggregator Linxo in Aix- en-Provence. “What they wanted to know was how much they had on their various bank accounts and how much they were come to us because traditional banking spending. But, no bank offered that service services are not meeting their needs.” back then. That’s how our app was born.” Things are changing, though. Over the Van Hastedaele insists on the fact that recent years, dawned with the realisation Linxo was not created to compete with that they could potentially benefit from the banks but simply to bring a new service solutions developed by the fintechs, banks to the market. Still, banks saw the arrival have started to enter into partnerships, of those services from a slightly different slowly moving towards a “coopetition” perspective and a number of them decided process. to pick up a fight with the new entrants. This led to some ludicrous situations TOWARDS “COOPETITION” like in 2013, when one of the two founders This is what’s happening with Kantox, an of another accounts aggregation service, FX solutions provider. Until 2016, the firm Bankin, received a surprising phone call. focused mainly on providing competitive The caller, a bank employee, called to warn and transparent fees on foreign exchange Philippe Gelis, Kantox against the Bankin’ service, saying it was transactions to SMEs. To that extent, the not provided by their bank and that users firm was in direct competition with the would not be reimbursed in case of fraud. large market makers out there. “In the first What the caller failed to realise, though, place, they found our service too small is that he was actually talking to the to be relevant,” says Philippe Gelis, one of company’s founder. the co-founders of the firm. “But then, we Pierre-Antoine Dusoulier, former CEO started to get some sizing traction and of Saxo Banque France and founder of banks competed fiercely with us.” IBanFirst, a firm that specialises in cross- Kantox therefore decided to revert the border payment for companies, concedes trend. Instead of competing on price, the www.bankingtech.com that the relationship can sometimes be firm would now compete on technology. “difficult”. But, to him, the stance taken “Over the past 12 months, some banks @FinTech_Futures by some banks is mainly due to the have started to really value the technology “schizophrenic situation” they are in. “They around the automation of hedging we Interested in advertising and marketing opportunities? Get in touch: don’t want to share their business with have built,” Gelis says. “The idea for them is people like us,” he says. “But at the same to access our solution to bring more value Contact Jon Robson time, they realise that their customers to their customers and to increase the >> Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected] July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 21 COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: FRANCE COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: FRANCE

and others have all invested millions of “We are in a phase now where fintech are raising some over generous euros in those project incubators over the funding round valuations but the reality is that only a few players are recent years. But for some market participants, the launching innovative models that have a true potential such as in the move, although promising, is nothing more than a vain marketing effort. “For insurtech and regtech sectors.” banks, investing in those labs is just a way Hugues Le Bret, Compte Nickel/ BNP Paribas to show investors and market analysts that they invest in innovation but their culture and DNA is the exact opposite of what innovation requires: flexibility and the firms are successfully raising large rounds and now a member of the executive capacity to move fast,” says Gelis. of funding, it’s simply due to the high board of BNP Paribas in charge of digital Many banks have tried to develop their volume of liquidity available in the market and fintech. own offerings, especially in the payment at the moment. Le Bret takes a strong stance on the sector with the launch of new digital “We are in a phase now where fintech matter. According to him, big industry banks. But some have failed. “On average, are raising some over generous funding players only acquire companies that have it took banks between two and three years round valuations but the reality is that only an economic model, a strong growth to launch their new service but by the time a few players are launching innovative potential and a market share. On the face they were ready to launch it, it was already models that have a true potential such as of it, he says, only three or four firms out out-of-date because the market evolves so in the insurtech and regtech sectors,” says of ten will have a successful exit strategy fast,” says one head of the Fintech practice Hugues Le Bret, founder of Compte Nickel in the next couple of years. The others at an advisory firm in Paris. will fail. But this is a necessary process, he That’s why banks have started to adds, as it will allow the market to go back acquire a number of start-ups. The banking to a more “rational level”. group BPCE for instance, bought Dalénys TOP FRENCH FINTECHS BASED ON THE TOTAL The scalability of fintech firms are a efficiency of their trades. So, in April, we Ronan Le Moal, general director of the – a start-up offering payment solutions for VOLUME OF FUNDS RAISED BY DECEMBER 2017 real issue. This is particularly true for the started partnering up with eight banks and regional bank Arkéa and former CEO of the e-commerce websites – last year for €160 payment sector where several actors we have launched a proof of concept with digital bank launched by Arkéa in 2001, million. Payment services Financing services are now turning towards the business- two of them already.” Fortuneo, acknowledges the risk. “Being Other banks have adopted a similar line to-business (B2B) market, which holds But these partnerships are not one way in ‘coopetition’ is being able to work with of reasoning. BNP Paribas acquired the Hi Pay €70m* Younited Credit €103m greater prospects than the crowded and the fintech have a lot to gain too. The a fintech and help the firm grow while digital bank Compte Nickel in 2017. The Dalenys €38m Lendix €19m business-to-consumer (B2C) space. interest for them is twofold. First, they can providing services it needs. But we should be same year, La Banque Postale bought the Kantox €21.5m FinexKap €12m “There are strong opportunities in the learn about regulatory compliance and careful not to lose the customer relationship crowdfunding platform KissKissBankBank, B2B market and the shift undertaken by large scale processing from banks. Second, we have forged over the years. Otherwise, while in 2015 Arkéa acquired Leetchi. Banking services Investment services some fintechs at the moment towards this and more importantly, they can gain access we’ll simply become a commodity.” model clearly reveals the difficulty they to new clients. To avoid this phenomenon, banks OVER-VALUATION Compte Nickel €39m Brickvest €10m face to expand further in the B2C market,” “If clients come through the banks, have launched their own digital labs. This, But all these successful exit strategies Linxo €22.5m Yomoni €8.5m says Raphaël Krivine, director in charge of the cost of acquisition will be much lower they say, is part of their transformation should not be taken for granted, banks Qonto €12m Grisbee €3m client relations at AXA Banque in Paris. because we don’t really have to prospect,” process and the labs will help them set up warn. According to various senior On the face of it, the second European Gelis goes on to say. “On top of that, banks’ innovative solutions for their clients. BNP executives Banking Technology talked to Payment Services Directive (PSD2) customers are larger than the ones we Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole as part of this article, if the French fintech Insurtech Regtech could serve as a breath of fresh air for traditionally serve and they are based in some of them. The directive, which was Shift Technology €34m Payfit €19m different geographies, which is a good way transposed into French law in January Alan €12m Captain Contrat €5m for us to expand outside of Europe.” 2018, requires banks to provide third +simple.fr €12m SECAB €5m “We should be careful not to lose the party payment providers connectivity BANKS TRANSFORMATION to access customer account data and to This gives some room for maneouvre to the customer relationship we have forged Blockchain Advisory services initiate payments. Three fintechs in France fintechs. But this also poses some risk to the are already PSD2 compliant: Bankin, Linxo Ledger €69m Tinubu Square €73m banks. If the new entrants can gain access over the years. Otherwise, we’ll simply and Budget Insight. Stratum €9m Paytop €7m to banks’ customers, they may well bypass Once again, French firms could have become a commodity.” Ugloo €1.3m Creancio €5m the traditional players in the long run. At a lot to gain. But as Fabrice Odent, head that point, banks will simply become an Ronan Le Moal, Arkéa of the banking practice at KPMG in Paris, (*) equivalence in funds raised during the IPO in 2015 infrastructure provider with all the smaller says, PSD2 could also be positive for Source: KPMG firms plugging into the platform to provide banks as “this will push them to rethink their services directly to the clients. their customer service”.

