Laszlo Szabo is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kiln, a staking infrastructure provider backed by 1kx, Crypto.com, Wintermute, GSR, Kraken Ventures, Consensys and others. Diana Biggs is a partner at 1kx, a crypto VC that has led rounds in companies including Arweave, Pudgy Penguins, Rarible, Wallet Connect and many more. In this conversation, Laszlo, Diana and Will Beeson break down the staking opportunity and Kiln’s view of the space and also use it as a jumping off point to explore 1kx’s investment strategy. Specifically, we discuss staking as a crypto primitive, its potential to supercharge consumer and institutional crypto use cases, the investment thesis behind staking infrastructure, technical considerations and more.

Luca Prosperi is the founder and CEO of M^0, a stablecoin issuance protocol reimagining how money is created. We first connected with Luca in May 2023, shortly after M^0’s seed round. Fast forward a year, and the company has now raised $60 million, launched on mainnet and facilitated the issuance of over $40 million in stablecoins with its initial network participant. In this conversation, Luca and Will Beeson discuss his vision for a new money creation paradigm, institutional product/market fit in stablecoins, why crypto finance is different from blockchain for banks, overcoming the cold start problem in stablecoin distribution and network creation, the direct parallels between traditional finance and the use cases M^0 is building and more.

Nick van Eck is the co-founder and CEO of Agora, a US-based stablecoin issuer backed by Dragonfly, General Catalyst, Galaxy, Consensys, Wintermute, Flowdesk, Kraken Ventures and more. Agora’s strategy is to build distribution through B2B partners via a revenue sharing model, in which all parties that contribute to Agora’s stablecoins’ success share in the upside.  Prior to founding Agora, Nick worked at General Catalyst, a leading Venture Capital firm.  Nick’s grandfather started VanEck Global, a US ETF and mutual fund manager, in 1955, which informed much of Nick’s thinking about markets and the economy. Today, VanEck Global manages $100 billion across a range of products, including recently launched Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. In this conversation, Nick and I discuss crypto as an asset class and parallels to gold and other investments, the current state of the stablecoin industry and its future trajectory, Agora’s thesis vis-à-vis incumbent stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether, Agora’s business model and the details of its go-to-market, and much more.

Lex Sokolin is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Generative Ventures, a crypto and AI focused venture firm.  Lex also publishes research and analysis at Fintech Blueprint, one of the best fintech, crypto and emerging tech newsletters out there.  In this conversation, Lex and I discuss his thesis at Generative Ventures, which invests in the financial infrastructure powering the machine economy.  Lex is a deep thinker focused on the leading edges of what’s currently possible. We're lucky to welcome him back on the podcast. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Bhanu Kohli is the co-founder and CEO of Layer2 Financial, a B2B payments company leveraging stablecoins for faster, cheaper payment processing. Mike Giampapa is General Partner of Galaxy Ventures, focusing on the intersection of crypto and financial services, security & DeFi applications, and developer tooling.  In this conversation, Bhanu, Mike and Will Beeson discuss real economy applications of stablecoins, including payments. We compare Layer2’s performance, economics and business model with traditional payments companies and look at potential applications for stablecoins in financial markets more broadly. This conversation was a fantastic look at a rapidly scaling, real-world use case for crypto and the disruptive potential of blockchain as financial infrastructure.

Edward Woodford is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zero Hash, a B2B technology and compliance platform that allows companies to embed crypto and stablecoins with a few lines of code and no regulatory overhead. Zero Hash has raised $170 million from investors including Bain Capital, Nyca Partners and Point72, and supports companies like Stripe, MoonPay, Interactive Brokers, Franklin Templeton and many others. In this conversation, Edward and Will Beeson discuss the most interesting crypto and stablecoin market opportunities in 2024, building digital asset infrastructure, landing blue chip clients, closed vs. open-source in crypto, the leadership ethos that has allowed the company to grow and thrive in a volatile market and more.

Regan Bozman is co-founder of Lattice Capital, a crypto-focused VC firm, and an expert in token launches and secondary trading dynamics. Lattice manages $80m across two funds, with a focus on early-stage crypto projects. Prior to founding Lattice, Regan and his partner Mike Zajko worked at CoinList, a leading platform for new token launches operating since 2017.  In this conversation, Regan and Will Beeson discuss the current state of retail crypto trading, various interpretations of memecoin energy, lessons for building community with airdrops, tension between VCs and retail token investors, managing a venture fund in a narrative versus fundamentals driven market, the rationale for LP allocation to crypto and more.

Rob Hadick is a General Partner at Dragonfly, a $2.5bn crypto venture fund. Dragonfly’s portfolio is a who’s who of leading crypto projects including Anchorage, Ava Labs, Blur, DYDX, Lido, MakerDAO, Matter Labs, NEAR, Polygon, Starkware and many, many more. In this conversation, Rob and Will Beeson discuss the recent change in tone in Washington regarding crypto, the implications for the industry as crypto goes mainstream, the next 2-3 years of stablecoin market development, investing in CeFi vs. DeFi, the state of the current crypto VC market, investment dynamics as a top 5 crypto fund by AUM and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rob Hadick.

Anil Hansjee is a General Partner at Fabric, a UK-based blockchain VC. Prior to joining Fabric, Anil ran Corporate Development EMEA at Google and then led PayPal Ventures in the region. He has tremendous experience investing in fintech and payments at the venture, strategic and angel level.  In this conversation, we dive deep into payments, covering the existing legacy stack, initial waves of fintech innovation and more recent blockchain and stablecoin-based approaches to improving global commerce. Anil is incredibly experienced, thoughtful and articulate, which made for a fantastic conversation.

Sunny Parikh is co-founder and Partner at Reflexive Capital, a fundamentals-driven investment firm focused on digital assets across two core strategies: Liquid Trading and Venture Investing. Sunny was previously with Point72, and his partners at Reflexive worked at Soros Fund Management, Thiel Macro and Goldman Sachs. In this conversation, Sunny and Will Beeson discuss Reflexive’s approach to applying ecosystem to web3 venture, how liquid token and venture strategies can be complementary, valuations in early-stage web3, investing in equity versus token businesses and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Sunny Parikh. Disclaimer: The information provided here is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation for any security. Nor shall it be viewed as an offer to provide investment or advisory services by Reflexive in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be considered unlawful, or be construed as investment or financial advice on any subject matter. While care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information, Reflexive does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information herein or that it will be current at all times. Please see Reflexive for more details.

Jannick Malling is the co-founder and Co-CEO of the investing platform Public.com. Public has raised more than $300M from investors including Accel, Greycroft, Lakestar, and Tiger Global, as well as celebrities like Will Smith, The Chainsmokers, JJ Watt and Maria Sharapova. In Public’s short life, Jannick and the company have experienced the COVID market crash, GameStop, the 2021-22 crypto meltdown and rapid interest rate hikes, all while building a community-led finance app for engaged retail investors. In this conversation, Jannick and I discuss building a community-led business, fans versus users, counterintuitive learnings about retail investor psychology, the trajectory of retail trading activity, running a company that ships product fast and more.

Christian Faes is the founder of Faes & Co, a lending business builder and F2 Finance, a US bridging lender writing loans since 2023. Prior to starting Faes & Co, Christian founded, ran and ultimately IPOed LendInvest, a UK mortgage lending fintech. Founded in 2008, LendInvest is an original fintech, having lent more than GBP 6 billion to individuals and property developers to date.  In this conversation, we dive pretty deep into the bridge loan a.k.a. short-term mortgage market, the role of technology in lending businesses, Christian’s goal of building a business in the US, the differences between the US, UK, Irish and Australian markets, all countries in which Christian has real estate lending experience, the economics of different types of fintech lenders and more.

Dan Kimerling is Founder and Managing Partner at Deciens, an early-stage fintech VC and investor in Chipper Cash, Treasury Prime and many others. Prior to starting Deciens, Dan co-founded Standard Treasury and served as its CEO until its acquisition by Silicon Valley Bank. Standard Treasury was one of the earliest players in what has evolved to become the Banking-as-a-Service space. The company was backed by YCombinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and Index Ventures. After the acquisition, Dan became responsible for API Banking, Open Platform, and Global Research at SVB. In this conversation, Dan and I discuss the strategy of concentrated bets, why he doesn’t want to see every deal, what’s next in startup funding, value accrual in AI and more.

Amias Gerety is a partner at QED with a specific focus on infrastructure, insurtech and payments. Prior to QED, Amias served as the President’s nominee and as Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that role, he was the lead advisor to the Secretary on policies affecting financial institutions, fighting to restore order during the global financial crisis and impacting policy in the years that followed. Amias is a recipient of the Alexander Hamilton award, the Treasury’s highest honor. In this conversation, Amias and I discuss a few counterintuitive views on venture capital, thematic vs. opportunistic early stage investing, opportunities in payments and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Amias Gerety.

Luca Prosperi is the co-founder and CEO of M^ZERO LABS_, a team building a new backend for the banking system. Luca is a deep thinking analyst, economist and builder, with a background in institutional finance, alternative and credit investments and more recently DeFi lending and governance. Luca publishes analysis on Dirt Roads, a must read for anyone thinking about the construct and evolution of money and associated topics. M^ZERO sprang into life recently with the announcement of a $22.5m seed round from investors including Pantera. AirTree, ParaFi, Mouro and Earlybird. The team is building decentralized infrastructure with the vision of ultimately replacing the commercial banking backend, starting with a better stablecoin. In this conversation, Luca and I discuss the inspiration and vision for M^ZERO, Luca’s learnings from his time at MakerDAO, governance considerations for decentralized institutional infrastructure, the shortcomings of existing stablecoins and his team’s proposed approach, M^ZERO with respect to the current banking industry turmoil and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Luca Prosperi.

Sheel Mohnot is Co-Founder and General Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, an early-stage fintech VC currently investing out of its $225m second fund.   Sheel is a former founder, having built a tech-first card processor way back in 2010 which was quickly acquired by Groupon.   Since 2014, Sheel has been angel investing and, as of 2016, investing full-time.   Sheel is an incredible Twitter follow and constant source of information, insight and entertainment.   In this conversation, we discuss how fintech VC has changed over the last few years, the state of the early-stage market today, what separates elite seed funds from others, building social capital as an investor, the investment areas Sheel is currently focused on and more.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Sheel Mohnot.

Matt Harris is an entrepreneur and investor and the founder of Bloom Credit, an API platform for credit data access and analysis. Currently, Matt is focused on investing and advising, working with VC-backed founders and advising companies in the credit space.   Among other things, Matt is an advisor to Commerce Ventures, writing scout checks and helping the fund make fintech investments.   Matt is also an active angel, having invested in 10+ fintech companies including TrueAccord, Karat and HM Bradley and a number of others.   In this conversation, we discuss the level of understanding among VCs and founders of the credit business, the inputs to effective underwriting, how to build a great credit business, emerging opportunities like embedded credit and more.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Matt Harris.

Stephane Lintner is Co-Founder & CEO of Jiko, a new take on the money storage and transaction layer in banking, a.k.a. checking accounts and cash management.   Jiko was founded in 2016 with the mission of providing consumers and businesses with direct access to spendable T-Bills, combining all the benefits of checking accounts with the safety and, depending on the economic cycle, yield of treasuries.   Jiko has raised $89m according to Crunchbase, including $40m in October. Jiko offers accounts directly to consumers via an app and to corporates and platforms via API. Jiko owns and operates an OCC-chartered national bank, which it acquired in 2020, and a registered broker-dealer.   In this conversation, Stephane and I discuss Jiko’s concept and ultimate vision, the implications for the existing banking model, Jiko’s successful bank acquisition, the relationship with adjacencies like stablecoins and CBDCs, and more.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Stephane Lintner

Matt Brown is a venture capitalist and Partner at Matrix Partners.   Matt is a founder and operator turned investor, having started two software companies, both backed by Matrix, and then led product for AfterPay in the US in the lead-up to its acquisition by Square, now Block.   Matt’s second company, Bonsai, is a vertical SaaS company for micro businesses which evolved from a pure software company into a fintech through the incorporation of financial products, before embedded finance was a household term.   Matt is strategic and thoughtful, writing regularly on fintech market dynamics, with a specific focus on payments, credit and vertical SaaS.   In this conversation, we discuss Matt’s approach to seed and A-stage investing, BNPL and the implications for digital commerce more broadly, Matt's analysis of payments market dynamics, opportunities for early-stage fintechs in an increasingly saturated market and more.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Matt Brown.

Chris Dean is the co-founder & CEO of Treasury Prime, a leading US banking-as-a-service platform fresh off a $40m Series C raise.   Treasury Prime is a software company that connects sponsor banks to customer facing fintechs and by doing so powers bank accounts, cards and money movement. Unlike others in the banking-as-a-service space, Treasury Prime describes itself as building a network of interoperable sponsor banks and customer-facing fintechs in a ground-up approach to Open Banking in the US.    In this conversation, Chris and Will Beeson discuss the state of the banking-as-a-service industry, Treasury Prime’s approach compared to other software-based BaaS companies and tech-enabled sponsor banks themselves, the economics of banking-as-a-service, the evolving regulatory environment and more.    Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Chris Dean.

Jared Franklin is an investor at Costanoa Ventures.   Costanoa is a seed-stage VC focused on fintech, data and developer infrastructure, applied AI and security, specifically B2B.   The firm has $1.5b under management across seed and growth funds, including its $225m fourth seed fund.   Prior to joining Costanoa, Jared worked in product across fintech and crypto for BillMeLater, PayPal and BlockFi.   In this conversation, Jared and I discuss his experience transitioning from operating to investing, the learning curve as a new investor, Costanoa’s approach to identifying and supporting companies at the seed stage, and 7 investment themes Jared is focused on in 2023.

I’m joined by fintech and web3 luminary Lex Sokolin, Head Economist at ConsenSys and author of the Fintech Blueprint, for a discussion about the embedded finance value chain.   As listeners know, this is a topic of great interested to me, and I was happy to have the opportunity to dig into it with Lex in a conversation that we’re releasing through both of our platforms.   In this conversation, Lex and I take stock of the BaaS and embedded finance space in a moment of market dislocation to see what it reveals about what works, what doesn’t and where the next opportunities are.   If you don’t already subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint, I’d highly encourage you to do so for the best analysis in the industry. For an example of their content, check out the post for this episode on rebank.cc.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) has been the subject of much excitement in fintech over the past few years, together with the related but more general concept of embedded finance.  It powers companies like Chime, Robinhood and Coinbase and can include products like checking, savings, debit cards, credit cards, lending and more. In this episode, we read an essay analyzing the BaaS value chain, which we argue is not currently in equilibrium and predict will evolve. Read the article here: https://rebank.cc/the-baas-value-chain-is-broken/   

Rex Salisbury is the Founder of Cambrian and GP of Cambrian Ventures. Rex is a key figure in the Fintech ecosystem, having started Cambrian as a product meetup in 2015 and ultimately growing it into a community of 15,000 newsletter subscribers, 5,000 meetup members, 1,300 founders and now an early-stage venture fund. Along the way, Rex spent two years at a16z as a partner on the Fintech team, backing companies including Deel and Tally, according to TechCrunch.   Though only having just closed the fund, Rex has already made five investments, including in Keep Financial, a bonus management platform started by Kabbage founders Rob Frohwein and Kathryn Petralia.   In this conversation, we discuss Rex’s approach to fundraising as a solo GP and factors that contributed to his success, raising and deploying a fund in the current market environment, Cambrian’s investment and value creation strategy and much more.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rex Salisbury.

