Global

When it comes to managing bills and expenses, there’s a variety of products available on the market. Some are not amazing, others are good, but there is still a gap for an offering tailored to student needs.

Antony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclays, has spent 35 years working in large financial services institutions. He says that it struck him that, although there’s a lot of technology in banks, it doesn’t help much when it comes to improving the customer experience or lowering costs, and it hasn’t improved the reputation of banks within society. He founded 10x to create a new banking experience — one that is more diverse, open, and fair. In episode 229 of FinTech Insider, he talks to us about his new company, the future of banking, and the transition from running one of the biggest banks in the world to founding a startup.

Spending billions on digital transformation – and bragging about it – seems to be the only game in town for large incumbent banks. But this spending hasn’t paid off, and financial institutions continue to battle a heavy fixed-cost base. You know digital transformation is critical, so how do you convince an incumbent bank’s CFO and CxOs that digital transformation doesn’t have to cost billions or take decades?

In the past decade, the banking industry has seen an incredible amount of innovation and disruption. New entrants like Monzo in the UK and Nubank in Latin America are finally taking on the incumbents that, for decades, were impossible to challenge.

The UK’s digital-only challenger banks are currently engaged in something of an arms race to offer customers the broadest range of features and services. Hot on the heels of joint accounts, coming soon from both Monzo and Starling, came Monzo’s announcement that its customers can now use TransferWise within the bank’s app to send money abroad.

I’m sure that you’ve seen the same presentations that I have. An expert from a large consultancy stands up and his first slide says “API stands for Application Programming Interface”. He continues with a description of new regulations (PSDII / CMA) and describes the technology that will let customers give third parties to access their banking data and trigger new transactions. That’s all true, but it’s a mistake to start there, it leads in the wrong direction.

Fintechs can’t hire product marketers quick enough at the moment. If you’re new to the marketing game and looking to become a specialist rather than a generalist, then it’s probably one of the most interesting areas to specialise in right now.

Blockchain and DLT are in the labs of most large banks and have been useful from a PR perspective. But what next? What the hell should we actually be doing with this technology? Here are 11 things your CIO needs to know about blockchain / DLT so your organisation doesn’t get left behind.

For Season 2 of Connection Interrupted we’re kicking off in style with a super star of media, social media, podcasting and much much more: Gary Vaynerchuk! I had the pleasure of meeting Gary at the Vaynermedia offices in NYC with one mission: to try and get to know him, to find out who the real Gary is behind brand Gary V: the man who loves his family (and the Jets). Listen to the episode here or below and read on for my personal highlights.

In its final report, the Competition and Markets Authority has formally implemented reforms aimed at giving people more control of their money. By Q1 of 2018, European banks have to completely open up their data through full APIs. But some banks aren’t prepared to wait that long. Read on to see which ones have taken the lead.

The challenges (and opportunities) ahead for enterprise applications of distributed ledger tech.

The arrival of a new year is often a time for reflection and an opportunity to look ahead. In design it’s no different.

Lately I’ve noticed a few banks and fintechs wanting to “get started designing screens right away”. It seems great, but building the wrong thing is worse than building nothing at all.

Over the past eight years, as a fintech founder who happens to be gay, I’ve met with 100+ corporate and institutional investors around the world.

Gary Turner is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Xero, which Forbes described as the “World’s Most Innovative Growth Company.” Xero provides small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs or SMEs) with ‘beautiful’ online accounting software. Gary helped take Xero from a 3-person startup to a company that will have £150 million in revenue this year.