22 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 23 COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: FRANCE

Place your brand in front of the FinovateFall 2018 audience Autorité des Marches Financiers, Paris 2018 Source: Albert Bergonzo, Wikimedia AlbertSource: Bergonzo,

2018

FRANCE SET TO REGULATE ICOS

Crypto assets have been under the spotlight in France in recent “For the third solution, we had two separate options,” says months. Last October, the Autorité des Marches Financiers (AMF) Domitille Dessertine, a member of the Fintech, Innovation and launched a public consultation on the regulation of initial coin Competitiveness team at the AMF. “The first one was to make this offerings (ICOs) in a bid to encourage the development of a new type new regulation mandatory, meaning that all those new players who of fundraising in the country. wouldn’t have received a regulatory approval would not be able The French government’s move towards ICOs contrasts sharply to operate in France. The second solution consisted in making it with the stance taken by countries such as China, Russia or even the optional, meaning that all the issuers who want to obtain a regulatory US. The US Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, said in January approval will be able do so provided that they meet a certain number this year that he and other regulators were looking into the possibility of predefined requirements.” that cryptocurrency could be used in money laundering activities due The AMF received 82 responses in total. The majority of to the anonymous nature of the transactions. respondents opted for a specific and tailored regulatory framework The French Treasury acknowledges the risk but argues that this and for this new regulation to be made optional. situation justifies the need for a regulatory framework. The results of the consultation are now in the hands of the As a part of the FinovateFall conference, FinTech Futures is producing an exclusive “ICOs can be very risky for investors and with no regulatory French Treasury. oversight, it’s true that these types of fundraising can lead to money The Treasury confirmed to Banking Technology that a licence will supplement focusing on key trends and issues affecting the industry. laundering,” a source at the Treasury says. “That being said, we must be created to insure that the issuer meet some criteria such as the also admit that ICOs are a major source of full disclosure of the project related to the fundraising for start-ups and SMEs. A lack of ICO and its advancement and the role of Acting as an onsite guide, this edition will be produced in print and distributed Domitille Dessertine, AMF regulation could be detrimental for both the escrow agent to hold the assets. at the event; it will also be published online and promoted across issuers who would have no other option but to However, the Treasury warns that FinTech Futures and Finovate channels. launch their project in a country that already has the licence will not guarantee the a regulation in place and for the investors who success of the ICOs. “This will be the sole could be subject to fraud.” responsibility of the investor,” the source at Get involved and promote your expertise, products and services through The consultation launched by the AMF aims the Treasury adds. a range of opportunities: to bring more clarity over the way France can The Treasury goes on to say that the better regulate ICOs. AMF will be in charge of drafting a list of n Thought leadership n Case studies The AMF lined up three options in the issuers operating with the licence and will consultation paper. First, the regulator suggested update it regularly. n n Interviews and Q&A Advertising to produce some best practices for market The details over the licensing will be n News and announcements n And more! players to comply with. Second, the AMF part of the new action plan for business proposed to extend the scope of the existing growth and transformation Act the French regulation to treat ICOs as public offerings of government is currently putting together Place your brand in front of the high-profile international audience! securities. Third, the AMF proposed to develop a and which should be introduced before specific and tailored regulatory model with the the end of the year. bt Contact Jon Robson launch of a licence. Cécile Sourbes Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected]

www.bankingtech.com July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 25 @FinTech_Futures SPOTLIGHT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SPOTLIGHT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

already deployed AI to various business Right place, right time operations and there is a growing interest among our employees to understand what AI really means and the impact AI can have on their business.” “We want to create Earlier this year, both the United Singapore, Helix Bridge a comprehensive Overseas Bank (UOB) and the OCBC Bank in Singapore announced their intent to ecosystem for AI. invest in training sessions in AI for their staff. And, an extremely The decision comes at a time when important part of that consultancy firms and banks themselves have tried to put figures behind the ecosystem is training.” impact of AI. In a recent note entitled “Is AI the next revolution in retail banking?”, Dr David Hardoon, UBS strategist Philip Finch revealed that Monetary Authority of Singapore the new technology could lead to a 3.4% Dr David Hardoon, Monetary Authority of Singapore revenue uplift and cost savings of 3.9% over the next three years. The figure was based on an UBS Evidence Lab survey of through its call centres, the bank started to 86 banks. ENHANCING CUSTOMER use a voice biometric technology in 2015. EXPERIENCE “We became the first bank in Singapore to BUSINESS SKILLS The most obvious business potential do so,” says Yap. “This technology, which Thus, more than the technical aspect comes in customer engagement. requires us to process data and understand of AI, what banks are trying to harness “AI will be making our customer them via the use of machine learning and with those trainings is the business interaction a lot more personalised, other analytics tools, enables customers implications. predictive and natural,” says Janet Young, to use their voiceprints to authenticate “I think the banks have come to the head of group channels and digitalisation banking requests such as card balances, realisation that having a group of very at UOB. “We can do so by using chatbots as latest transactions and the status of smart people in a room building an digital assistants, which allow us to analyse deposited cheques.” algorithm is good but it’s not sufficient,” our customers’ responses and therefore OCBC went one step further in its says Dr David Hardoon, chief data officer better anticipate their needs.” mission to make the customer experience at the Monetary Authority of Singapore OCBC has also started to deploy AI for as smooth as possible by adopting a (MAS). customer engagement. In order to avoid voice recognition option in 2016. “This “There is the need to understand the lengthy process which consisted in technology reduces the number of options and translate AI into business actions. In authenticating each customer going needed to be entered sequentially on >> short, how can bank employees ascertain the need to use AI or not and what value does it bring to them as a business? Now it’s the issue of having the ability to train potentially hundreds if not thousands of Banks in Singapore take More than ten years ago, Singaporean understand the full implications of AI, is people to have that acumen.” the lead on artificial banks, like many of their counterparts key. And now seems like the right time. OCBC has already committed up intelligence (AI) training, around the globe, started to invest in data “The question of when to ‘cross the to 1,000 training places in AI. On its analytics capabilities. These tools, they chasm’ to learn about new and deep side, UOB said that, depending on the writes Cécile Sourbes. said, allowed them to understand their technology is always one of timing,” seniority of their employees, the learning customers’ needs and to tailor services they says Aye Wee Yap, head of learning and and development journey will be tailored “AI will be making our were not able to offer before. development at OCBC. “Too early and to their need with a course designed A decade later, with the advent of AI, employees may find it too theoretical or to be completed between three to six customer interaction a banks are now contemplating the idea abstract. Too late and you’re in trouble as months. The course itself will consist in lot more personalised, of applying new technologies to prevent you will lose the first mover advantage. several modules, which a focus on the fraud and even reduce the volume of non- “I feel that now is the right time. role of AI technologies, the way financial predictive and natural.” performing loans on their balance sheet. First, because the technology has been institutions can implement AI and the But for any bank willing to go down that commercialised with specific useful application of AI to various business lines. Janet Young, UOB path, making sure that their employees applications. Second, because we have But the question is how can banks Janet Young, UOB deploy AI to fully benefit from it? 26 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 27 SPOTLIGHT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SPOTLIGHT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