Marieke Flament is CEO of the NEAR Foundation. NEAR is an emerging layer 1 blockchain specifically optimized for usability, along with speed and security. NEAR was founded in 2018 to improve on aspects of layer 1s then in existence. In its short history, NEAR has built an extremely strong institutional backing and vibrant developer community.   NEAR has raised an impressive $530m+, according to Crunchbase, from an incredible list of investors including Tiger Global, FTX Ventures, Jump, Alameda, a16z and many more   As CEO of the NEAR Foundation, Marieke is responsible for ecosystem development across developers, entrepreneurs, investors and users.   In this conversation, Marieke and I discuss competition among L1s, NEARs efforts to establish a foothold as a newer protocol, developer and investor motivations in selecting blockchain infrastructure, opportunities and potential risks deriving from NEAR’s institutional investor base, prevailing web3 developer and entrepreneur sentiment given current market conditions, balancing growth and community stewardship as an emerging L1 and much more.   If you’re interested in this space and want to go deeper, we recently published a deep dive analysis of NEAR, available to Premium Rebank subscribers at rebank.cc.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Marieke Flament.

Giuseppe Stuto is Managing Partner of 186 Ventures, a $37m seed fund launched in late-2021. 186 has made 10 investments since inception, following on from over two dozen angel investments Giuseppe and his partner Julian made over the past few years. Across angel and seed investments, Giuseppe and 186 have invested in UiPath, Chainalysis, Ponto and dozens more.   Prior to starting 186 Ventures, Giuseppe founded Fam, a group video app that was acquired by DraftKings.   In this conversation, Giuseppe and I discuss seed investing in a bear market, differentiating as a seed investor in a competitive space and themes 186 is currently focused on.

It’s great to be back after taking nearly a year off from regular content to build and launch BELLA.   The break wasn’t really planned, but between launching the business, having a son and moving to LA all while dodging COVID, it was unavoidable.   But just because we weren't publishing, doesn’t mean we weren’t going deep on fintech.    The team and I built and launched BELLA in less than twelve months, and we’re aggressively scaling it now.    In the background, I've continued to trade views and break down strategy with the world’s leading founders and investors.    Over the next few weeks, we’ll share some of the most topical discussions we’ve had over the past year, and we’re also working on new content that you’ll start to hear and see.   Right now, we’re especially interested in embedded finance, DeFi, M&A, new takes on traditional consumer finance products, payments, e-commerce, digital investments and, as always, digital banking. We’re always looking to talk to great people in those areas, so please shoot recommendations our way.   We’re still figuring out the podcast schedule, which we expect to be less frequent than weekly. We’ll be increasing focus on our newsletter, especially our premium content. Sign up at bankingthefuture.com/subscribe.   In today’s episode, we’re joined by Tilman Ehrbeck, Managing Partner at Flourish Ventures, a venture firm focused on improving the financial health and prosperity of people around the world. Flourish invests in segments including Challenger Banks, consumer and SME lending, personal finance, data analytics, insurance and financial infrastructure in countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia.   Flourish has invested in companies including Chime, Aspiration, Tandem, Grab Finance and more.    I find Tilman to be extremely thoughtful and a great communicator, and he’s doing hugely important work. This conversation helped me better understand how impact-oriented VCs like Flourish balance purpose with financial returns in the highly competitive venture space.    Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Tilman Ehrbeck.

Today, we’re joined by Shamir Karkal, co-founder of Simple, the first digital bank in the US, and now co-founder of Sila. Founded in 2009, Simple was the original digital bank, conceived and built to give people more control over their money. After a few successful years, Simple was acquired by BBVA for $117m, under whose ownership it operated until early-2021, when it was shut down. Simple was loved by its users and mourned following it’s closing, in what was a sad moment for fintech. Today’s breed of digital banks, including Chime, Varo, Current and others, inherited a lot from Simple, who pioneered the space. However, few of Simple’s most popular features have been replicated by other players. In recent years, we’ve seen huge user growth achieved by fintechs offering banking to previously underserved customers, especially those living paycheck to paycheck. Nonetheless, Simple leaves a powerful legacy, and many lessons learned, for the entire fintech industry. In this conversation, we go deep on what worked and what didn’t for Simple, why it never hit escape velocity, why its users loved it so much and how Shamir and his co-founder Josh engineered life changing payouts for their employees through the BBVA acquisition. We also discuss Shamir’s current company, Sila, which is building programmable money for the next generation of fintech companies. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Shamir Karkal.

Today, we’re joined by Viktor Nebehaj, Co-Founder of Freetrade, a free stock trading platform in the UK. Founded in 2016 and launched to the public in 2018, Freetrade has grown to over 500,000 users in just over two years in the UK alone. For the full backstory, check out our episode with Founder Adam Dodds from February 2019, available at bankingthefuture.com. In this conversation, Viktor takes us behind the scenes at Freetrade over the past few weeks, during the Reddit-fueled runups in Gamestop, AMC and others, as the company struggled with partner-imposed trading halts and FX throttles. We also discuss payment for order flow, margin lending, rapid user growth and Viktor’s views on the good, bad and ugly of free stock trading. If it seems like I care deeply about this subject, it’s because I do. Investing is one of the most important things people can do to support their long-term financial well-being, but the industry is characterized by unnecessary complexity, conflicts of interest and information asymmetry that can make it hard for people to get the best outcomes. Companies like Freetrade, Robinhood and others have a tremendous opportunity to break up entrenched industry dynamics and bring access, education and tools to the masses now that they're mainstream in their respective home countries.

Welcome to our much anticipated first episode of 2021, and what a start to the year it has been.    Last week was a trainwreck as Gamestop, which was initially bid up by Redditers in an attempt to punish Wall Street, crashed back to earth when the very free brokerage platforms that purport to democratize investing for the 99% shut off trading in the most active stocks, benefitting hedge funds at the expense of retail investors.   As wild as the events of the week were, they are merely a symptom of something much deeper: latent hatred for Wall Street and  the traditional financial system that repeatedly and seemly unfairly rewards a small number of people at the top.   Precisely because of this feeling that the system is broken and doesn’t serve the people, fintech is flying. Robinhood, Chime, Cash App, Coinbase, Affirm and Klarna have built insane user bases, because they are catering to huge swaths of Americans left behind by the incumbent industry.    These companies are the future of retail finance in America for sure. What will their impact be?   I’m joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss these topics. Check out all of Lex’s work at fintechblueprint.com   For all of our past episodes, and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Today, is a special episode, of great personal importance to me. I have been learning and studying and training in fintech for years, both as a founder and through this podcast, where I’m able to have conversations with the most visionary and impactful founders, CEOs and VCs in the world of fintech. For the past year, I’ve been channeling all of this experience and insight into a new company, called BELLA, that is leading with digital banking in an effort to create positive change in the world. BELLA launched in the US on November 30th, and everything has been a blur since then. Taking a new consumer company into the world for the first time has to be one of the most thrilling experiences that exists. In today’s conversation, I’m joined by Angelo D’Alessandro, CEO of BELLA and my co-founder, but more importantly close friend and mentor, to talk about what we’re building. We cover our backstory, Angelo’s approach to building teams and brands, BELLA’s vision and offering, the influence of Rob LoCascio and LivePerson, the state of the world in 2020 and the implications for startups and brands going forward and more. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Angelo D'Alessandro.

Andrei Cherny is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aspiration, a socially conscious bank challenging the traditional banking industry ethos. Prior to founding Aspiration, Andrei worked as a speechwriter for Bill Clinton, authored books on public policy and war history, served as Assistant Arizona State Attorney General, held senior positions at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Center for American Progress, and more. In 2013, Andrei co-founded Aspiration, a socially conscious banking and investments provider that lets users set their own fees. Aspiration has raised $200 million in funding and attracted over 1.5 million users. In this conversation, Andrei and I discuss the factors that have contributed to Aspiration’s success, the takeaways for the industry, the company’s future plans, and more. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Andrei Cherny.

Today, regular contributor Lex Sokolin and I are joined by Anne Boden, Founder and CEO of Starling Bank, one of the original wave of app-only digital banks in the UK. Starling has built a diversified bank and achieved profitability for the first time in October, a rarity for digital banks. Originally a retail-only offering, Starling has built out business banking and banking-as-a-service offerings and now serves a wide varied of customers. In this conversation, Anne, Lex and I discuss Starling’s path to profitability, lessons for other digital banks, marketing and customer acquisition, and Anne’s new book on Starling’s first seven years. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Anne Boden.

Ali Niknam is the founder and CEO of bunq, a fully licensed digital bank based in the Netherlands and available in 30 countries across Europe. Prior to starting buns, Ali founded TransIP, the largest domain name and web hosting provider of the Netherlands. Ali is the sole investor in bunq, having invested €80m in the company to date. As of July 2020, the bank had €650 million of user deposits. In this conversation, Ali and I discuss the economics of digital banking, the decisions bunq has made around economic sustainability and scale, takeaways for the broader digital banking industry and more. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ali Niknam.

Pierpaolo Barbieri is the Founder & CEO of Ualá, an Argentinian consumer fintech taking South America by storm. Founded just three years ago, Ualá has already amassed more than two million customers in its native Argentina and recently expnanded to nearby Mexico. Unlike consumer banking offerings in many developed markets, which compete with incumbent banks, Ualá’s main competitor is cash in markets in which as many as half of adults are unbanked. Ualá has raised just under $200 million since launch, from leading investors including Soros, Point72, Goldman Sachs, Tencent and SoftBank. As if building the modern financial infrastructure for Latin America weren’t enough, Pierpaolo is a Harvard and Cambridge educated Historian and Economist, published author, macroeconomic advisor and regular contributor to publications including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and more. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Pierpaolo Barbieri.

Ryan Gilbert is General Partner at Propel Venture Partners, a Bay Area venture capital firm backed by BBVA. He is also as of very recently CEO of Olympus Acquisition Corp, a $750 million SPAC that listed on the Nasdaq in August. In this conversation, we look at why SPACs are coming back in fashion, pros and cons of SPACs versus traditional fundraising and listing routes, Ryan’s plans for the future of Olympus and more. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ryan Gilbert.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei is joined by Seb Wallace, an investor at Triple Point, an early stage UK venture capital firm that has invested in companies including LendInvest, Credit Kudos, CountingUp and many more. In this conversation, Aman and Seb discuss strategies for remote seed investing, the skew they’re observing in terms of how venture money is flowing, startup opportunities Seb sees in insurance and capital markets and more. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Seb Wallace and Aman Ghei

We’re joined by a pair of fintech analysts, Max Friedrich of ARK Invest and Lex Sokolin of ConsenSys, to break down Ant Group’s highly anticipated IPO. Ant, a spinout from Alibaba and the parent of Alipay, one of China’s leading payments companies, filed papers to IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong. In this conversation, Max, Lex and I break down Ant’s business, from the origins to today, discuss growth opportunities and potential headwinds and explore the multi-faceted relationships between Ant and other big tech companies and national governments. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few interesting developments in the world of fintech. M&A is a continued trend in fintech, with the most recent candidates reported to be UBS and Credit Suisse, the latter of which is also in the news with a new digital bank. Will their effort somehow be different than the abortive attempts of their international peers, including JP Morgan Chase in the US and RBS in the UK? Klarna raised $650 million at a $10.6 billion valuation, making it the most valuable private fintech in the world. Why is Klarna successful where OnDeck and, arguably, Kabbage weren’t? Lastly, we venture into Lex’s realm of digital assets, with MasterCard’s fun new toolkit to help countries test Central Bank Digital Currencies and Kraken’s newly granted Wyoming bank charter. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Consumer behavior in China has captivated the West for years, and behavior around fintech and payments is no different. Ant Group’s planned $200 billion upcoming IPO raises more questions than it answers in the minds of many in the West, who like me don't have direct experience with super apps and ubiquitous QR code based payments. We recorded a breakdown of Ant Group’s upcoming IPO last week with Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin, which is under compliance review and will be released soon. Today’s conversation brings unique perspective to the exploration of fintech in China, told through the eyes and anecdotes of two Chinese tech entrepreneurs. Linda Jiang is a deep tech founder and serial entrepreneur. In 2010, she co-founded Umeng, a mobile analytics and developer platform that grew to support 180,000 apps and become the largest platform of its kind in China before selling to Alibaba in 2015. She is now an advisor to Baidu Ventures, an early stage deep tech focused fund backed by Baidu, one of China’s tech giants. Yi Luo is the founding Chief Strategy Officer of FreeUp, a company unlocking daily salary payment for workers. In 2019, FreeUp was acquired by Greensill, and then rebranded as Earnd, where Yi now leads strategy and expansion. Yi is also a keen angel investor. This conversation was recorded in February 2020, pre-COVID and before I relocated to New York, which may explain some of our references. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Linda Jiang and Yi Luo.

Mike Massaro is the CEO of Flywire, a payments technology company fresh off a $120m Series E led by Goldman Sachs. Matt Harris is a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures and one of the smartest fintech VCs on the planet. Both Mike and Matt have been on Rebank before, in episodes I highly recommend everyone check out. In this conversation, we dig into the embedded finance opportunity and Bain Capital Ventures’ prediction that we’re at the beginning of a platform shift that will be as big as the Internet, Cloud and Mobile. The combination of Matt’s investor perspective and Mike’s insight at the helm of a leading payments company make this a fascinating discussion. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mike Massaro and Matt Harris.

We’re joined by Lex Sokolin to break down recently published annual reports from Revolut, Starling and Monzo, three of the leading European digital banks. There are some fascinating insights to be drawn from the documents, especially in the context of the broader global fintech market. This is rich subject matter, and we surely didn’t cover everything. You may even disagree with some of our analysis! Let us know. Please get in touch with thoughts, opinions and corrections. We’ll share all the high quality communication we receive with the entire community. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Rob Moffat is a partner at Balderton, a leading European VC, with investments including Revolut, Nutmeg, Wagestream, Zego, GoCardless, ComplyAdvantage and many more. In this conversation, Rob and Rebank co-host Aman Ghei discuss the state of the venture market, fundraising during a crisis, the most interesting new business opportunities in fintech and much more. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rob Moffat.

The fintech world is not taking the summer off. New developments are coming fast and furious, from fundraisings to product launches to government intervention. Banking for brands startup Bond raised $32 million to capitalize on the exploding trend of B2B2C banking. Samsung Money launched, leveraging SoFi’s infrastructure. As SoFi again seeks a national banking charter, they could become the de facto leader in this space. Kabbage and Intuit launched small business bank accounts as extensions of their already deep relationships with SMBs. And WhatsApp is trialing all sorts of financial services in India just as Chinese fintech super apps are being banned from the country. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com.