IMPROVING P&L help institutions boost their operational “We want to create a comprehensive STATEMENTS WITH AI efficiency and accuracy in the detection of ecosystem for AI,” says Dr Hardoon. “And, Another business potential of AI comes in suspicious transactions. an extremely important part of that credit assessment. UOB is now able to run According to early tests conducted by ecosystem is training.” credit processing and credit decisioning by the bank, the technology developed by He goes on to say that the MAS is using a data-enriched AI-powered credit ThetaRay could help OCBC reduce the “Perhaps, what banks not at a stage yet where the regulator is decisioning tool. number of transactions reviewed by anti- asking banks to invest in training sessions “Obviously, this will not take over the money laundering compliance analysts by should do is make for their employees. But, going forward, judgement of the credit provider but 35%, while the accuracy rate of identifying learning about the business implications the tool can support and speed up the suspicious transactions could be increased sure that when new of AI may well become mandatory in Singapore Business District decision making process for credit,” says by more than four times. employees are hired, Singapore. Young. “This can reduce the volume of non- OCBC is now in an extended proof of they are given an AI “I always try to avoid the term “The question of when to ‘cross the chasm’ performing loans and, ultimately, improve concept and pre-implementation phase, ‘mandatory’ because it sounds draconian,” the overall loan profitability.” which involves advanced testing with the business course as part he says. “But, at the same time, if we give to learn about new and deep technology is Dr Hardoon at the MAS confirms that use of additional data and which will allow people the choice to learn more about AI, improving banks’ balance sheets is the the bank to further check the efficiency, of the rudimentary they may not seize the opportunity. always one of timing. Too early and employees outcome everyone is hoping for. security and robustness of the solution. If “Perhaps, what banks should do is ethics and compliance may find it too theoretical or abstract. Too late But a dilemma remains. As banks apply successful, the bank seeks to fully implement make sure that when new employees AI to credit assessments, will they still have the ThetaRay technology – which will run training.” are hired, they are given an AI business and you’re in trouble as you will lose the first the ability to extend loans to companies in parallel with its existing transaction course as part of the rudimentary ethics or individuals who are just starting up and monitoring system – in Q2 2018. Dr David Hardoon, and compliance training that everyone mover advantage.” who are at a higher risk than someone With these changes in mind, the MAS Monetary Authority of Singapore has to take when joining the firm. This else? In short, will AI still allow a certain want to make sure bank employees are would be the best way to really make AI Aye Wee Yap, OCBC degree of risk appetite? After all, it’s fully ready to embrace AI. prolific within the organisation.” not unreasonable to think that if the technology picks the customers itself, the clients with the higher risk profiles could find themselves excluded of the financial Q&A WITH CHING CHING TAN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, SANDBOX AT NGEE ANN POLYTECHNIC IN SINGAPORE system. the keypad to get the service required,” “This is precisely what we, as an You’re launching a new course entitled “AI in Course which will be relevant for every she adds. “It also reduces the number of industry, need to assess,” says Dr Hardoon. Finance”. How did the course come to live? employee in the financial sector. That instances where the customer’s call is “Now that we are able to identify risk more For this course, Ngee Ann Polytechnic partnered being said, the course is also open to other transferred to the wrong agent.” specifically, could that result in potential with the Centre for Finance, Technology and professionals including entrepreneurs, But when it comes to data, one must exclusion rather than inclusion? If so, Entrepreneurship (CFTE) in London. technology experts and consultants. ensure the responsible use of analytics. To you cannot afford to apply AI to credit We first met with CFTE in July 2017 at an event in that extent, the MAS brought together a assessment blindly. So the use of AI puts us Singapore. At the time, it became immediately clear to AI is evolving very fast. How will you group of thought leaders and practitioners all in a situation where we need to evaluate us that CFTE shared our passion for the finance industry. keep the course relevant? in data analytics earlier this year. The group what we are doing.” And we both recognised that AI would be coming in a This is a course developed by the industry called the Fairness, Ethics, Accountability To prevent this, UOB formed a joint very big way. These preliminary talks translated into a for the industry. There is a whole ecosystem and Transparency (FEAT) committee, will venture with a Chinese fintech, Pintec meeting in November 2017. Coincidently, this was also in Singapore. Given the collaborative and be in charge of developing a guide that will Technology, in April this year. The the time when the Monetary Authority of Singapore close relationship we have built with the set out key principles and best practices for structure called Avatec uses a broader (MAS) announced its focus on AI and increased AI banking industry and the MAS, we have Ching Ching Tan, Ngee Ann Polytechnic the use of AI and data analytics for financial set of digitised data beyond that which is funding to boost this area. ongoing discussions with the key players institutions and fintech firms in Singapore traditionally used in evaluating personal about the latest developments in the to follow. or business credit applications. This means Why did you decide to focus on AI ? industry. This, coupled with CFTE’s extensive network in Europe, “There is a responsibility within the that customers who previously didn’t have Very often, when we talk about AI in finance, we actually talk will allow us to keep abreast of the industry trends and update organisation to make sure that there is any access to credit may have a better about augmented intelligence solutions to perform some the course as we go along. fairness, accountability and transparency chance of seeing loans extended to them. specialised tasks such as synthesising information or recognising over the use of data,” says Dr Hardoon. patterns. In that sense, AI can be very relevant to finance. What’s the take-up rate of the course so far ? “So what we are trying to do is make sure PREVENTING FRAUD In addition, Accenture’s future workforce survey reveals that We are expecting 2,000 students to enroll. In Singapore, we have that certain due diligence within financial In addition, banks are hoping to extend two-thirds of bank workers expect AI to create opportunities in received good traction from banks such as OCBC and UOB who institutions is taking place.” AI to fraud prevention. OCBC, for instance, their job. But so far, only 26% of the workforce is ready to work will be sending between several hundreds and a thousand staff The guide is currently being drafted and recently conducted a proof of concept with these technologies. members to the course. This is a clear indication that there is will be ready by the end of this year, the (PoC) with Israel-based fintech ThetaRay. So we think the time is right for us to launch the AI in Finance market demand for a course like this. bt MAS said in an announcement in April. Aye Wee Yap, OCBC The firm uses AI and machine learning to