Seth Pierrepont is a partner at Accel, one of the most renowned venture firms in the world and a backer of companies including Facebook, Spotify, Slack, Dropbox and many more. Seth invests in financial technology and data infrastructure and has led the firm's investments in companies like Privitar, AnyFin, Soldo, Worldremit any many others. In this conversation, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital and Seth discuss how VCs have been adjusting to the new normal of investing remotely, the pieces of open banking they expect to be transformational, including credit and payments, and the importance of privacy for CIOs and executive decision makers in a rapidly evolving world. To subscribe to the Rebank newsletter, including insights, essays and written transcripts of all new episodes, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Seth Pierrepont.

Krik Gunning is the CEO and co-founder of Fourthline, one of fastest growing companies in Europe. Fourtline verifies the identities of millions of customers for clients like N26, ING, SolarisBank, Degiro, Flatex and many others. Aman and Krik discuss the genesis of KYC and the constant struggle between compliance and risk at regulated institutions. They look at real world examples of how companies are stopping financial crime and how technology offerings in this commoditized market stand out. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Krik Gunning.

Charlie Olson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pando, a Series A stage fintech designing new ways for high financial variability performers to manage financial risk and upside. Pando’s platform allows professional baseball players and more recently business school graduates to pool future earnings potential in ways that smooth income volatility for the group. In theory, this type of approach could help society better allocate talent against opportunities, without the constraint of personal financial risk appetite. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Charlie Olson.

Mike Cagney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Figure, a full stack financial services blockchain company with consumer offerings in market or on the way in lending, banking and more. In late-2019, Figure raised $103 million at a $1.2 billion valuation and continues to grow. Prior to starting Figure, Mike co-founded and ran SoFi, one of the most successful consumer fintech companies ever. In this conversation, we discuss Figure’s routes to asset origination and capital markets disruption, Figure’s previously unannounced consumer banking and payments offering, lessons learned building and scaling multiple billion dollar companies and more. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing work, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mike Cagney and Lex Sokolin.

Manuel Silva is the Head of Investments for Santander InnoVentures, Santander’s Corporate Venture Capital arm and a leading fintech investor. InnoVentures' investment portfolio includes companies like Kabbage, Ripple, SigFig, Tradeshift, Curve, Payjoy, Roostify, Trulioo, Klar and Upgrade. In this conversation, Manuel and I discuss advice for founders in a recession, potential for COVID-driven consolidation in fintech, opportunities in LATAM and thoughts on the digital banking business model.

Robo 1.0 success Personal Capital was acquired for nearly $1 billion by Empower, a major retirement savings manager. Softbank-backed insurtech darling Lemonade IPOed at less than $2 billion, in a successful fundraise and listing, and has since seen its market cap rise to over $4 billion. The IPO is a landmark for an insurtech industry in desperate need of successes. And PayPal announces the impending launch of crypto trading to its 325 million uses. The move isn’t overly interesting in its own right, but the implications for the crypto space are worth exploring. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com.

Stuart Sopp is the Founder and CEO of Current, a leading US digital bank. Current has over a million users, with a focus on young, financially excluded Americans. In this conversation, we discuss how Current achieves profitable unit economics, what differentiates Current from competitors, key differences between the US and European digital banking markets and more. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Stuart Sopp.

Mike Packer, Partner at QED, and Michael Sidgmore, Partner at Broadhaven Ventures, are active investors in Latin America, with collective portfolio companies including Credijusto, Loft, Nubank and many more. In this conversation, we discuss market dynamics, nuances and opportunities in Latin American fintech and much more. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mike Packer and Michael Sidgmore.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of what’s important in fintech right now. And boy, is there a lot to talk about. WhatsApp launches payments in Brazil and is unceremoniously shut down by the central bank a week later, MasterCard buys Finicity to protect itself against Visa’s recent acquisition of Plaid, Checkout.com continues its largely silent meteoric rise in payments, Softbank-backed, DAX 30 index component Wirecard “loses" $2 billion from its balance sheet and files for insolvency, Upgrade raises $40 million at a $1 billion valuation to extend its personal credit offering. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Andy Rachleff is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wealthfront, one of the world’s leading investments and personal finance companies. Building around a core investments offering for young professionals, Wealthfront has added checking, savings and debit functionality plus automation, with the ultimate vision of delivering self-driving money, where personal finance is fully automated by software. Today, Wealthfront is announcing the launch of checking account features in a significant extension of its existing offering. Prior to founding Wealthfront, Andy co-founded Benchmark, one of the most respected venture capital firms on the planet. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Andy Rachleff.

Oliver Hughes is the CEO of Tinkoff Group, one of the world’s most successful digital banking groups with over ten million customers. Tinkoff is publicly listed, which brings clarity to its operating model in a time when many noteworthy consumer digital banks are pursuing customer acquisition at the expense of profitability. Oliver has led Tinkoff through three financial crises, so brings experience and perspective to the current COVID crisis. This is a fascinating discussion about unit economics in digital banking and winning business models with a CEO with thirteen years of experience in this game. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Oliver Hughes and Lex Sokolin.

We’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of what’s important in fintech right now. Varo raised $241 million in preparation to start operating under its own banking license  later this year. Is a banking license an asset or a liability if you’re a digital bank? Marqeta is reportedly now valued at $4.3 billion, as banking-as-a-service continues its mature. And LA-based fintech Stackin’ raised $13 million to scale its messaging-based offering designed to help Gen Z find the right fintech. What should we make of this? For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex’s amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com.

Eric Poirier is the CEO of Addepar, a leading investment technology company with a ten-year track record serving institutional clients. With more than 400 institutional investor clients with approximately $2 trillion in assets on Addepar’s platform, Eric has a fantastic view into how the smart money responded during the COVID crash and where funds are likely to flow during recession and recovery. Addepar has raised $245 million since inception to build and scale its platform and recently launched primary and secondary market investments in alternative assets to its clients. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Eric Poirier.

Today, we’re joined by Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin. Max is a fintech analyst a ARK Invest, a public markets investment manager focused on disruptive technologies including autonomous tech, robotics, fintech, genomics and next generation internet. Max recently published a report on digital wallets, including Venmo and Square’s Cash App, which is available for download on ARK’s website. I loved this conversation, which could have been twice as long as it was, and hope to continue exploring this topic in the future. We're also joined by Lex Sokolin, author of the Fintech Blueprint. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin.

Clay Wilkes is the founder and CEO of Galileo, one of the leading digital banking and payments platforms in North America. Galileo provides much of the technology that powers banking and payments for companies including Chime, Robinhood and Varo, plus the US operations of Monzo, N26, Revolut and many, many more. In April, SoFi, one of the absolute leading US fintechs and an increasingly full service financial institution, announced the acquisition of Galileo for $1.2 billion. The tie up will deliver, among other things, SoFi’s full suite of lending products and balance sheet into Galileo’s API platform, making them available to all of the customers Galileo supports. Already a dominant player in the US, Galileo is expanding into Latin America, where Clay sees a rich emerging fintech market. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Clay Wilkes.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of the fintech world right now. Brex raised an additional $150 million at a slightly improved valuation vs. its last round just as Monzo is reportedly looking at a 40% down round. Why? Shopify launched bank accounts for its merchants and an Amazon competitor plus Klarna, just as it worked with Facebook to support the launch of Facebook Shops and joined the Libra Association. Lots going on. Lastly, Lex explains why Goldman’s M&A activity over the past couple years leads to the natural conclusion that they should buy Schwab. To sign up for Lex's amazing weekly newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Radboud Vlaar is the Founding Partner at Finch Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm and one of Europe’s most active series A investors. Prior to starting Finch in 2013, Radboud was a Partner at McKinsey, where he worked for ten years. Finch recently published a fantastic report on fintech in a time of crisis, which forms the basis for our conversation today. The report is available at https://www.finchcapital.com/covid19. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Radboud Vlaar.

Laurent Le Moal is the CEO of PayU, a leading emerging markets payments company. As CEO of PayU, Laurent has grown annual volumes to nearly $30 billion and overseen close to $1 billion in strategic investments in companies including Citrus Pay and Paysense in India, Iyzico in Turkey and Remitly in the US, where he is also a member of the board. As if that weren’t enough, Laurent and PayU are founding members of Facebook’s Libra project, which we touch on in this conversation. Prior to joining PayU in 2016, Laurent ran EMEA for PayPal. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Laurent Le Moal.

Ohad Samet is the Co-Founder and CEO of TrueAccord, a company using machine learning, behavioral economics and empathy to reimagine the debt collection process. TrueAccord is a fantastic example of fintech's most fundamental promise: using technology and a fresh perspective to create outcomes in financial services orders of magnitude better than traditional approaches, at a fraction of the cost. Ohad is a seasoned fintech founder and executive. The first company he worked for was acquired by PayPal, where he worked for three years before founding a company that eventually exited to Klarna. He served as Chief Risk Officer at Klarna for three years before founding TrueAccord. In this conversation, Ohad, Lex and I discuss the ability of machine learning to create empathetic customer experiences, AI’s ability to be creative, expectations about COVID-19’s impact on consumer borrowers and the economy as a whole, and TrueAccord’s performance vs. traditional solutions. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ohad Samet and Lex Sokolin.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital is joined by Mike Laven. Mike is the CEO of CurrencyCloud, one of the leading FX and payments companies in Europe, powering some of the most successful financial institutions and consumer fintech unicorns. Mike has spent over 25 years in financial technology, with executive roles at a number of large venture backed firms. Mike joined CurrencyCloud in 2011 and has raised over $140m in funding for the company. In this conversation, Mike and Aman discuss the immediate impact of COVID-19 on the broader FX and remittance market as well as potential longer term implications, why API delivery has been so successful in payments, consolidation and the future of payments, and what the next 12-to-24 months have in store for CurrencyCloud. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Mike Laven.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss recent developments in digital money, including stablecoins, CBDCs and a new Facebook Libra proposal. A digital world needs digital money, and a few influential players are actively working to build it. China’s BSN initiative and Facebook’s Libra embody the East’s public sector led approach to building and owning the internet of value, and the West’s private sector led (and public sector challenged) attempt at cheaper commerce on the web. While the nature of the approaches may be different, the data and privacy considerations are eerily similar. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Today, we’re joined by Brett King, founder and Executive Chairman of Moven, one of the original digital banks, and Lex Sokolin, Global Head of Fintech at ConsenSys. Lex and I discussed Moven’s recent announcement to shutter its B2C business on episode 170 of Rebank, and we're happy to have the opportunity to connect with Brett directly to discuss the decision in more detail. Of particular interest in this conversation are Brett's learnings from ten years of running Moven about B2C vs B2B as a digital banking strategy, the missing pieces in the current US and European challenger banking business model and where the space will go from here. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Brett King and Lex Sokolin.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital is joined by Silvi Wompa. Silvi is the head of portfolio underwriting at Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurers in the world with over $30B in revenue. Over the past 18 years, Silvi has built an international executive career in insurance across Life & Pensions, Property & Casualty, Broking and the Lloyd’s Market at companies like Hiscox, Old Mutual and Willis Towers Watson. She also co-founded Ch.AI in 2018, an insurtech start-up based in London focused on mitigating price risk in raw materials. In this conversation, Aman and Silvi discuss the insurtech landscape, why disruption in insurance has not kept up pace with other areas of fintech, why enablement may trump disruption in insurtech, and what incumbent insurance companies are doing to stay relevant. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Silvi Wompa.

Today, we’re joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss the ways in which COVID-19 is influencing consumer and business behavior and what changes are likely to be permanent. Digital is booming in areas where it hasn’t before, both on the consumer and business sides. This genie will not be put back in the bottle. We are in the midst of a quantum leap forward in digital adoption. Fintechs that have long struggled for regulatory acceptance are punching through with solutions for SBA loan and stimulus check disbursement. This pivot toward a more mainstream role doesn’t feel like a change that can be reversed. Apple and Google are building tools to enable us to give up even more privacy in the name of public health. Times of crisis reorder moral priorities. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today we explore the wild and wondrous world of equity primary markets. We’re joined by Anand Sambasivan, Co-Founder and CEO of PrimaryBid, Marcus Stuttard, Head of UK Primary Markets for the London Stock Exchange, and Aman Ghei, Principal at Finch Capital. To get the conversation started, former investment bankers Anand and Aman walk us through the quirky and questionable dynamics of investment bank led IPOs and share sales. We then explore alternatives to that model, including direct listings, along with a number of interesting considerations about private vs. public market capital raising, risk taking vs. value capture, preference stacks and more. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome Anand Sambasivan, Marcus Stuttard and Aman Ghei.

Richard Gendal Brown is the CTO of R3, an enterprise blockchain company backed by a number of high profile strategic investors. R3 has been working on its Corda platform since the early days of blockchain mania and is now actively supporting projects and implementations in syndicated lending, trade settlement, supply chain management and more. In this conversation, Richard reconciles the early hype around blockchain with the current meaningful real world implementations and describes where early adopters are planning to take the technology. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Richard Gendal Brown.

Ned Phillips is the Founder and CEO of Bambu, a white-label roboadvisory platform. Backed by Franklin Templeton, among others, Bambu builds roboadvisory offerings for banks, investments firms and other consumer-facing businesses. In this conversation, we discuss the limitations of current roboadvisory offerings, the reasons banks have trouble designing solutions for customers and where the space goes from here. Prior to founding Bambu, Ned was the Managing Director of Asia for E-Trade and brings a decades long perspective on digital investments to this conversation. I’m a firm believer in the power of technology in personal financial management as much as in any other vertical, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ned Phillips

Sean Hanafin is the Group President of Greensill, a modern supply chain finance provider that has raised an astonishing $1.5 billion in equity this year alone. Backed by General Atlantic and Softbank, Greensill is aiming to quickly scale its technology-driven supply chain finance offering across the largest markets in the world. On top of that, the company is looking to leverage an approach similar to its B2B financing model to unlock daily salary access for public and private sector employees, ending payday lending forever. With a banking license in Germany, a team of highly experienced senior bankers and aspirations to reimagine the multi-hundred billion dollar global supply chain finance market, it’s safe to say this is no ordinary fintech startup. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com

Charlie Delingpole is the Founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, a global AML, sanctions screening and transaction monitoring company. Backed by Balderton and Index, the latter of which led a $30-million Series B in the company in January, ComplyAdvantage is scaling beyond financial services to deliver real-time compliance monitoring across industries. We’re joined in today’s conversation by Aman Ghei, a Principal at Finch Capital, one of the most active early stage fintech funds in Europe and Southeast Asia. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Charlie Delingpole and Aman Ghei

Kristo Käärmann is the co-founder and CEO of TransferWise, a payments company fighting to break banks’ usurious grip on FX and international transfers.    TransferWise is one of Europe’s greatest fintech success stories, most recently valued at $3.5 billion in a secondary offering earlier this year. The company has nearly 2,000 employees around the world, moves $5.5 billion a month between nearly 100 countries and saves customers over $1 billion a year in fees.   In this conversation, Kristo and I discuss the evolution of international payments, how TransferWise helps banks as much as challenges them and how competition will shape the digital banking space.   For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Kristo Käärmann.

Freddy Kelly is the Founder and CEO of Credit Kudos, a UK company redesigning the credit bureau for the modern age. Unhappy with the inaccuracy, opaqueness and questionable data ethics of the traditional model, Credit Kudos is using Open Banking, machine learning and customer consent in an attempt to create a more transparent, more predictive credit scoring system.  In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.> For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Freddy Kelly.

Immad Akhund is the founder and CEO of Mercury, a bank for startups.  Mercury, which launched to market in April, has raised $26 million from Andreessen Horowitz and a number of others, including the founder of Silicon Valley Bank, a respected player in the startup banking space. Mercury offers FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts, along with payments, cashflow analytics and API-access to its customers and plans to continue rolling out functionality. The startup banking space is hot, with players like Brex and Divvy capitalizing on the credit card and corporate spend side, and new players like Mercury exploring banking more comprehensively. We hope you’ll bear with us on audio quality today. We picked up a bit of background noise while recording, but the conversation itself is great. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Immad Akhund.

Naftali Harris is the Co-Founder and CEO of SentiLink, a synthetic fraud prevention company. Naftali was the first data science hire at Affirm, where he built some of the lender’s first fraud models. For the past couple years, Naftali has been working to solve the problem of synthetic fraud, a surprisingly pervasive and little-discussed source of credit losses for banks. Earlier this year, SentiLink raised a $14 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz, in which Affirm's Max Levchin, and Plaid CEO Zach Perret also participated. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Naftali Harris.

Lex Sokolin is the Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys, the leading crypto software development studio and venture builder.  As regular listeners know, Lex is one of the world’s leading authorities on the intersection of crypto, disruptive technologies and financial services. In this conversation, we get Lex’s perspective on where crypto is focused today, the emergence of decentralized finance and the practical implications for financial services. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Joseph Healy is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Judo Bank, an SME challenger bank in Australia. Fresh off a A$400m equity raise from Bain Capital and others, Judo is on track to lend A$1 billion by year end. Prior to starting Judo, Joseph held executive positions at NAB, ANZ, CIBC World Markets, Citibank and Lloyds. From 2008-2014, Joseph ran NAB’s Business Banking unit, the largest business banking division in Australia. Joseph and I discuss the state of business banking in Australia, why he needed to start a new bank rather than seeking to reform an incumbent bank from the inside and the learnings from decades as a traditional banking executive that Joseph is applying at Judo. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Joseph Healy.

Oliver Prill is the CEO of Tide, a leading business banking provider for UK SMEs. Charles McManus is the CEO of ClearBank, the first new clearing bank in the UK in nearly 200 years.  Tide and ClearBank recently won a £60 million grant as part of the RBS remedies program, which we’ve discussed before on the podcast and which Charles describes to start us off. With the funding, Tide, backed by ClearBank, aims to achieve high single-digit market share in the UK SME banking market with its digital proposition.  In this conversation, we discuss Tide’s plans as well as the UK SME market in general. The first voice you’ll hear in the conversation after mine is Charles’s, followed by Oliver’s. You’ll hear us refer to the BCR, or Banking Competition Remedies, the body responsible for administering the remedies program. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Oliver Prill and Charles McManus.

Seth Rosenberg focuses on fintech at Greylock, one of Silicon Valley’s most storied venture firms, with noteworthy investments including LinkedIn, Facebook, Airbnb and many more. In this conversation, we talk through Greylock’s fintech thesis, Seth’s view of where the industry is going and the way the firm looks at investments in general. We reference a deck Greylock published, accessible here. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Seth Rosenberg.

Mike Massaro is the CEO of Flywire, a Boston-based payments company. Flywire specializes in large-value payments for education, healthcare and travel. Flywire has raised over $140 million from leading investors including Spark Capital, Fidelity’s F-Prime, Bain Capital, Temasek, Accel Partners and QED Investors. In this conversation, Mike and I discuss the drivers and implications of recent consolidation in the payments industry, existential threats to payments incumbents and the trend of payments integration into vertical software platforms. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mike Massaro.

Ryan Gilbert is a General Partner at Propel, a San Francisco-based venture firm with investments in companies including Coinbase, Personal Capital, Trussle, Prosper and many more. Prior to joining Propel, Ryan founded and ran SmartBiz loans, a leading SBA loan originator. In this conversation, we explore a few interesting fintech verticals, including mixed commerce, insurtech and payroll benefits, by way of recent investments Ryan has made. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ryan Gilbert.

Sankaet Pathak is the Founder and CEO of Synapse, a platform banking provider.  Fresh off a Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, Synapse is operating at the leading edge of the potentially massive platform banking trend. In this conversation, we discuss the issues with existing sponsor banking infrastructure, examples of new propositions that can be created using a platform like Synapse and the implications of big tech and non-banks increasingly surfacing banking and financial services products within their offerings. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Sankaet Pathak.

Donna Parisi is a Derivatives Partner and Global Head of Financial Services and Fintech for Shearman & Sterling, a leading global law firm. In addition to her work on a range of derivatives, structured products, securitization, capital markets and commodities matters, Donna has built specific expertise in crypto, tokens and digital assets, which are the subject of our conversation today. Donna and I discuss regulatory frameworks and institutional infrastructure for digital assets, where the space is going and why. You’ll note that we intentionally don’t dig into Facebook’s Libra project, which I may pick up in a standalone episode in the future. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Donna Parisi.

Jon Stein is the Founder and CEO of Betterment, one of the world’s leading digital investments companies. We first connected with Jon in January 2018 in a great episode that’s still very relevant today. Since then, Betterment has added $4 billion in assets under management to its platform, and today, they’re launching checking and savings accounts as they extend their offering into banking. This move is a compelling one at a time when consumer fintechs are increasingly extending early product sets in pursuit of comprehensive financial services offerings. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Jon Stein.

The subject of today’s conversation is design in financial services. We talk all the time about the new customer experiences shaping the evolution of finance, generally focusing on the implications of those forces and others on the trajectory of the industry. Today, we take a closer look at those experiences themselves, through the eyes of the people designing them. The first voice you’ll hear after Will's is that of Yenny Otero, Head of Design at TSB. The following speaker is Nick Haley, Product Design Principal at Idean, a design agency. The fourth and last voice that enters the conversation is that of Noel Lyons, Experience Design Director at Barclays. Design is an increasingly important function in financial services, with organizations around the world embedding it in product development and leveraging it for better traction, engagement and ultimately, monetization. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Yenny Otero, Noel Lyons and Nick Haley.

The investments space is changing as fast as any other financial services vertical, with roboadvisors, free stock trading apps, contextual behavioral experiences, software automation, AI, new pricing structures and crypto all shaping the future direction of the industry. Today, we discuss the current state and likely future of the space with two of the leading firms in the industry. Chris Worle is the Chief Digital Officer at Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s leading retail investments platform. Joe Parkin leads the UK iShares business and digital wealth for Northern Europe at BlackRock, one of the world’s leading investment firms. This conversation is a great complement to past episodes with Nutmeg, Betterment and Scalable Capital exploring the evolution of investment management. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Chris Worle and Joe Parkin.

Paul Taylor is the founder and CEO of Thought Machine, a cloud native core banking platform. We first connected with Paul in November 2017, where we walked through his background as a Google AI engineer and the origins of Thought Machine. Today, we zoom out and update, digging deeper into what drives banks’ decisions to modernize core infrastructure and how, what approaches are best for what organizations and who is furthest along in the journey. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Paul Taylor.

Michael Rolph is the co-founder and CEO of Yoyo, a payments, loyalty and receipt app enriching commerce for customers and merchants. The payments space has been actively lately, as incumbents consolidate and startups seek new attack vectors leveraging open banking, native device components, tokens and other emerging technologies. Michael brings a value perspective to recent developments in the space and talks through where payments might be headed. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Rolph.

Nick Hungerford is the founder of Nutmeg, the UK’s leading roboadvisor.   Nick founded Nutmeg in 2011 and ran it for five years. Currently, Nick is a partner at Portag3 Ventures and serves on the boards of Nutmeg, multiply.ai and Hong Kong based digital bank Neat.   In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates.   Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.   For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nick Hungerford.  

Ron Suber is the former head of Prosper, one of the original peer-to-peer lenders.   Prior to getting involved in Prosper, Ron built and sold Merlin, a tech-first prime broker for the long-tail of hedge funds, acquired by Wells Fargo in 2012.   Ron invests in and advises a number of fintech companies and has developed views on the space and where it’s headed, all of which we get into today.   In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates.   Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy.   For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ron Suber.

David Green is the Chief Product Officer at Earnest, a digital student lender and refinancing provider.   The student debt market in the US is unique in the world. College is exceedingly expensive, and students fund their educations by borrowing from the government and private lenders. Despite the size of the market and its decades-long history, student lending doesn’t necessarily operate with the same sophistication you would find in other credit markets.   David and I talk through some of these points and explore some of the more innovative approaches being taken to address student debt levels and align the interests of students and schools.   In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to startups, investors and corporates.   Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we support startups in proposition definition, investors with deal flow and due diligence and corporates in making sense of the rapidly evolving fintech industry and the implications for their businesses.   For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com.

Matt Harris is a partner at Bain Capital Ventures focused on fintech and financial services. Matt is a fintech legend in New York. Everyone I talked to about this conversation knew Matt and sang his praises effusively.  Matt has been an early stage investor since 1997, which is basically forever in fintech years. His portfolio includes Acorns, IEX, Roofstock, SigFig and many more.  Matt has highly developed views about the future of payments, lending, banking and investing, which we work through in our discussion. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Matt Harris.

Samvit Ramadurgam is the Co-Founder & President and Kelly Rodriques is the CEO of Forge, a secondary market for private shares. Forge provides access to shares of virtually all of the top 50 privately held tech startups, including Slack and many more, and offered trading in the likes of Spotify, Dropbox, Snap and DocuSign before they IPOed. According to Crunchbase, Forge has raised $88.5m from investors including Peter Thiel, Tim Draper, FT Partners and others. Unlike earlier players in the space, Forge has focused on building out a robust technology platform, including institutional grade clearing and custody infrastructure to support global counterparties. Forge’s proposition is particularly relevant as companies stay private for longer. More investor value is captured pre-IPO, so access to private shares is important. Additionally, because IPOs happen later, early employees are often unable to access liquidity for years, making it difficult to buy homes or diversify risk. We dig into all of these issues with Samvit and Kelly. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Samvit Ramadurgam and Kelly Rodriques.

Dee Choubey is the Founder and CEO of MoneyLion, a digital bank combining a comprehensive financial offering with AI-driven personalized guidance. With four million users and counting, MoneyLion aspires to build a private bank for the middle class, initially by providing financial access, education and advice to Americans underserved by the financial system. I find MoneyLion’s vision highly compelling. As we’ve said before on the podcast, it feels like many B2C fintechs are converging to the same place. MoneyLion, on the other hand, has sought to be there from day one. Dee and I connected at MoneyLion’s beautiful downtown San Francisco office, which meant sirens, honking horns and general urban background noise. We hope you’ll bear with us, as the conversation itself was excellent. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Dee Choubey.

Ryan King is the Co-Founder and CTO of Chime, one of the leading digital banks in the US. Chime offers free banking to over three million customers, helping them save hundreds a year on banking and gain control of their financial lives. This episode was recorded at LendIt in San Francisco. A huge thanks to Peter Renton and his team for inviting us to participate. As listeners know, digital banking is a space we follow closely. The US is a fascinating market to watch, given the importance of spending, borrowing and investing, prevailing incumbent pricing structures, digital penetration and customer expectations. And with the number of well-funded fintechs converging on comprehensive digital financial offerings, including Robinhood, Acorns, Betterment, MoneyLion, Chime, Varo and others, not to mention European digital banks like Monzo, N26 and Revolut, the space will get competitive fast. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ryan King.

Erin Collard is Co-Founder of Blend, a digital mortgage origination platform. Blend sits atop incumbent systems and digitizes the mortgage process, massively reducing costs for lenders and expediting origination. Blend’s software is compelling. So compelling, in fact, that 25% of the market now uses Blend’s technology to originate $1 billion of US mortgages every day. Blend has raised $160 million from leading investors including Greylock and Founders Fund. Erin has a fascinating background, which he runs through to kick us off. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Erin Collard.

Michael Sidgmore is a Partner at Broadhaven, a market leading fintech investment bank and venture firm, with clients including ICE and the CBOE and investments including MoneyLion and ScaleFactor. Prior to joining Broadhaven, Michael built the sales team at iCapital, now a multi-billion dollar platform giving investors access to leading alternative investment funds at low minimums. Michael is close to the ground when it comes to US fintech, with an interest in Latin American as well. In this conversation, Michael shares his views on SMB plays, opportunities in Latin America, platform trends, solutions for the gig economy and more. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Sidgmore.

Catherine Wines is the Co-Founder of WorldRemit, one of the world's foremost digital remittance providers.  Founded in 2010, WorldRemit has raised over $220 millionfrom Accel, LeapFrog and TCV. The platform lets users send money to friends and family in 150 countries, giving people in developing countries access to the financial system at a fraction of the cost of traditional remittance providers. In doing so, WorldRemit empowers local communities, especially women, as Catherine explains. WorldRemit is creating huge value and solving massive problems. It's great to speak with founders as mission-driven as Catherine. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Catherine Wines.

Vinoth Jayakumar runs fintech investments for Draper Esprit, a premier venture capital firm and backers of the likes of Revolut and TransferWise.  Today we grapple with the backend infrastructure of banking, updating on a subject we’ve covered in the past with 10x, ThoughtMachine, Mambu and others. These and other players have continued to build, recently signing big name clients that expect the future of core infrastructure to be provided by fintechs.  This is a complex subject, and we didn’t cover everything. We’d love to get your thoughts on the subject on Twitter @RebankPodcast.  If you enjoy today’s episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. 

Today, we have a very special episode for you. Last week in London, we put on a live event, supported by leading reputation management consultancy Lansons, whose clients include Lloyds, Allianz, Atom Bank, BlackRock, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, JP Morgan, Invesco, Societe Generale, Vanguard, AXA and many, many more. The topic of discussion was Crypto 2.0, Is Crypto Finally Getting Real? Considered fringe for most of the past few years, crypto and associated technologies potentially represent a meaningful force in mainstream financial services as they mature. Joining us to explore the near future in crypto and the implications for banking, finance and society as a whole are Lex Sokolin, Luis Carranzaand Alexi Esmail-Yakas. Each introduces himself at the opening of the discussion, so I won't duplicate it here. If you enjoy today's episode and are interested in future live events in London, the US and around the world, please subscribe to our newsletter at bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today, and a huge thanks to Lansons for hosting this event.