28 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 29 FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP

Oval Money, an automated savings Enterprise Ireland unveiled a new €750,000 “competitive start fund” for fintech platform, kicked off its Series A round and deep tech start-ups. Fintech funding round-up with a “significant” investment led by The fund is designed to enable recipient companies working in areas including Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. fintech, proptech, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, augmented and The bank will take a stake in Oval virtual reality, the internet of things (IoT), blockchain and cloud, to reach technical through Neva Finventures – the venture and commercial milestones. How money made the world of fintech go round in the last month. capital arm of Intesa Sanpaolo. Ireland’s Minister of State for Financial Services, Michael D’Arcy says: “With In turn, Oval’s products will be offered Ireland being the fourth largest exporter of financial services in the world, to a network of over 20,000 tobacconists developing and supporting the fintech sector is a national priority.” across Italy via Intesa Sanpaolo’s Banca 5, According to Enterprise Ireland's head of fintech, Enda McDonnell, its fintech UniCredit signed a strategic partnership with digital banking tech vendor Meniga “reaching a so-far-unserved demographic companies generated €1 billion in revenue in 2016 and also took a minority stake in the company. of immigrants and young people”. The banking group invested €3.1 million in Meniga through its UniCredit Equity Venture Opportunities (EVO) arm (set up in 2016). Just two months ago, Meniga received a €3 million equity investment from another customer, Swedbank. UniCredit will integrate Meniga’s white-label software globally, starting with Italy and Serbia. Georg Ludviksson, CEO of Meniga, says the agreement is “the biggest personal finance management (PFM) deal in Europe to date”. Marqeta, an open-API platform for card Canada-based Luge Capital is looking for early-stage fintech companies and AI issuing, has raised $45 million in new solutions applied to financial services with its $75 million round of financing. funding in a round led by Iconiq Capital, The fund’s major investors are Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) with participation from Goldman Sachs and Desjardins Group, Sun Life Financial, the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and La and existing investors, bringing Marqeta’s Capitale. Ant Financial has signed agreements with investors for its Series C equity financing total funding to $116 million. The fund will support the development of solutions that “improve customer totalling nearly $14 billion. Will Griffith, partner at Iconiq Capital, experiences, enhance efficiency for financial institutions and implement data-driven This round includes a tranche in renminbi raised by Ant Financial from domestic describes the paytech firm’s offering methods and AI for decision-making”. investors and a USD tranche raised by Ant International, an offshore subsidiary of as “the most advanced card issuing Luge Capital will concentrate on Seed and Series A financing, with initial the company, from international investors. technology in the category” and the investments between $250,000 and $2 million. Funds raised will be used to accelerate Alipay’s globalisation plans team as “extraordinary”. and invest in developing technology for inclusive financial services to Marqeta will leverage the investment, unbanked and underbanked. The company will also be looking to along with the $25 million it took in expand in emerging markets through talent ready to tackle this digital from a strategic round in June 2017, led transformation. by Visa, to accelerate its domestic and New investors have joined the USD tranche, such as GIC, Khazanah international growth. AlphaPoint, a New York-based fintech that leverages Nasional Berhad, Warburg Pincus, It already powers card programmes distributed ledger technology (DLT) to enable financial Canada Pension Plan Investment for well-known names like Instacart, institutions to digitise, trade and manage any asset, is Board, Silver Lake, Temasek, General Square, Affirm, Kabbage, and Alipay. celebrating its fifth anniversary with raising $15 million in Atlantic, among others. “We’re just getting started,” states new funding. Cologne-based nextmarkets, which Marqeta founder and CEO Jason Gardner. The Series A round was led by Galaxy Digital Ventures, specialises in curated investment, raised and brings the company’s total capital to $16.6 million. €6 million in capital in a Series A funding AlphaPoint says it will use the funds to double the size of its round. Low-code development platform OutSystems received $360 million in funding, Regtech and reporting software firm team by year’s end. The round featured participation from bringing its valuation to “well over” $1 billion, according to the company. Cappitech secured $4 million in existing investors FinLab, Peter Thiel and The latest funds come from KKR and Goldman Sachs, which now have a minority its Series A financing round, led by Falk Strascheg, as well as new investors stake in the US-based company. OutSystems’ total funding now stands at $422 83North, with participation from Rony Axel Springer Media for Equity GmbH, million. The company will use this investment to accelerate expansion and boost Grushka and Kevin Gould, co-founders Life insurance company Ethos has launched with $11.5 million in financing led by Cryptology Asset Group PLC, and UK software automation R&D efforts. of Markit. Sequoia Capital, with the support of a range of different celebs. hedge fund manager Alan Howard. OutSystems leverages artificial intelligence (AI), automation and third party Cappitech plans to use the funds The other participating investors include Stanford University; Arrive, a subsidiary The Series A takes the company’s total integrations to help users build their own apps in a visual way, without the need to to accelerate product development, of Roc Nation; Robert Downey Jr.’s Downey Ventures; Kevin Durant’s Durant equity to nearly $14 million. Howard know or learn to code. expand regulatory reach and provide Company; Will Smith’s Smith Family Circle; and a credit facility from Silicon Valley commends the firm for its “impressive Founded in 2001, OutSystems has revenues of $100+ million and is growing that business intelligence and big data Bank. technology” which, he says, will add figure at more than 70% per year. The company’s 700 employees serve thousands analytics. Ethos claims that its solution allows most people to apply and qualify for a to the company’s future innovations of customers in more than 50 countries, including Toyota, Logitech, Deloitte, Ricoh, The firm will also increase policy after a ten-minute application, versus the ten weeks it takes through a more to make a “lasting impact on the retail Schneider Electric, and GM Financial. investment in its sales and marketing, traditional process. investment space”. to raise its profile across Europe.