Ricky Knox is the Founder and CEO of Tandem, a UK digital bank. It's a fascinating time in digital banking, as tech-forward banks in the UK, US, Europe and elsewhere race for product and geographic coverage and players like Apple and Goldman Sachs, who recently announced a credit card partnership, encroach on retail banks' turf. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. As you’d expect, Ricky brings a lot of insight to this topic. If you enjoy today’s episode, please take 30 seconds to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ricky Knox.

Francesco Simoneschi is the Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, an Open Banking API platform. Since Open Banking went live early last year, progress has been slow, and reviews have been mixed. At the same time, companies like Plaid and Quovo in the US and Tink and Bud in Europe have raised eight- and nine-figure rounds to scale platforms to support the innovations Open Banking promises. TrueLayer is squarely in the mix of leading Open Banking API platforms, quickly rolling out functionality and seeking full coverage of Europe by the end of the year. If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Francesco Simoneschi.

Lex Sokolin started a roboadvisor way back in 2009, which was eventually sold to AdvisorEngine. As a result of that experience, and the strategy and advisory work he's done since, Lex has unique insight into the evolution of the digital investments space, one of the fastest moving areas of fintech today. If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

SME banking is a particular interest of mine, as long-time listeners know. We've covered it from a number of angles on Rebank, including challenger banking with OakNorth, digital lending with iwoca and Spotcap, payments with GoCardless and support services with Xero, to name a few. If one area of fintech has been getting increasing interest lately, it's SME banking, and it's about time. Last week, Pool A of the RBS Capability & Innovation Fund was allocated, with massive cash grants going to winners Metro Bank, Starling and ClearBank to enhance existing business current account offerings. The cash injections are sure to shake up competition in the space. Today, we're joined by Richard Davies to talk through recent developments and the broader trajectory of the space. Richard runs business banking and sits on the Executive Committee at TSB, the UK's 7th largest bank. If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Richard Davies.

Rishi Khosla is co-founder and CEO of OakNorth, one of the world's best funded and fastest growing fintechs. We've had OakNorth on the podcast a few times before. In the past, I've generally referred to OakNorth as a challenger bank, which they were, but the company has developed beyond that description. From its savings & lending origins, OakNorth has evolved into a world-class technology platform with a banking license, recently backed by investors, including SoftBank, to the tune of $440m, the largest ever fintech investment in Europe. Prior to starting OakNorth, Rishi and his business partner Joel Perlman founded and sold Copal Amba, an outsourced financial research company acquired by Moodys. It's energizing talking to great entrepreneurs like Rishi. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do too. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rishi Khosla.

Adam Dodds is the Founder & CEO of Freetrade, a free stock trading app and part of the trend toward intuitive, low cost retail investment solutions.    This is an interesting discussion around providing value to customers, and what that means, especially in complex industries like investments.   This episode feels less like a stand alone conversation and more like another instalment in an ongoing exploration of how technology can be used to optimize retail investor behavior, decision making and ultimately long term outcomes.   Please share your thoughts on the subject with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast. If you have ideas for who else we should be engaging with to investigate this theme, please let us know.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Adam Dodds. 

Nicolas Colin is co-founder of The Family, a European tech incubator with a different approach than most.   Their mission is the educate, support and connect entrepreneurs in ways that build great global companies.   The Family describes itself a platform that unites entrepreneurs across Europe in Paris, London and Berlin, with a mission to build a startup continent that is diverse, dynamic and open. Their goals is doable, but not easy, which makes them similar to the early stage companies they work with. Europe has traditionally been and remains less conducive to successful tech startups than other parts of the world, be it due to political priorities, tax systems, employment laws, capital availability or a number of other factors.   Nicolas is a thinker, advocate and reformer. He is one of the most thoughtful and prolific writers I've interacted with, publishing a weekly newsletter and regular articles in the mainstream press, Forbes and on Medium. He's also the author of Hedge: A Greater Safety Net for the Entrepreneurial Age, a book on the inadequacy of traditional social safely nets for the modern age and ideas for how to reengineer them.   If you're listening to this right now, I'm curious to get your thoughts on the points Nicolas and I make. Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast.   If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nicolas Colin.

Anytime I find myself thinking how much progress has been made in digital banking over the past 6 or so years, I stop to consider how much further we'll go from here. It feels like so much has happened since the paradigm shift brought about by the iPhone and the global banking crisis of 2008. No one knows that better than Anthony Thomson. Anthony is by any measure one of the most prolific banking innovators of the past decade. Anthony is the Co-Founder and former Chairman of Metro Bank and Founder and former Chairman of Atom Bank. As if that weren't enough, he's now the Co-Founder and Chairman of 86 400, a new digital bank in Australia. Over the course of his career, Anthony has raised close to a $1 billion (and counting) in investment and helped shape the current global banking landscape. What are the most important problems banking and fintech can solve? Are we thinking enough about the deepest customer needs or just iterating within existing financial services verticals? Let us know what you think on Twitter @rebankpodcast. If you enjoy today's episode, please take 30 seconds to leave us a review on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Anthony Thomson.

We've seen a slow evolution in fintech from the early days - transitioning from disruptors and disintermediators to partners and platforms. Where do we go from here? Tim Levene is the Founder and CEO of Augmentum, a fintech venture capital firm. Prior to starting Augmentum, Tim worked for Bain, started London restaurant chain Crussh and founded Flutter.com, which merged with Betfair in 2001, at the beginning of the latter's rise to prominence. Augmentum has invested in companies including Zopa, Seedrs, Interactive Investor, Tide, DueDil and more. What's in store for fintech in 2019? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast. If you like today's episode, please take a second to rate us on iTunes. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Tim Levene.

The US could be one of the most lucrative markets for digital banks, but few new entrants have launched there. Why? How ripe is the opportunity, really? Monzo, N26 and Revolut have all stated intentions to launch in the US, though none have yet navigated the regulatory requirements. Colin Walsh is the CEO and co-founder of Varo Money, which is on track to become the first mobile-centric national bank in U.S. history. Prior to founding Varo, Colin spent 25 years in consumer banking at American Express, Lloyds Banking Group and Wells Fargo. How successful will digital banking startups be in US? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast. If you like today's episode, please take 30 seconds to rate us on iTunes and share it with a friend. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Colin Walsh.

Historically characterized by high fees and questionable objectivity, retail investments are going through a transformation as the likes of Robinhood, Betterment, Scalable Capital and others bring compelling digital offerings to market.   Richard Theo is the co-founder and CEO of Wealthify, one of the UK's leading roboadvisors.    With a background in technology and computer science, Richard started Wealthify in 2014 to take advantage of the then relatively nascent digital investments market. In 2017, Aviva acquired a majority stake in Wealthify to offer its services to their existing customer base.   It feels like we've only just started down the path of retail investments transformation. In my personal view, we've made great progress, but we're still miles away from truly revolutionary offerings in the space. Just like in digital banking, there are a handful of players vying for primacy, and it's interesting to watch it unfold.   Have a view on this subject? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast, on LinkedIn or on our website www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Richard Theo.

Should people outside fintech care about fintech? Today, we're joined by Brad Goodall, serial entrepreneur and founder of Banked, to discuss. Open Banking is hands down one of the most relevant themes in 2018, with legislation taking effect in Europe and the UK and being replicated and expanded in countries like Australia. But so far, we've seen anything but tangible impacts from Open Banking, including products, services and new customer experiences. Why? To start with, banks dragged their feet in terms of implementation, and startups have been unable to deliver cross-platform experiences they imagined. We've also taken a narrow view of what Open Banking means and how it will be leveraged. This is where Brad comes in. Brad brings a richer perspective to Open Banking and sees it as an opportunity for much of banking to shift away from traditional financial services providers and over to consumer brands more relevant to customers. In this conversation, Brad helps us think about how much fintech actually matters to people outside fintech - and whether the industry is getting excited about the right things. Do you have a view? Join the conversation onTwitter, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's episode, please take 30 seconds to rate us on iTunes and share us with a friend. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Brad Goodall.

Should we look to governments, philanthropists or entrepreneurs to solve our problems? We're joined by Sean Park, Founder of Anthemis, a fintech-focused venture capital firm, to discuss. There's a strong school of thought in the West that the private sector and market dynamics are sufficient to optimize economic, political and social outcomes. Is that true? Thinkers like economist Carlota Perez believe that government plays an important role in directing private sector activity to enable true innovation. The Chinese government is actively prioritizing AI research in an effort to become the world leader in the next wave of technological progress. A growing group of voices in the West is reminding us of the role the US government played in the development of the Internet and calling for renewed public sector involvement in business. Sean was an early investor in Climate Corporation, Markit, Betfair and Zoopla and is widely recognized as a leading independent thinker on the future of financial services Do you have an opinion on this subject? Contribute to the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's episode, please take 30 seconds to rate us on iTunes and share us with a friend. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Sean Park.

Leslie Campisi is the Chief Marketing Officer of Anthemis, one of the leading fintech venture capital firms.   In today's conversation, we debate the role of humans in finance.    It's a multi-faceted question with implications for the industry and its employees, the startup and investor ecosystem, financial services customers and adjacent industries. Leslie brings an interesting perspective to this discussion. In addition to her role as CMO, she also leads Hacking Finance, a creative commons run by Anthemis, initially as an annual event and now including a website and magazine aimed at attracting new views to finance to drive positive change.   This is a fascinating question, and one we don't manage to fully answer. What's your view? Contribute to the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Leslie Campisi.

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our Founder Sessions series. We're joined by David Velez, the Founder and CEO of Nubank, the leading financial technology company in Latin America.   Nubank has 5 million credit card customers, 2.5 million bank account customers and has raised $420 million from investors including Sequoia, Tencent, Tiger Global, QED, Founders Fund and more. Before founding Nubank in 2013, David was a Partner at Sequoia in charge of the firm’s Latin American investments. Before Sequoia, David worked in investment banking and growth equity at Goldman, Morgan Stanley and General Atlantic.    As always, connect with us onTwitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, David Velez.

Welcome to the third instalment of our Founder Sessions series. Tom Blomfield is the Founder & CEO of Monzo, one of the UK's leading digital banks.  For Tom's full backstory, check out Rebank Episode 17, when we first connected with him. For an update on Monzo, including recently hitting the million customer milestone, check out Episode 108. Special thanks to everyone who responded to our request and rated and reviewed Rebank on iTunes. We've seen a marked boost to listenership already. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please enjoy today's episode with Tom Blomfield.

David Vélez is the Founder and CEO of Nubank, the leading financial technology company in Latin America.   Nubank has 5 million credit card customers, 2.5 million bank account customers and has raised $420 million from investors including Sequoia, Tencent, Tiger Global, QED, Founders Fund and more. Nubank was recently named the 3rd most innovative company in Latin America by Fast Company.   Before founding Nubank in 2013, David was a Partner at Sequoia in charge of the firm’s Latin American investments. Before Sequoia, David worked in investment banking and growth equity at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and General Atlantic.    As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, David Vélez.

Today, we're joined by Cristina Alba Ochoa and Valentina Kristensen, respectively CFO and Head of Communications of OakNorth, one of the UK's leading challenger banks.   We update on OakNorth's recent milestones, including some big fundraises at massive valuations, and discuss the current state of play in SME banking in the UK.   If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Cristina Alba Ochoa and Valentina Kristensen.

Today's subject is decision making. Why is it so hard for people to make good decisions around savings, investments and money in general?   We're joined by behavioral scientist Greg Davies, Head of Behavioral Finance at Oxford Risk, and Ella Rabener, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Scalable Capital, to discuss.   Tweet at us @rebankpodcast or connect on Facebook or LinkedIn to join the conversation.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Greg Davies and Ella Rabener.

Zeeshan Feroz is UK CEO of Coinbase, the world's leading consumer crypto company.    In this conversation, we discuss Coinbase's recent progress and future plans, the current state of the crypto industry and what the lasting impact of this wave of crypto innovation will be.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Zeeshan Feroz.

Tom Blomfield is the co-founder and CEO of Monzo, one of Europe's leading digital banks.   For Tom's full backstory, check out Rebank Episode 17, when we first connected with him.   In today's conversation, we discuss Monzo's recent milestones, future plans and much more.   If you're a regular listener, please take two minutes to rate and review Rebank on iTunes or your go-to podcast platform. It really helps drive traffic.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please enjoy today's episode with Tom Blomfield.

Today, we have the honor of connecting with Azeem Azhar, the brain behind the Exponential View newsletter and podcast.   How to describe Azeem... Thinker, writer, advisor, technologist and former founder. After studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford, Azeem has pursued a career spanning journalism, venture investing, machine learning, natural language processing, entrepreneurship and advisory.   In addition to his work on the Exponential View, Azeem is an advisor to the CTO of Accenture as well as a number of AI companies, including Onfido and re:infer, both of which we've had on the podcast. He's also a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Digital Economy & Society and an investor and advisor through Anthemis and Kindred Capital.    In 2009, Azeem founded PeerIndex which processed social data using machine learning to identify novel, actionable signals. The company was acquired by BrandWatch in 2014.    I'd highly recommend everyone subscribe to Azeem's insanely insightful newsletter, the Exponential View. He also runs a podcast by that name which has featured some incredible guests, including author Yuval Harari and economist, investor and former Warburg Pincus Vice Chairman Bill Janeway.   Check out Azeem's work at exponentialview.co.   If you enjoy today's episode or find it valuable in any way, I humbly request that you give it a quick rating on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, to help us expand our distribution. That simple step can have a massive impact on our ability to connect with interested listeners.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Azeem Azhar.

Scott Sage is a Partner at Crane, a Venture Capital fund focused on complex enterprise software, much of which incorporates AI. Abhirukt Sapru is the Chief Revenue Officer of Tessian, an AI-powered email security company. Tim Pullan is the Founder and CEO of ThoughtRiver, a legal tech company offloading contract work to artificial intelligence, and Ed Challis is the CEO and Co-Founder of re:infer, a company leveraging artificial intelligence to extract sentiment and insights from vast quantities of corporate information, including email.   I was clearly out of my depth in a room full of PhDs and advanced computer scientists, but wow, what a fascinating topic.   We cover everything from funding and growing enterprise software businesses to where is society artificial intelligence is likely to have the greatest impact.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Scott Sage, Abhirukt Sapru, Tim Pullan and Ed Challis.

Michael Kent is the founder and CEO of Azimo, a fast-growing money transmission business.   Michael first joined us a over a year ago, in episode 34, and it was fun to connect again.   As the founder of Azimo, and before that of Small World FS, another money transmission business, Michael is extremely well placed to talk about the founder's journey.   In the second instalment of our Founder's Sessions series, we explore the first few months of Azimo, from idea to product to traction, in what I think is a highly insightful discussion.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Kent.