30 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 31 FINTECH FUNDING ROUND-UP

Agorai, a marketplace for AI tools, will invest £20 million in the UK AI market. The multi-year investment will be distributed over the next five years. It will focus on three key areas: “education, empowerment, and entrepreneurship”. In terms of education, Agorai will provide grants and software licences to universities and research centres. For “empowerment”, the company explains that access to AI should not be restricted to large businesses alone. It wants to tap into the SME market by offering two-week workshops, free of charge, to approximately 150 companies per year. When it comes to entrepreneurship, Agorai will launch an AI accelerator in London UK-based private equity house Dunedin providing funds to entrepreneurs. Start-ups will get access to business people and AI invested in the £44 million funding of experts, financial funding, and receive “allotments” of Agorai licences. Global Processing Services (GPS) and To make a profit from all this, firms can then develop and deploy their software took a “significant stake” in the business. solutions on the Agorai platform. Dunedin calls the deal the UK’s “third largest fintech financing in 2018”. The firm says it sees “significant potential” for New York-based fintech SmartAsset, which provides automated financial solutions, GPS to expand into new international has raised $28 million in new funding. markets as well as develop its product The Series C round takes the company’s total equity capital to more than $51 portfolio. million and featured the participation of Focus Financial Partners, Javeline Venture GPS provides issuer processing for Partners, TTV Capital, IA Capital, and Citi Ventures, as well as other investors. 100+ clients including Starling Bank, The company will use the investment to build its audience and expand its platform. Revolut, Pockit, Volt Bank, Loot, Stocard, More than 45 million people use SmartAsset’s personal finance information and Glint, Osper and Curve. online resources every month.

Open banking and insurance platform NDGIT raised €4 million in new funding in a Series A round led by Capnamic Ventures. It also featured participation from PROfounders and existing investors Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures and business angels. The funding takes NDGIT’s total capital to $5.8 million. The Germany-based fintech says the additional capital will be used to grow its team and further product development. NDGIT stands for “Next Digital Banking”.

Swedish tech firm Rebtel has secured $8 million in funding to add digital banking services to its communication and on- demand work offerings for migrants. Venture Capital funds Balderton Capital and Index Ventures are – together with other existing owners – responsible for the new injection of funding. Rebtel has raised, in total combined with the existing funding, $16 million for its new banking endeavour. The new digital San Francisco-based wealth management robo-advisor SigFig has raised $50 banking offering will come to market in Q4 million in Series E funding. of 2018. The round was led by General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm, with Its goal will be to provide the nearly participation from existing investors including Bain Capital Ventures, DCM 50% of unbanked migrants around the Ventures, Eaton Vance, New York Life, Nyca Partners, UBS, and Union Square world with an accessible option to build Ventures. a financial life and history in the new country. bt

July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 33 CASE STUDY: DBS CASE STUDY: DBS

Sebastian Paredes, DBS “We believe the mutual exchange of knowledge and best practices with the The edge fintech ecosystem will foster start-up success and help shape the future of finance.” DBS is shaping up to be a fintech innovator when it comes to both external customer Sebastian Paredes, DBS facing digitisation as well as using tech to provide operational efficiency. From being a relatively early adopter of AI chatbots within its mobile banking app it is now adapting to the era of open banking with an API platform. Paredes comments: “The DBS Accelerator Basically, the customer waves his or has helped spearhead our successful her mobile device near to a retailer’s POS, This was launched in November 2017 and efforts to expand our collaboration with vending machine or e-commerce website DBS says that it is the largest banking API fintech start-ups and seek new horizons in for instant payment. This could work platform offering in the world. This should digital innovation. with the bank’s API platform, allowing set it in good stead in a market where previously, both for the customer and the “We believe the mutual exchange of customers to engage with providers like customers increasingly demand easy bank,” comments David Gledhill, DBS’s knowledge and best practices with the McDonald’s on the platform. access to related products and services via group CIO. fintech ecosystem will foster start-up success Another of the accelerator’s existing service providers. Source: Deyoadutrys, Wikimedia and help shape the future of finance.” participants, CUBE, feeds into the bank’s Accordingly the bank has tried to create ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The six start-ups currently within own desire to use technology to make appropriate networks for its customers and But the API platform is just the latest in the programme range from CUBE, an efficiencies within its own operations. to do so it has sought to collaborate with the bank’s fintech programme. It has automated compliance engine, to Hyper Again, this is something that is playing governments, partners, fintechs, start-ups been using artificial intelligence (AI) since Anna, an AI bot and DOV-E a mobile push heavily on the minds of most banks in a and other members of the ecosystem. 2016 when it was the first to roll out an notification service. world where regulations are taking up an Shee Tse Koon, group head of strategy AI chatbot. The technology behind this DOV-E plays into the push for usability enormous amount of time and resource. and planning, and head of ecosystems, belongs to US-based Kasisto. This is a spin- at the front end. It delivers mobile push CUBE uses AI, machine learning (ML) DBS, says: “We wanted to make banking off from SRI International, which created notifications and mobile payment and natural language processing (NLP) to simpler and more seamless for customers the technology behind Siri (Apple’s voice solutions for point of sale (POS) and online manage regulatory compliance. In practice, through the use of partner APIs. By assistant). The technology uses smart and is embedded within a mobile banking the solution captures regulatory data creating ecosystem partnerships – bots and virtual assistants with banking app. The security is provided with one time automatically and on a continuous basis. collaborating, creating and innovating knowledge. only tokens rather than holding sensitive It then creates a single source of cross- together with partners – we believe This meant that customers could bank data on the mobile. border regulatory intelligence. This is then >> that we can provide the best products, conversationally from their preferred solutions and experiences. This has the mobile messaging app – including potential to significantly accelerate the Facebook Messenger. Using the chatbot Shee Tse Koon, DBS bank’s digital ambition and customer response to demand. Currently, the most customers manage their money across impact.” popular APIs are the ones that enable accounts, track expenses and even make The platform currently holds 155 APIs more convenient cashless payments as payments in the process. There are plans to with categories such as funds transfers, businesses look to simplify point-of-sale extend it to other mobile messaging apps rewards, PayLah! (Singapore’s most popular processes. like WhatsApp and WeChat in the next 12 mobile wallet) and real-time payments. The presence of McDonalds, for months but as yet, no public stats of take But as well as financial offerings there example, shows how it can twin Paylah’s up and usage. “We wanted to make are also lifestyle and leisure offerings cashless functionality on the platform with – building the total number of categories its round the clock delivery service ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME banking simpler and to 20. Another, PropertyGuru (an Asian To further progress the use of fintech the Examples of this expansive nature online property group), offers customers bank also has an accelerator programme, run more seamless for include household names such as AIG, an instant affordability assessment. from Hong Kong since 2015. customers through McDonald’s, MSIG, PropertyGuru, as well “Building our API platform has given us Since inception, the accelerator as start-ups like Activpass, FoodPanda, an edge – this allows us to operate with programme has worked with 30 start-ups the use of partner APIs.” Homage, and soCash. fintech-like agility and nimbleness, and and all have since secured funding support The bank says it will increase the also platform-like inclusiveness. This will or expanded their business in Hong Kong. Shee Tse Koon, DBS amount of APIs on the platform in be transformative in ways not imagined DBS Bank (Hong Kong) CEO Sebastian