Martin Mignot is a Partner at Index Ventures, one of Europe's leading VC firms. Martin focuses on startups which operate in large markets (food, transportation, finance, healthcare) through the development of must-have products that get exponentially better with each additional user. He has worked with companies including Bird and BlaBlaCar and serves on the board of Deliveroo, Revolut and Trainline. Prior to joining Index, Martin was in the TMT team at UBS Investment Bank and co-founded the beauty subscription business Boudoir Prive (acquired by Joliebox/Birchbox). If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Martin Mignot.

This week, we're joined by Harry Franks, Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Zego, an on-demand insurance platform founded by former Deliveroo employees. We're also joined by Nigel Walsh, Partner at Deloitte and insurtech specialist. This is an interesting conversation about how changes in the way people live and work impact their requirements for traditional financial services. Lots to think about here.   You can check out the report Nigel and his team recently conducted on the gig economy, in conjunction with Lloyds of London, here.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Harry Franks and Nigel Walsh.

Hello and welcome to Rebank. I'm your host, Will Beeson.   Or should I say, I'm your guest, Will Beeson. Today's episode is different. The mic got turned on me this time to discuss CivilisedBank, the SME opportunity and the future of fintech more broadly.   The host is Carlos Espinal, Partner at Seedcamp, one of the most active seed funds in Europe. This conversation originally aired earlier this week on Carlos's podcast, This Much I Know, which everyone should totally check out.   Hope you enjoy the role reversal.    Be back next week with another regular episode.

Today we’re joined by Lex Sokolin, head of Autonomous Next, the disruptive technologies arm of research firm Autonomous.    Topics of conversation today include Amazon vs Google vs Facebook for financial services disruption, the shortcomings of open banking and what the past few months in crypto tell us about what’s next.    In the conversation, we make reference to the newsletter Lex writes and to his recently published crypto report, both which you can find at next.autonomous.com.    Let us know what you think of today’s episode @rebankpodcast on Twitter or in the comments section on the website.    Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

This is part two of a two-part episode. We published part one on August 21st as Rebank episode 99.   We recently participated in an event with PIMFA, the UK Personal Investment Management and Financial Advice Association, on the subject of Millennials and Financial Services, as part of a research project they're undertaking.   The research looks at how people in their 20s and early-30s think about life, work and the future, and how that influences their financial decisions.   We spoke with a range of guests at and around the event, ranging from incumbent investment managers to fintech startups to millennials themselves and stitched those conversations together into this two-part episode.   In part one, we heard from PIMFA's CEO, Liz Field, and Head of Research, Gary Sunderland, as well as Sally Allan of Wealthify and Ellie Duncan of the FT.   In part two of the episode, we sit down with Nina Mohanty of fintech marketplace platform Bud and Sophie Winwood, formerly of Innovate Finance and soon to be with Anthemis, for a deeper dive into the way Millennials think about life, work and money.   A huge thanks to PIMFA for coordinating the event and facilitating our involvement.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nina Mohanty and Sophie Winwood.

In today's episode, we catch up with Marieke Flament, Chief Marketing Officer of Circle, one of the most noteworthy crytpo companies.   Circle was the first company to receive a BitLicense from the State of New York and the first virtual currency business to receive an e-money license from the British government.   Circle has raised over over $246 million since 2013, including a $50 million round led by Goldman Sachs.   Earlier this year, Circle acquired crypto exchange Poloniex for $400 million, with leaked documents suggesting an aspiration to make Poloniex America's first regulated crypto exchange.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Marieke Flament.

Hello and welcome to Rebank. I'm your host, Will Beeson. This is part one of a two-part episode.   We recently participated in an event with PIMFA, the UK Personal Investment Management and Financial Advice Association, on the subject of Millennials and Financial Services, as part of a research project they're undertaking.   The research looks at how people in their 20s and early-30s think about life, work and the future, and how that influences their financial decisions.   We spoke with a range of guests at and around the event, ranging from incumbent investment managers to fintech startups to millennials themselves and stitched those conversations together into this two-part episode.   In part one, we'll hear from PIMFA's CEO, Liz Field, and Head of Research, Gary Sunderland, as well as Sally Allan, Chief Marketing Officer of Wealthify, a roboadvisor, and Ellie Duncan, Deputy Content Editor at FT Adviser.   In part two of the episode, which we'll release in the coming weeks, we'll hear from Nina Mohanty, Business Development at fintech marketplace platform Bud, and Sophie Winwood, formerly of Innovate Finance and soon to be with Anthemis, a Venture Capital firm, for a deeper dive into the way Millennials themselves think about life, work and money.   A huge thanks to PIMFA for coordinating the event and facilitating our involvement.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Liz Field, Gary Sunderland, Sally Allan and Ellie Duncan.

This week, we look at the massively important topic of fintech for small businesses. Joining us are Edward Berks, Head of Fintech at Xero, a cloud-based accounting platform, Caroline Plumb, Founder and CEO of Fluidly, a cash flow forecasting tool, and James Haycock, Founder and Managing Director of Adaptive Lab, now Idean, following their recent acquisition by Capgemini.   These three guests bring a wealth of experience solving problems for sole traders and small businesses and are excellently placed to explore today's topic.   During the conversation, James mentions a report his team did on SMEs, which you can find here.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Edward Berks, Caroline Plumb and James Haycock.

Today, we're launching Founder Sessions, a new series looking at the entrepreneurial process through the experiences of some of the most noteworthy fintech founders around the world. We've connected with a phenomenal selection of entrepreneurs over the years on Rebank, and we wanted to create a dedicated place to share their insights.   Each episode of Founder Sessions will take the form of a short, focused discussion of the most important insights, lessons and advice our guests have to offer around startup success, based on their own first-hand experience. We'll mix Founder Sessions into our regular episode release schedule, so watch your feed.   To kick things off, we connected with Husayn Kassai, founder of Onfido, one of the world's premier regtechs, specializing in customer authentication.   Let us know what you think of the new format on Twitter @rebankpodcast, and feel free to send any guest ideas to [email protected].   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Husayn Kassai.

This week, we're joined by Husayn Kassai, Founder and CEO of Onfido, and Christian Faes, Founder and CEO of LendInvest. Onfido uses machine learning in customer authentication, validating users' identity documents and comparing them with facial biometrics. LendInvest is a property lending and investment platform which has originated over £1bn of loans since launch.   Both companies are regularly named among the top European fintechs and show no signs of slowing down. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.

This week, we're joined by Philippe Gelis and Steve Lemon. Philippe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kantox, a B2B FX company. Steve is the Co-Founder and VP of Corporate Development at CurrencyCloud, a wholesale FX and payments provider. We discuss a wide range of topics in today's conversation, including Monzo's recently published financial results, Banking Circle's $300m sale to EQT, Airwallex's $80m fundraise and much more. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Philippe Gelis and Steve Lemon.

Today we're joined by Dan Hegarty, Founder and CEO of Habito. Habito is a digital mortgage platform helping homebuyers makes sense of the more than 10,000 mortgage offers available in the UK. Habito is backed by some of the biggest names in venture capital including Mosaic, Ribbit and Atomico. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Dan Hegarty.

Aman Ghei is a Principal at Finch Capital, a Venture Capital firm with offices in London, Amsterdam and Singapore.    Nigel Verdon is the Co-Founder and CEO of Railsbank, a banking utility layer giving fintechs access to banking services in five lines of code.    Aman and Nigel are two extremely insightful guys. We explore a range of subjects in today’s conversation, including open banking, proptech, insurtech, platform banking and more.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei and Nigel Verdon.

Today, we're joined by two excellent guests to discuss recent developments and new opportunities in emerging markets fintech.   Ameya Upadhyay is a Principal at Omidyar, an impact fund that has deployed over $1.3bn over the past 10 years. Asad Naqvi is Managing Director of Apis, a growth stage private equity fund focused on Emerging Markets. We originally connected with Ameya in Episode 39 in May 2017. If you like today's episode, check that one out too at www.bankingthefuture.com. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of cash and human touch points as a part of the innovation equation in Emerging Markets, why fintechs are overvalued, how raising a series C round is similar to turning 40, where the most recognized players in cross-border payments fintech have fallen short and much more. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ameya Upadhyay and Asad Naqvi.

Today we have an epic line up to discuss the ever evolving topic of Open Banking. Formally implemented as law in Europe in January as PSD2 in Europe and Open Banking in the UK, we're still in the very early days of what will be a transformational change in financial services. Joining us to discuss current developments in Open Banking and where we're headed from here are Louise Beaumont, Co-Chair of techUK's Open Banking & Payments Working Group and a member of the Open Banking Implementation Entitiy Working Group, Megan Caywood, Chief Platform Officer at Starling Bank, a UK digital bank differentiating through Open Banking, and Jamie Campbell, Head of Awareness at Bud, a fintech leveraging Open Banking to create new revenue streams for banks. In the episode, Jamie mentions the book Bud have published on Open Banking, available here. You may have noticed that we've recorded the last few episodes in the offices of Saxo Payments Banking Circle, a new utility layer for banking. I was recently involved in a report they coordinated on Open Banking and other trends, and how they're reshaping the industry, which I'll link to in the show notes. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Louise Beaumont, Megan Caywood and Jamie Campbell.

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by four entrepreneurs working with data to change the world.  Julian Ranger is the Chairman of digi.me, a platform that allows users to take back ownership of their data currently spread around the web and use it to their own benefit. Aneesh Verna is the Founder and CEO of Aire, a new breed of credit bureau improving access to credit. Charles Bradley and Hannah Leach are from Adapt, an advisory firm helping companies build strategies and governance around data. What more topical subject right now than data, with GDPR still brand new and the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica saga still fresh in mind. We talk about how people and companies should think about data, what's still missing from the data equation, the ethics of data and its capture, retention and processing, the tension between commercial and privacy concerns and much more. Connect with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast, on Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at www.bankingthefuture.com. If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aneesh Verna, Charles Bradley, Hannah Leach and Julian Ranger.

Today, we’re joined by two entrepreneurs making credit more understandable and accessible for people.   Freddy Kelly is the Founder of Credit Kudos, a new model credit bureau making better data available to lenders. Matt Ford is the Founder of Pariti, an app built to help consumers improve their credit and qualify for new products. Pariti was recently acquired by UK challenger bank Tandem, who we've had on the podcast before.   To help people get oriented, Freddy’s voice is the one you’ll hear in response to my first question about how credit scores traditionally work.   We’ve got a number of group episodes lined up over the course of the summer. Let us know what you think of the format. Connect with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast, or on LinkedIn, Facebook or our website at www.bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Freddy Kelly and Matt Ford.

Gab Columbro is the Executive Director of FINOS, the fintech open source foundation.   FINOS is creating an open source movement in banking and financial services the same way open source technologies like Linux, Firefox, Wordpress, Hadoop, NodeJS and many more have done for tech. Born out of Symphony, the open source platform launched to rival Bloomberg, FINOS has expanded to cover a range of technologies.   In this conversation, we get into the benefits of transparent code, the challenges of governance by consensus, tension between open source and profit maximization, and where the platform model is likely to go.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.    Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Gab Columbro.

Dan Ramsden is the Chief Financial and Strategy Officer of StockTwits.    StockTwits is a social media platform designed for sharing ideas between investors, analysts and traders. Founded in 2009, the company has been called one of the "50 best websites" by Time Magazine and one of the "top 10 most innovative companies in finance" by FastCompany. StockTwits has 3 million monthly active users, who spend an astonishing 51 minutes per day on the platform, on average.    I thought this conversation was fascinating. Dan is an extremely insightful and eloquent guy with broad intellectual interests and years of experience in markets.    The discussion covers a range of topics, including network effects, the impacts of the real-time, free flow of information, behavioral economics and social networks and human nature.      Connect with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast or on LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube.   If you like today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Dan Ramsden. 

This episode is different. It’s part of a conversation I had with three smart and experienced entrepreneurs and thinkers, who all happen to work in fintech. Maybe I’ll released the extended version of the discussion at some point, but today I wanted to focus on a part of it.    Artificial intelligence and automation are becoming powerful forces of change in the world today, and the impacts of these technologies will shape the next few decades at least.    Charlie Delingpole is the Founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, a data company leveraging machine learning to identify bad actors and feed that information to bank anti money laundering and compliance teams to prevent crime. Ricky Knox is the Founder and CEO of Tandem, a UK bank using data to provide personalized financial guidance to customers, and Lex Sokolin, the former Founder and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that was acquired by AdvisorEngine in 2014. Currently, Lex runs the emerging tech business for Autonomous Research, a buy-side research firm.    Lex and his team recently published an excellent deep dive on artificial intelligence, which is available at: https://next.autonomous.com/augmented-finance-machine-intelligence.   Lex also publishes one of the best fintech newsletters, which you can subscribe to at: http://bit.ly/autonomousnext.   We pick the conversation up in full swing. Buckle your seatbelts, it gets serious fast.    I’m going to publish an accompanying article with a number of the talking points that inspired this discussion at www.bankingthefuture.com/artificialintelligence.   I’d love to share more of these types of conversations, from meet ups and private events and the like, if people find them interesting. Let me know what you think on Twitter @rebankpodcast or by email at [email protected].    The first voice you hear after mine is Lex’s, followed by Charlie's and then Ricky’s.    Thanks very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin, Charlie Delingpole and Ricky Knox. 

Robin Tombs is a serial tech entrepreneur and investor. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of Yoti, a digital identity platform enabling secure onboarding anywhere online or in-person. Prior to Yoti, Robin co-founded Gamesys, one of the world's leading online gaming operators. He is also an angel investor in a handful of technology companies and a trustee of Future First.   Today's conversation is a fascinating glimpse into what the future of data, privacy and identity might look like.   Connect with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast or on LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube.   If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thanks very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Robin Tombs.

Today's topic is corporate culture: what works, what doesn't, what needs to change and how. We're joined by three extremely qualified guests to dig into this hairy topic. Duena Blomstrom is the author of Emotional Banking, a book looking at culture in banking specifically. Sharon O'Dea is the former Head of Digital Communications at Standard Chartered and current communications strategy consultant. Alessandro Hatami is the former Group Digital Director at Lloyds Bank and currently advises Tier 1 banks on digital solutions.   This conversation was a bit experimental, in terms of both format and subject. Let us know what you think of the group discussion.   I'm not sure we reached a conclusion, per se, dealing with a topic as broad as culture, but I think we surfaced some interesting considerations. What did we miss? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast or in the comments section of the episode page at www.bankingthefuture.com/culture.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Duena Blomstrom, Sharon O'Dea and Alessandro Hatami.

Kevin Beardsley is the Managing Director of B2C2, a leading cryptocurrency marketmaker. and one of the 40 coolest people in UK fintech, according to Business Insider. B2C2 provides 24/7/365 liquidity for half a dozen of the leading crytocurrencies in all of the main fiat currencies, plus synthetic exposure to crypto. In his role, Kevin is uniquely positioned to comment on how the institutional investment community interacts with crypto and where the space is going.   Prior to joining B2C2, Kevin ran Business Development at Elliptic, a software and investigations company that helps banks and law enforcement agencies monitor Bitcoin transactions and detect suspicious activity. Before that, he was Director of Membership at the Bitcoin Foundation.   Today's conversation was a great opportunity to take stock on where the crypto space sits in its development and where it might be going.   Connect with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast or on LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube.   Thanks very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Kevin Beardsley.    

Suresh Vaghjiani is the Managing Director of Global Processing Services, a card processor supporting some of the best known fintechs including Monzo, Starling, Revolut, Curve, Osper, Pockit and more.   Suresh brings a potentially dry subject to life with some pretty interesting examples of where card technology is going and what new experiences are likely to appear over the next few years.   Connect with us on twitter @rebankpodcast or on LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Suresh Vaghjiani.

Gregg Schoenberg runs The Financial Revolutionist, a weekly newsletter touching on some of the most interesting developments in financial innovation and linking them in interesting ways to all sorts of social and cultural considerations.   Prior to starting the FR, Gregg was a senior executive at Natixis, a French bank, where he ran equities.    The FR is published weekly, and you can subscribe at thefinancialrevolutionist.com. Some of the highlights from recent editions include interviews with Max Levchin, Jay Fulcher and others, and some really fascinating thinking about how the world is likely to evolve between now and 2028.   In this far reaching conversation, we dig into topics ranging from career reinvention and the future of work to universal basic income, the role of crypto in campaign finance reform and much more.

Today we have the great pleasure of catching up with Cristina Alba Ochoa, CFO, and Valentina Kristensen, Head of Marketing, of OakNorth, one of the UK's leading banks. You thought I was going to say leading challenger banks, which of course they are, but I think it's fair to say they're punching well above their weight. We sat down with OakNorth's co-founder Joel Perlman way back in episode 12, where we got into the founder's story. It's still a highly relevant conversation, and I'd encourage you to check it out. In the year and a half since we connected with Joel, OakNorth has been killing it. They broke even twenty-two months after launch, they've originated close to £1b in loans to UK SMEs, they've raised £250m at a billion dollar plus valuation....oh yeah, and they've built and launched a side hustle called Acorns that could be as big or bigger than OakNorth itself. No big deal. This was such a fun chat with two super smart, high energy women. I don't expect it will be the last time we have them on show. If you enjoy today's episode, share the love on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks to everyone who signed up for the newsletter in the past week or two. Watch your inbox. Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome, Cristina Alba Ochoa and Valentina Kristensen.

Anders La Cour is the co-founder and CEO of Saxo Payments Banking Circle, a utility layer providing global transaction processing and payments to the banking industry. Many people talk about banks becoming a backend, payment processing utility layer, and Anders is actively building a business to play that role.   Anders is a lawyer by training and worked in M&A advisory and Venture Capital prior to starting Banking Circle.   If you enjoy today's episode, check out the entire back catalog at www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome, Anders La Cour.

Today the focus is on alternative lending, one of the original fintech verticals. Surprisingly, in nearly 80 episodes, we've never gotten deep into alternative lending.   After holding off for so long, today we're hitting you with two interviews, one with Jens Woloszczak, the founder and CEO of Spotcap, and the second with Christoph Rieche, founder and CEO of iwoca.   As one of the earliest areas of fintech focus, lending has come a long way, and certainly had it's ups and downs - perhaps more to come when we hit a less happy place in the credit cycle. We talk about that with Jens and Christoph, along with what differentiates their models, how balance sheet lending compares to peer to peer lending, where Spotcap and iwoca outperform, and much more.   If you haven't signed up for our newsletter yet, head over to bankingthefuture.com and do it now. We're going to be creating a lot of new content across audio, video and written pieces, and the best place to keep up with it all is the mailer.   Keep the support coming on social media and through the website. Can't believe we're closing in on 80 episodes. Thanks to all you amazing listeners for seeing us this far.

Sam Maule is Managing Director, North America for 11:FS, a UK-based digital consulting firm. Prior to joining 11:FS, Same led Digital and Fintech for NTT Data, and before that, he worked on product at TSYS, a card processor.   Sam is the host of the Connection Interrupted podcast, where he interviews guests about their experiences with technology.    As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you enjoy today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very for joining us today. Please welcome, Sam Maule.

Hiroki Takeuchi is the Founder and CEO of GoCardless, a London-based fintech that simplifies recurring payment collection for businesses.   GoCardless has raised $47m to date and is backed by the likes of Balderton, Accel Partners, Passion Capital and Notion Capital. Hiroki and his co-founders, including Tom Blomfield, now of Monzo, who joined us on the podcast way back in episode 17, went through Y Combinator in early on and have some interesting stories about that experience.   Today's conversation covers a number of topics, some of which are quite challenging. I'd highly encourage you to listen through to the end. Hiroki is an exceptional entrepreneur with a powerful story.   Check out the show notes at www.bankingthefuture.com for links to the articles mentioned in today's conversation.   If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome Hiroki Takeuchi.

Today we’re thrilled to be joined by Nigel Walsh, aka Mr. InsurTech.   Nigel is a partner in Deloitte’s Financial Services technology practice, where he focuses on insurtech. With a background in end to end technology transformation, Nigel works with insurers on the journey to becoming truly digital.     Prior to joining Deloitte, Nigel led the UK Insurance business for Capgemini, where he advised UK and European Insurance companies on major systems replacements and technology transformation projects aimed at improving the customer and broker experience.     Nigel hosts a podcast called Insurtech Insider, where he goes deep on Insurtech topics on a regular basis. If you find today’s episode interesting, I’d highly encourage you to check it out.    Thanks very much for joining us today, please welcome, Nigel Walsh.

Russ Shaw is the Founder of Tech London Advocates (TLA), a private sector led group of leaders promoting London's technology sector and addressing the issues on the horizon. The group is a not-for-profit community of individuals with aspirations to build and promote London as a world leading digital and technology city.   Russ has led a long and illustrious career in technology and telecom, including serving as the Chief Marketing Officer of O2, the Global Innovation Director for Telefonica and Managing Director, EMEA for Skype.   In addition to his work at TLA, Russ is a non-executive director of three tech companies, two of which are publicly listed, and an angel investor.   If you enjoy today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.

Jon Stein is the CEO and founder of Betterment, one of the leading roboadvisors in the US.   After amassing experience advising banks and brokers on risk and products, Jon founded Betterment in 2008 to make people's lives better.   Jon is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Business School. He holds Series 7, 24, 63 licenses and is a CFA charterholder.    Jon's interests lie at the intersection of behavior, psychology, and economics, all of which we get into in today's conversation.   If you enjoy today's episode, we'd really appreciate it if you shared it with one other person who might like it. Fintech is relevant all over the world, and we'd love your help spreading the message.   Thank you very much for listening today. Please welcome, Jon Stein.

Antony Jenkins is the Founder and Executive Chairman of 10x Future Technologies, a UK-based fintech company creating digital platforms for banks.   Antony is also Group Chairman of Currencies Direct, an FX and international payments provider, a board member of Blockchain,  one of the leading software platforms for digital assets, backed by the likes of Lightspeed, Google Ventures and Sir Richard Branson. Antony also sits on the digital advisory council of Fannie Mae and is a member of a consultative working group for ESMA, the European financial regulatory institution.   From 2012-2015, Antony served as CEO of Barclays Bank.   At 10x, Antony and his team are building a digital bank for Virgin Money in the UK and speaking with banks around the world about implementing end-to-end-digital capabilities. Investors in 10x include Ping An, the China-based technology giant who was the primary investor in the £34m Series A funding round for 10x last September – the largest ever Series A for a European fintech firm.   If you're interested in the topics we discuss today, subscribe to our mailing list at www.bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Antony Jenkins.

Megan Caywood is the Chief Platform Officer at Starling Bank, one of the UK's newest and most tech forward banks. Megan is responsible for the design and development of Starling's API strategy and the bank's marketplace, both of which we discuss in detail in today's conversation.   And what a timely conversation it is. PSD2 in Europe and Open Banking in the UK took effect on Saturday, January 13th, the day after we recorded this episode, making effective one of the most dramatic changes to the banking industry in decades.   Open data models, APIs and multi-party customer experience are core to Starling's model in the same way they are those of Google, Apple, Facebook and others. It's unclear how quickly the impact of Open Banking will be felt or exactly how the legislation will affect the market, but it could be transformational.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Megan Caywood.

Today, we welcome back our good friend Lawrence Wintermeyer, former CEO of Innovate Finance. Lawrence now works with a range of institutional investors and companies to help them capitalize on the shifts underway as part of the digital revolution. Lately, he's been doing a lot of work in cryptocurrency and tokens, the topic we pick up today.   We also connect with Oliver Oram, founder of Chainvine, a blockchain company, and lead advisor to MindArk, a video game developer preparing an ICO.   We get into some of the higher level developments in the crypto space with Lawrence, and dig into a specific ICO use case with Oliver in the second half of the episode.   It feels like we're in the middle of a hurricane in the crypto space, with prices blowing in all directions while the underlying technological and social components struggle to take hold. Crypto is one of the most fascinating topics out there right now, and you're bound to have views. Let us know what you think @rebankpodcast @lwintermeyer and @ONOUKSV.

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Jamie Campbell and Nina Mohanty of Bud, one of the most compelling fintech apps around. Despite its startup status, Bud has hit some major milestones and is working on a project with HSBC and First Direct that see them integrated directly into the incumbents' apps, in what could be a watershed moment for fintech.   In addition to their super cool business, they're also just great people. Give them a shout @JCtheOriginal and @NinaMohanty, and invite them to your next party.   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Jamie Campbell and Nina Mohanty.

Benedetta Arese Lucini is the co-founder of Oval Money, an app helping people save more and improve their financial lives.   Prior to starting Oval Money, Benedetta ran Uber in Italy, launching it in that country and running it for three years. And what a journey that was. We get into that experience, which is mind blowing.   In addition to her interest in tech and fintech, Benedetta is an advocate for political reform and women's rights in Italy and a radio broadcaster.   It was a blast catching up with Benedetta and getting into some of her personal story.   Let us know what you think of today's episode. Tweet at us @rebankpodcast or connect on LinkedIn or Facebook.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Benedetta Arese Lucini.

Alessandro Hatami is the former Group Innovation Director at Lloyds Banking Group and current Managing Partner at Forestreet.   Alessandro bring a grown-up view to fintech. Working closely with incumbents on fintech strategy, he has great insight into the way larger players are positioning themselves in a changing FS landscape. Today, we get into what big tech players are likely to do with regards to banking, and what that means for banks.   I assure you the conversation itself is much more interesting than this intro, which with references to banks and banking sounds pretty dull. Maybe big tech will do away with banking as we know it and get rid of the term all together. We'll see.   This topic is so ripe for debate. Will financial services survive the arrival of social media giants? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Alessandro Hatami.

Ella Rabener is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Scalable Capital, a technology-driven investment management platform for retail investors. Scalable Capital has raised 41 million Euros in funding from BlackRock, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures. Scalable employs over 50 people in offices in Munich and London.    I think this is one of the most interesting conversions we've ever had on the show. It's a bit long, but it's highly worth listening to through to the end. Ella drove this discussion across a range of topics, including raising a 30m Euro round from Blackrock, what she learned in 8 years at McKinsey, what we can do to address the gender imbalance in the workplace, and what the future of investing will look like.   We've gotten some great feedback from you guys the audience over the past few weeks, which is helping us shape upcoming episodes. Keep getting in touch. Email us at [email protected] with ideas or just to introduce yourself. We love hearing from you.   Special thanks to Innovate Finance for connecting us with Ella. We're hugely appreciative of everything they do for fintech in London.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ella Rabener.

Fiona Mackenzie is CEO and founder of marble, a personal financial management app. Fiona has spent most of her career as an actuary in insurance and pensions and is looking to bridge the gap between what people are doing with their money and what they could be doing to better achieve their goals.   What do you think of the personal financial management tools you've used? What will the future of this space look like? Let us know on Twitter @rebankpodcast or via Facebook.    Got ideas for the show? Email us at [email protected].   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Fiona Mackenzie.

Stephane Malrait is a Managing Director and Global Head of Financial Markets eCommerce at ING. In that role, he effectively leads ING's electronic trading business as market maker and on behalf of clients. Stephane also sits on the Innovation Council of ING Bank and the Innovation steering committee of ING London.   Today's chat was an interesting one looking at fintech for capital markets and where the opportunities lie.   Join us behind the scenes as we prep our upcoming shows. Email us at [email protected] to introduce yourself, suggest guests and generally talk fintech. We love hearing from you.   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Stephane Malrait.

Paul Taylor is the founder and CEO of Thought Machine, a brand new banking platform combining a Google-like approach to software with bank-like requirements for functionality.   Prior to Thought Machine, Paul headed the text-to-speech group at Google. He joined Google in 2010 when they acquired his company, Phonetic Arts. Phonetic Arts developed speech synthesis technology and was based in Cambridge, England.   Paul has a PhD in Speech Technology Research from Edinburgh University and started his career as an academic. Since then, he's founded three companies and taught at Cambridge University, in addition to his work at Google. Paul has published over 80 papers on speech technology, including the now standard text book in the field.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Paul Taylor.

Lex Sokolin is a futurist and entrepreneur focused on the next generation of financial services. He directs Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research, a leading research firm for the financial sector, helping clients understand and leverage innovation.   Prior to joining Autonomous Research, Lex founded and ran NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that pioneered online wealth management and was acquired by AdvisorEngine, a digital wealth management platform backed by WisdomTree.   Lex is a contributor of thought leadership to the WSJ, CNBC, Reuters, Investopedia, American Banker, ThinkAdvisor, and Investment News, among others.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome Lex Sokolin.

Scott Robinson is the founder and VP of Plug and Play FinTech, a fintech-focused startup platform run with partners including BNP Paribas, Santander, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, TD Bank, Sberbank, USAA, Mitsubishi, Capital One, Sumitomo, Intuit and many more global financial institutions.   Since the launch of the program in February 2015, Scott and his team have accelerated over 90 FinTech startups and made numerous venture investments in the space.    We caught up with Scott on the fly, so the audio isn't perfect. Apologies for those out there with sensitive ears.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   We've been added to the catalog on music app Deezer on desktop, iOS and Android. Check us out.

Ricky Knox is the Founder and CEO of Tandem, a new UK bank that partners with its customers to improve their financial lives.    Tandem is at least Ricky's third business. He's also a co-founder of Small World and Azimo. In addition to starting companies, Ricky also invests in them via his investment vehicle, Hexagon Partners.    As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.

Shachar Bialick is the Founder and CEO of Curve - the smarter banking card.   Curve works like....well, magic. It lets you spend on all your cards on a single piece of plastic and even go back later and change which card you paid with.    Over 75,000 have signed up since Curve launched last year, spending more than £50million in over 100 countries.   The card itself is only the first component of Shachar's vision to transform financial services. He goes into detail in today's conversation.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Shachar Bialick. 