34 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 35 CASE STUDY: DBS

“Building our API platform has given us an edge – this allows us to 13 December 2018 operate with fintech-like agility and nimbleness, and also platform- London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square like inclusiveness. This will be transformative in ways not imagined previously, both for the customer and the bank.” Imagine your brand positioned next to David Gledhill, DBS the biggest names in the industry…

mapped onto a firm’s policies, procedures, banking industry in the region and the up to an estimated 25% of the work records and customer communications, to idea was that by making better use of associated with all job categories identify which regulations are relevant to time and resources, that the bank could The robots use a style of automation specific jurisdictions and lines of business. save operating expenses, up employee where a software programme can help to It then provides alerts when regulatory productivity, reduce error rates, and manage and execute a range of repetitive, change occurs and can help to flag up quicken speed-to-market. rules-based tasks that require handling the impact of any changes on policy and Indeed, according to research high volumes of structured data. These procedure – the idea being that a bank conducted by analyst firm Forrester, by robots also have the capacity to operate can return to a compliant state as soon as 2019, process automation will change 24x7, allowing organisations to remain possible. operational outside of standard working And a third accelerator participant hours. – Hyper Anna – is an AI robot that can DBS says that the HR function is one be used especially effectively when it area to have particularly benefitted from comes to writing code, analysing data, data analytics to help increase revenue, producing charts and, more importantly, reduce cost and risk. The bank says that insights – all things that come along with areas to have benefitted include employee data analytics. It is voice enabled and retention. It has 36 data scientists working Explore sponsorship opportunities with Banking Technology Awards, works on a self-service basis as an overlay across different teams in the bank, and the premier event recognising excellence in the use of IT in financial services: to proprietary data. It is intended to be within the HR’s human capital analytics especially useful operationally to identify (HCA) team there are four. customer interactions, finance, compliance, Another attempt at efficiency includes supplier activities to power high-impact moving the bank onto a cloud-optimised n Access an engaged audience of senior fintech executives use cases. This could include cross-sells/up- centre via collaboration with Equinix. The sells, expense management, and revenue new centre will be 75% cheaper to run n Benefit from our extensive marketing programme forecasting, supply chain management, and a quarter of the size of its existing amongst others. data centre and result in a sevenfold n Network with the most influential names in fintech increase in storage and computing INTERNAL OPERATIONAL David Gledhill, DBS capacity since 2014. n Align your brand with excellence and innovation EFFICIENCY Gledhill says: “Growing business Investing time in start-ups like these backs volumes and digitalisation, computing up the bank’s own initiatives when it workloads at the bank have doubled in the comes to operating efficiently and making last three years and are expected to see A range of sponsorship packages is available. the best use of data analytics capabilities continued significant growth. Enquire today! to inform process. “The Equinix project will further fortify Gledhill comments: “We’ve been our cloud infrastructure and improve our working hard not just to improve our front ability to be even more agile and scalable. Contact Jon Robson end technology but also to run a more It will also contribute towards advancing Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected] efficient technology architecture and our sustainability agenda by improving infrastructure, resulting in massive cost energy efficiency by at least ten times.” savings for the bank.” The bank’s drive towards cloud To this end, the bank has been working technology for its applications underlines Visit our website for more information: to scale an enterprise-wide centre of its commitment to digitally transform the excellence (COE) in robotic process bank from client facing functions all the www.bankingtech.com/awards automation (RPA), since November 2017. way to back-end processes. bt This was the first of its kind within the Alison Ebbage

@FinTech_Futures July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 37 #BankingTechAwards FOCUS: START-UP LIFE FOCUS: START-UP LIFE

Buzzwords don’t work that way any won’t go away. It is to explain why among BACK TO BASICS: more. the crowd, yours is the proposition that WHAT ARE YOU FOR? The art of selling to a bank We have learned a lot and will survive the market correction, when it I really enjoy going around the exhibition understand better, so leave the trends comes. That this trend is here to stay and floor at industry events and meeting new and buzzwords out of it unless they are so are you. companies. But I see a worrying pattern part of what you are trying to sell. And The shoe is on the other foot, when emerging of people who can’t articulate Start-ups, there is no right way of selling to a bank, but there is a wrong way. be aware that with 13,000 companies it comes to survival statistics so best not what they do for a living, beyond a high Leda Glyptis provides the lowdown. describing themselves as fintech out frame your meeting in terms of the bank’s level vague buzzword-heavy description. there, your task in the meeting is not viability. People in glass houses and all Now it could be that they send the wrong to explain that the space is real and that. folks to these events but I would hazard >> Fintech is officially cool these days and As the fintech ecosystem grows year on to sell to banks, this is how not to do it. banks have gone from indifference, to year, with thousands of copycat businesses various degrees of engagement (via and full time influencers flooding your T TRENDS AND BUZZWORDS: incomprehension and PR frenzy) to witter feed and your conference calendar, THE TECH BEING HERE TO STAY eventually totally drinking the Kool-Aid. life is perversely getting a little easier for DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE “I see a worrying pattern emerging of people Which is awesome for the banks but I am bankers. Now we have choice. Now we are Part of this is on us, the bankers. We have not of the school that thinks this will make buyers in a competitive market. It’s not relied heavily on start-ups over the years who can’t articulate what they do for a living, life easier for the start-ups. And this is not all doom and gloom and the “other side”, to educate us on smart contracts and beyond a high level vague buzzword-heavy necessarily a bad thing. whoever that is, no longer holds all the interesting use cases for behavioural When I started my career, if you were in aces, assuming they ever did. economics and new inputs for risk description.” the start-up, assuming you had a product And yet I see so many entrepreneurs assessments. So start-ups often came to that fulfilled a need, getting the meeting coming to meetings with banks behaving meetings with a teacher hat on. This is Leda Glyptis with the bank wasn’t as hard as getting on like they are doing us a favour, addressing the trend and I am part of it and since you the preferred vendor list. The conversation senior decision makers in the style of trust me to explain, maybe you also trust was commercial and practical, although “this is your assassin, I am here to kill your me to do. rarely easy. business, but first let’s do a pilot”. So let me That was a very good tactic five years When I crossed over to the corporate take a break from shining a light onto what ago. Today, using the global trend to justify side a few years later, the mechanics of the we as an industry can do better to say that the firm just doesn’t work. “We did an ICO” conversation were still purely commercial as a customer, I have seen start-ups get has been included in over one third of and needs driven. Fintech firms of all their commercial encounters with banks decks I received from start-ups of various sizes peddled solutions. We didn’t call terribly wrong. I am all for shaking things sizes this year so far. “We also have a them fintechs then but they were small up and I admit there is no right way of blockchain flavour” appeared in just under firms selling financial technology often going about these things. But, if you want half. Yes I counted. leveraging tech we had never used in the bank before, so the shoe fits. But the conversation remained always fully commercial. That was a shape we understood, on both sides. Enter left the emergent tech wave, a fascination with start-ups and the realisation that digital transformation is “As the fintech ecosystem grows year on year, not an opt-in now, and the conversation with thousands of copycat businesses and full changed. Bankers had to listen to things they did time influencers flooding your Twitter feed not yet have a problem for. Bankers needed to understand and leave their comfort and your conference calendar, life is perversely zone and experiment. getting a little easier for bankers.” It is easy to pick out where we get this wrong, hesitate too long or try to hold Leda Glyptis onto comforts of old. It is important that we shine a light at everything we as an industry could be doing better and I, for one, don’t shy away from it. But. It’s not all on us.

38 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 39 SPOTLIGHT: START-UP LIFE SPOTLIGHT: START-UP LIFE

that in a small company, the folks who We also learned, the very very hard way, can’t describe your overriding purpose that some times paid pilots are not good are not just wrong to man your stall. They money. They are not sticky money. They are bad for your business. won’t convert, they won’t take you where you And it’s not just events. I get sent decks need to go. Sometimes a free pilot is a better and approached by start-ups all the time move towards repeatable revenue than a and I often finish reading a document and long string of paid up pilots that will never go am none the wiser as to what you actually anywhere. They will pay today’s bills, but they do, what you are trying to sell me. The decks won’t scale so neither will you. are pretty, the references great, the graphs By all means don’t work for free, awesome. I sort of want it, but what is it? don’t let potential customers waste your time with exercises they never intend to PREPARE FOR THE MEETING implement. But don’t waste their time On one occasion I interrupted a sales either. guy mid-flow. 20 minutes into a pitch The fintech era is here. call, I had no idea what his firm did. I MIND YOUR MANNERS: IF YOU Emergent tech has emerged, regulatory understood the value they delivered to WANT THE HAND TO FEED YOU, barriers to entry are lowered, the banking their client. The numbers were clear. I just DON’T BITE IT value chains are unravelling and customers couldn’t work out how they did it. So I You go to a big bank to pitch or brainstorm are hungry for change. asked. He said he was not prepared for or workshop. Yes bankers are uncomfortable. this question, could we organise a follow- You are in their house. “If you choose to make But in this changing and unsettled up call. You don’t need to swap your jeans for banks your clients, environment, fintech providers abound. True story. suits or remove the stickers from your Wanna hear a crazy idea? There are options galore. So if you are a Now call me old fashioned but to me MacBook. But you do need to mind your Get advice. treat them with the budding entrepreneur dreaming of the big that’s the sort of question you don’t need manners. If you are an antiestablishment We, all those years ago, asked for times, you are right in thinking there is no to prepare for. But if you do, then do. anti-capitalist, power to you and all, but advice on pricing models and actual price same respect you one way to success. You are right in trying I shouldn’t have to say this, but you are in the wrong job. point. We spoke to tech firms, we spoke to keep encouraging to do it your way. There is no right way. seriously: prepare for the meeting. Don’t sneer and don’t demean. MIND YOUR ZEROES: regulatory bods, we spoke to bankers. We But there is a wrong way: if you choose to Think what you want out of it, think Bankers are a lot of things but we are not THE ART OF PRICING went to people who sell and buy software us to show to our make banks your clients, treat them with why your audience may have agreed to stupid. Coming in to call our business When I was in a start-up myself, after for a living and got their personal but the same respect you keep encouraging us come to the meeting in the first place, moribund, our systems obsolete and our building a product and road-testing it with professionally informed opinions. We did customers.” to show to our customers. It’s called eating what they may want from you, what they skill-sets irrelevant is both inaccurate and potential users we had to work out how it until a pattern began to emerge then Leda Glyptis your own dog food, and banks are getting may ask. Prepare. Be clear what you want monumentally stupid. to price it. How to price a pilot, how to we tested it with clients. We refined. We very good at this. And we expect the same to sell. Be clear what they may want. If we are so useless, why try to partner price a licence, how to price any bespoke adjusted. from the challengers. Because you may not be ready to give it. with us. deployment. We accepted that pricing is part of the In fact, we expect more. You are the If you are not ready, don’t take the If you want us to sign a cheque at the Where do you even begin? We were 25 product. We realised that we needed to own assumptions you can’t make the guys who started this chain reaction, meeting. Bank the opportunity until you end of the session, you may want to tone years old and had no idea what grown- get it right to avoid looking like clowns. Or customer pay for your RnD. We learned who got us thinking, who raised the bar. can use it. Don’t burn your bridges, you down the arrogance. Especially if your ups actually pay for things like that. How worse, looking like opportunists trying to that the pilot needs to be priced at a We expect you to keep doing that. In the may need them. amazing and snazzy solution is a bit of do you fix that knowledge gap? Finger in take the client for a ride. level commensurate to the cost of the full tech you produce, in the ways you think I remember meeting with this UX sitting on top of my infrastructure. the air… a gauge on what the bank can We learned that it’s OK to charge for product (hint: a pilot cannot entail licence, and, yes, in the way you treat us as your company once for a working session on This actually happened. Schadenfreude is afford… a number that matches your pilots, unless you need to prove something hosting and support fees. And yes that’s customers. You taught us to believe it is all how we could integrate their offering sweeeeet. outgoings… as much as the client needs to learn it. We also a true story). I know you are desperate interconnected. into our App Store structure. Great learned that if you are still testing your for cash flow but this is not how you do it. Don’t let us down. bt meeting with razor sharp focus on client value generation. Only, half way through the meeting, they admitted they didn’t Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives have an API yet and it wasn’t on their “Sometimes a free pilot is a better move and breathes transformation and digital disruption. roadmap that year. Their data would be Leda is a lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem, delivered in a good ole spreadsheet, towards repeatable revenue than a long string inhabiting both start-ups and banks over the years. She is a roaming banker and all- emailed directly to your inbox. I was of paid up pilots that will never go anywhere.” weather geek. furious, my CTO shrugged and minded All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and less. We never saw them again. Leda Glyptis comment! If you are not ready, don’t take the Follow Leda on Twitter @LedaGlyptis and visit our website for more of her articles. meeting.

40 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 41

Movers and shakers EVENTS CALENDAR

UK challenger bank CivilisedBank has scalable, which makes the future for wefox September appointed Michele Turmore as COO. She Group unlimited.” 11-12 Group Treasurers’ Exchange, London moves from Harrods Bank (now merged grouptreasurerexchange.iqpc.co.uk into Tandem). Saxo Bank has named Oliver Zecevic as its She also previously worked at Lloyds new head of operations. Zecevic will start 13-14: Token Fest, Boston Banking Group in various roles and was COO his tenure in September. He is currently on www.tokenfest.io of ARLO Associates, an asset management gardening leave following a lengthy career at and insurance business in the UAE. Nordea. He joined Nordea in 2002 as business 20: 2nd UK Robo Advice and Digital analyst and left in January 2018 as head of Wealth Summit, London Finastra has promoted Simon Paris to investor solutions and services. www.cityandfinancialconferences.com CEO from deputy CEO. He is taking over from Nadeem Syed “as a part of a planned CIMB has appointed Hendra Lembong 24-26: RiskMinds Americas, Boston succession process”, the vendor says. as chief fintech officer. Hendra is replacing finance.knect365.com/riskmindsamericas Robert Smith, founder, chairman and Olivier Crespin who was hired last year to CEO of Vista Equity Partners, which owns head the new unit, CIMB Fintech. October Finastra, says Paris “will take Finastra to Crespin was working on building 3: MoneyLIVE: Lending, London the next level as a true platform company digital-only banks in the region for CIMB, new.marketforce.eu.com/money-live [from a solution company]”. including in Vietnam and the Philippines, Paris joined the company (Misys at similar to DBS’s Digibank in India and 4: RegTech Summit for the time) in mid-2015 from SAP and was Indonesia, which he led previously. Capital Markets, London instrumental in the shift to a cloud-based It is unclear whether Lembong will datamanagementreview.com model for all Finastra solutions. continue with this initiative. He moves from the role of CEO, group transaction 15-16: European Women Payments Matteo Rizzi, who co-founded Swift’s banking, at CIMB. Network Conference, Amsterdam Innotribe, has joined NEVA Finventures as ewpnamsterdam2018.eu venture partner and strategic advisor. NEVA UK fintech start-up MarketInvoice has Finventures is the corporate venture capital appointed Rija Javed as CTO, as it “looks 20-25: Sibos, Sydney arm of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo. to invest heavily into its technology”. Javed www.sibos.com joins from Wealthfront, a Silicon Valley Algomi, the network company providing based start-up, where she spent four years. 22-23: InsurTech Rising Asia, Hong Kong information-matching solutions for the Within her first few months at finance.knect365.com/insurtech-rising-asia optimisation of fixed income liquidity, has Wealthfront, she built the wealthtech’s appointed former MarketAxess EMEA COO, first mobile app. She then led its biggest 22-24: SAP Conference for Treasury Scott Eaton, as CEO. initiative to build a new brokerage and Management, Chicago Eaton was also global head of emerging banking platform. www.tacevents.com markets trading at UniCredit and held a She becomes one of the first female variety of senior roles at ABN Amro, RBS, CTOs at a UK fintech. November Deutsche Bank and UBS. 19-20: LendIt Europe, London Anthony Browne, former CEO of the www.lendit.com wefox Group has added Spiros Margaris, British Bankers’ Association (now UK a venture capitalist and advisor, to its Finance) and entrepreneur in residence at Banking Technology is a prominent media advisory board. Barclays Techstars, has joined the board of partner of many financial services and “I have looked at the wefox Group another UK fintech start-up, Coconut. banking technology industry events insurtech business model from every Coconut provides mobile banking worldwide. If you are interested in a angle and I believe they have the highest services to the UK’s freelance and self- media partnership with us and marketing potential to disrupt global insurance employed community. Browne says he opportunities, please contact: industry,” Margaris states. became an early Coconut customer and “Not only am I truly impressed by their “was impressed by how the product helps Irena Andrisevic, Marketing Manager execution in providing a win-win customer its customers solve their painful tax and Tel: +44 (0) 207 017 5379 solution, but their approach is incredibly accounting problems”. bt Email: [email protected]

July/August 2018 | www.bankingtech.com | 43 Out of office

Fintech rock band storms the charts

Sadly, the band members haven’t adopted the mask-wearing stance of American heavy metal outfit Slipknot. Like many in the fintech world, a touch of anonymity or mystery is an elusive concept. Instead, in a painful press release the “leading” and “significant” band is revealed to be the colourless creation of a CTO, COO, a “digital evangelist” and a “marketing guru”. The latter writes the band’s lyrics. Attending Sibos Next time try instrumentals. “If a neighbour played Naturally, and unsurprisingly, the four group members trotted out the usual clichés in Sydney? this CD I would break about bringing “innovation” to the music into their house and scene and being a “game changer”. I don’t Are you ready Bognor Regis? Can you know about you, but I get an appetite for Make your voice heard! hear me Tunbridge Wells? A fintech rock destroy their sound destruction when I see those words. band has emerged from the shadows If you’re wondering what some of and is bringing its special kind of noise system.” the songs on the album are called, then Explore digital and print opportunities pollution to the UK. Vince Vanceville, prepare to be underwhelmed. with Daily News at Sibos, In dreary community centres located The Shawbank Redemption It opens with the forgettable “Dirty in dull provincial towns, the band – called ICOs Done Dirt Cheap” and rapidly goes the conference’s flagship and Alfred and the Glitchbots – is now touring downhill. Other tracks include “Born to be only daily publication: and promoting its new album “Raw Mild”, “Let’s Get This Jargon Party Started”, PowerPoint”. Like a pack of ready salted crisps being “The Boys Are Back in Town, Because › Interviews and Q&As Those hoping for the muscular and eaten lethargically by a person wearing Not Enough Women Were Invited to the › mesmerising rhythms of say Iggy Pop, Joy a Marks & Spencer’s cardigan, the music Fintech Panel”, and “If Loving You is Wrong, Analysis and thought leadership Division or Black Sabbath are going to be in emits boredom and banality. There’ll be no It Sure as Hell Won’t be Mentioned in the › Videos for a surprise. Or – like a journalist checking humming to these tunes. Just ho hums. Press Release”. › News and announcements their bank balance – in for a massive Vince Vanceville, reporter at the online The album is not quite destined for › disappointment. The only chart this fintech news site The Shawbank Redemption, greatness… merely headed to the next Advertising band will be storming is a pie chart. summed up the mood after receiving an bargain bin at a dusty and forgotten HMV › Sponsorship Fists are not pumping and heads are advance copy of the album: “If a neighbour store. › And more! not banging as the musical style of Alfred played this CD I would break into their house When most bands tour, the crowd and the Glitchbots can best be described and destroy their sound system. That’s how call for an encore. When Alfred and the as a lifeless combination of Sting and Mike bad it is. I wouldn’t care how long I was jailed Glitchbots play, the audience will be calling www.bankingtech.com/sibos & the Mechanics. It’s commercialism first, for, because at least I would be free from for their heads on a plate. bt music a distant second. hearing this music again.” Antony Peyton Contact Jon Robson 44 | www.bankingtech.com | July/August 2018 Tel: +44 203 377 3327 | Email: [email protected] SmartStream-STP Combining the elements for highly responsive solutions

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