Tim Sievers is CEO and Founder of Deposit Solutions, an Open Banking platform for deposits, connecting banks and depositors across Europe.   The platform allows banks to offer attractive third party deposit products to their own customers through their existing accounts.   Deposit Solutions works with banks across Europe, has mediated deposits in excess of €2bn, and employs more than 110 people across Hamburg, London and Zurich.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.

Philippe Gelis is Co-founder and CEO of Kantox, a wholesale FX company.    Kantox is a multinational Fintech company offering FX management solutions. Kantox is built to allow our customers to manage their currency exposure, build hedging strategies, automate FX transactions and process international payments in a smart way.   The company was founded in 2011, serves over 2000 customers and has processed over $5b of transactions.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Philippe Gelis. 

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by not one but three guests from BBVA, a bank setting the pace for innovation among incumbents. We connected with BBVA as part of their Open Talent Competition. Last week in London, BBVA held the Fintech for Companies track final, one of three main streams in the 2017 Open Talent Competition. The event was put on in conjunction with our good friends at Innovate Finance.   In this episode, we'll hear from Mario Pardo, Head of Client Solutions at BBVA, Carmela Gomez, Head of Global Treasury Solutions, and Marisol Menendez, Head of Open Innovation. All three share fascinating insight about the way BBVA thinks about innovation, how they've created a forward-thinking culture, and why openness is crucial to the future of banking.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mario Pardo, Carmela Gomez and Marisol Menedez.

Today we're thrilled to be joined by acclaimed author Dave Birch, back on Rebank for Round 2. Dave previously joined us on Episode 24 to explore developments in digital identity.   Dave is an internationally-recognized thought leader in digital money and digital identity. He has been named one of the global top 15 best sources of business information by Wired Magazine, one of the top ten most influential voices in banking by the Financial Brand, one of the top ten Twitter accounts for innovators by PR Daily, and one of the top three most influential people in London’s fintech community by City A.M. Dave is perhaps Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments and adjacent technologies, including digital identity, blockchain and privacy.   Dave recently published a new book, called Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin, which looks at money as a concept and the ways it may evolve. Today, we look at the current crypto boom and what it's telling us about the future of money and economies.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you're a regular Rebank listener, please sign into iTunes and leave us a review. It helps others find the show.

Erin Platts is Head of UK Commercial Banking at Silicon Valley Bank, and Kristi Oliver is a Managing Director in the same business. Silicon Valley Bank is one of the best known banks in the startup community, banking many of the most successful tech companies and VCs in the US and UK. This episode is composed of two parts. In the first interview, we'll hear from Erin about SVB's pedigree and broad strategy. In the second interview, Kristi goes into detail about SVB's view on fintech and funding options for startups, including what venture debt is and how it works. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Erin Platts and Kristi Oliver.

Matt Clifford is the co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, the world's leading technology company builder. EF invests in top technical individuals to help them build world-class deep tech startups in London and Singapore. Since 2011, they’ve created over 100 startups, including Magic Pony, an AI company acquired by Twitter in 2016, and Cleo, a chat app for banking.   Matt is also the co-founder of Code First: Girls, a free part-time course for high-potential female university students who want to be part of the digital revolution.   In 2016, Matt received an MBE from the Queen of England for recognition of his work.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Matt Clifford.

Welcome back after a week off last week - our first in a year. Wow. Hope everyone's having some fun this summer.   We've got some amazing guests lined up over the next few months, so stay tuned for that. We're increasingly active in our newsletter lately - if you'd like to be a part of that, you can subscribe on our website at www.bankingthefuture.com.   Today, we've got one for the entrepreneurs. We've had some great episodes with venture capitalists and founders going through the most interesting opportunities their seeing, ideas about areas of fintech ripe for further innovation, startup advice and more.   We're pulling all of that together in one place in a nod to our founder and aspiring founder listeners, of which there are many. A lot of the questions that come up most often in our community are around turning concepts into action. One of our core tenants at Rebank is that its delivery that matters. The discussion and analysis of high level ideas and trends are part of the work that takes place around and in support of execution, but with no action, the reflection is only so relevant.   Today, we hear from a number of past guests, including Michael Kent of Azimo, Steve Lemon of CurrencyCloud, Nigel Verdon of Railsbank, Alex Macpherson of Octopus Ventures, Carolina Brochado of Atomico, Michael Treskow of Eight Roads, Ameya Upadhyay of Omidyar, Charlie Delingpole of ComplyAdvantage and Aman Ghei of Orange Growth Capital.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Please enjoy today's special episode on starting a fintech.

Rob Moffat is a Partner at Balderton Capital, a London-based venture capital firm that has invested in fintech businesses including GoCardless, Revolut, Crowdcube, Nutmeg, Seedcamp, ComplyAdvantage, Wonga, Zopa and more.   Prior to joining Balderton, Rob worked at Bain & Company and Google. Rob holds degrees from Cambridge and INSEAD.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Rob Moffat. 

Aman Ghei is a Principal at Orange Growth Capital, a London- and Amsterdam-based venture capital firm focused on high growth fintech companies. Prior to joining Orange Growth Capital, Aman worked at Facebook and Accel Partners.   Aman first joined Rebank for Episode 37, together with Alvaro Alvarez del Rio, where we looked at similarities between fintech and other tech verticals, including gaming.   We're trying out a new format in this episode. Rather than breaking down high level trends like we usually do, we're going deep on a single business model from the point of view of the investor and the entrepreneur. Today we look at the opportunity in wealth management software, leveraging tech to provide automated personalized financial management to the masses. Let us know what you think of today's format. If you guys like it, we'll get some more VCs on in the future and do it again.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Aman Ghei.

Charlie Delingpole is the founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, a company using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help prevent financial crime.   Prior to founding ComplyAdvantage, Charlie co-founded and ran MarketInvoice, a leading alternative lending platform focused on invoice finance.   Charlie founded his first startup in 1999, and somehow managed to run it for seven years while graduating from Cambridge and then the London School of Economics.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Charlie Delingpole.

Michael Treskow is a Partner at Eight Roads Ventures, focusing on venture and growth investments in technology companies across Europe. Previously, Michael worked at Accel in London, where he was involved with investments in companies such as Funding Circle, GoCardless and WorldRemit. He moved to London from San Francisco, where he did cross-stage investing in technology companies at Warburg Pincus. A special thanks to Innovate Finance for coordinating this interview. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Treskow. 

A couple weeks ago we joined our friends at Innovate Finance in London for their annual VCs Take the Stage event, where we caught up with two of the headliners.   The first interview you hear is with Alex MacPherson, CEO of Octopus Ventures, the £660 million venture capital arm of UK fund manager Octopus Group. Alex's fund has invested and exited a handful of noteworthy AI companies, including Evi Technologies, Swiftkey and Magic Pony, which sold to Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter, respectively.   After we talked to Alex, we caught up with Carolina Brochado, Partner at Atomico, another London-based VC firm. Atomico manages over a billion USD and has invested in seven companies that grew to be worth more than a billion dollars, according to the Financial Times, including games developer SuperCell and weather data company Climate Corporation.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Alex MacPherson and Carolina Brochado.

Ishaan Malhi is CEO and Founder of Trussle, the UK's first online mortgage advisor. Trussle uses technology to help homebuyers and existing homeowners select from the over ten thousand mortgage and remortgage options on the market in the UK.   Trussle has attracted investment from a range of noteworthy backers, including Zoopla, Seedcamp and the co-founders of Betfair and Wealthfront.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ishaan Malhi.

Danny Gilligan is back for round 2 with Rebank, this time to discuss the future of data.   Danny is the co-founder of Data Republic, a company building the rails to support the emerging data industry. Danny is also co-founder and managing partner of Reinventure, an Australia-based, fintech venture capital fund.    Danny joined us in Episode 28 in late February with his Reinventure partner Simon Cant to talk fintech investing, and we promised we'd follow it up with an episode on data at some point.    As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Danny Gilligan.

Nick Ogden is the Founder and Executive Chairman of ClearBank, the UK's first new clearing bank in more than 250 years. ClearBank offers banking infrastructure, including clearing, to incumbent and startup financial services companies and fintechs. Built on real time technology, ClearBank aims to support increased transparency and competition in the UK banking market.    Prior to founding ClearBank, Nick founded, ran and sold WorldPay, a global leader in payment processing.     As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nick Ogden.

Lawrence Wintermeyer (@LWintermeyer) is the CEO of Innovate Finance, an independent membership association that represents the UK's global FinTech community.   Founded in 2014, Innovate Finance looks to accelerate the UK's leading position in the global financial services sector by supporting the next era of technology-led financial services innovators.   During our conversation, Lawrence references Innovate Finance's recent sandbox paper, which is available at industrysandbox.org. Innovate Finance itself is very active online at innovatefinance.com, and also supports the global fintech hubs federation, which has a great website at thegfhf.org.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lawrence Wintermeyer.

Peeling back the banking stack, layer by layer. This week, we've put together a special show looking at a couple of the biggest topics in fintech. Rebank is lucky to host some of the most noteworthy figures in fintech. The perspective and insight they provide is often an indicator of where things are going. One of the trends we've discussed on the show in the past is the move to component front, middle and backend layers to replace proprietary pieces of the financial services technology stack. Today, we start by taking a closer look at that trend before digging into data analytics, AI and machine learning. We wrap up by looking at the potential for quantum computing to change the way we think about processing for different types of tasks. If you enjoy today's show, reach out. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. For more on the topics covered today, check out the full episodes on our website, iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice.

Nigel Verdon is the co-founder and CEO of Railsbank, an API-layer connecting fintechs to a wide range of banking and payments services in five lines of code. Nigel is a pillar of the London fintech community. Prior to starting Railsbank, he founded and ran CurrencyCloud, an API-based FX and payments solution, invested as a venture capitalist at Orange Growth Ventures, advised startups in the UK and Europe and traded FX at Nomura and Swiss Bank. Banking-as-a-platform is regularly cited as the next phase of financial services evolution, and Railsbank is operating at the cutting edge of that trend. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nigel Verdon.

Google Ventures invested $25m in CurrencyCloud earlier this year, buying into one of the most powerful fintech solutions in the payments space. Today we're joined by Steve Lemon, co-Founder of CurrencyCloud, to discuss the investment, the company and the payments space in general. CurrencyCloud's API-based payments engine automates B2B payments and FX, powering an impressive range of fintechs, including Klarna, Travelex, Revolut, Azimo, Fidor Bank and, previously, Payoneer, Kantox and TransferWise. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Steve Lemon.

The Omidyar Network is a high-impact, social investment fund set up by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Today, we're joined by Ameya Upadhyay, a Principal at Omidyar.   Ameya focuses on the firm’s Fintech and Financial Inclusion efforts, investing in organizations that have the potential to create economic opportunity for individuals in Africa, Europe, Myanmar and India. His portfolio includes first movers in India across micro-enterprise lending, digital retail lending, merchant cash advance, and online brokerage. He has been active in Myanmar for the last two years and is closely following the emerging mobile money ecosystem, in addition to making grants to non-profit organizations which are creating sector-wide public goods.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ameya Upadhyay.

Scott Crowder is the CTO of IBM's Quantum Computing business. In March, IBM announced the construction of a 50-qubit quantum computer as part of its IBM Q program, an industry-first initiative to build commercially available universal quantum computing systems. IBM Q enables customers to access quantum systems and services via the cloud. The technology sits alongside classical computing solutions, like Watson, IBM's artificial intelligence engine. IBM's progress in quantum computing mirrors advances by other institutions, all of which will no doubt contribute to quantum computing having a meaningful impact on businesses and consumers in the coming years. If you like today's show, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Scott Crowder.

UX is a make-or-break component in mobile gaming, and many of the same learnings are being brought to fintech.   Today, we're joined by two fintech venture capitalists for an update on investment trends in our industry.   Alvaro Alvarez del Rio is Principal at Initial Capital, a mobile gaming and fintech focused venture capital fund. Prior to joining Initial Capital, Alvaro worked in investment banking and private equity.   Aman Ghei is Principal at Orange Growth Capital, a London- and Amsterdam-based venture capital firm focused on high growth fintech and mobile gaming companies. Prior to joining Orange Growth Capital, Aman worked at Facebook and Accel Partners.   Interestingly, both Aman and Alvaro have experience in mobile gaming (video games, not gambling). In this conversation, we explore how fintech can learn from customer experience best practices developed in other industries.   If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review.   As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com.   Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Alvaro Alvarez del Rio and Aman Ghei.

Penta and Crunch are reinventing banking and accounting for startups and sole traders. Darren Fell is the Founder and CEO of Crunch, one of the original cloud-based accounting platforms, launched in 2009. Crunch serves thousands of sole traders and small businesses in the UK with an ever-increasing range of accounting and financial services products. Lav Odorovic is Co-Founder and CEO of Penta, a Berlin-based neobank offering banking services to early-stage technology companies. Today's conversation explores the convergence of banking and accounting, two closely related and until now separate services for SMEs. If you enjoy today's show, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or www.bankingthefuture.com.

Brett King, acclaimed author, speaker, futurist and host of the Breaking Banks radio show joins us to discuss quantum computing and AI following the Innovate Finance Global Summit event in London on April 10th, 2017. 

Michael Kent is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Azimo, one of Europe's most successful fintechs of recent years. Michael is also co-founder and a non-executive director of Tandem, a new digital-only bank in the UK. Previously, Michael co-founded Small World Financial Services, a money transmission provider, which he grew to $4.5bn in annual transaction volumes. Michael is also a startup investor and advisor, working with companies including Curve, a smarter credit card, and ComplyAdvantage, an digital KYC & compliance solution. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Kent.

The OECD is actively working to promote fintech to its member countries.   Today, we're joined by Gert Wehinger, a Senior Economist at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In nearly 20 years at the OECD, Gert has worked on subjects including financial market structure and stability, economic policy and regulation, and engagement of the private financial sector.   Gert is the author of various publications, including numerous articles on financial markets and a book on high and chronic inflation and stabilization policies.    Currently, Gert is studying the impact of fintech and disruptive innovation in finance, in the context of economic growth, development and stability.   In this conversation, we explore the powerful potential of fintech to improve economic and social well-being in both developed and developing countries.   Connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or www.bankingthefuture.com to continue the conversation.

Usama Fayyad is the CEO of Open Insights, a US-based data strategy and technology company. Usama also serves as CTO of Stella.AI a Mountain View, CA based, VC-Funded startup, and as Interim Chief Operations & Technology Officer for new, innovation-focused division of MTN, Africa's largest telecommunications provider. From 2013-2016, Usama was Chief Data Officer at Barclays. He remains active in UK banking as a special advisor to the Board of Nationwide, the world's largest building society. From 2004-2008, Usama was Chief Data Officer at Yahoo. Usama has a PhD in Computer Science and Engineering, and holds adjunct professorships and university advisory positions on three continents. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. Thanks so much for listening today. Please welcome, Usama Fayyad.

David Brear is one of the most prominent thinkers and doers in our industry. David is focused on addressing one of the biggest challenges in banking: driving technological innovation at large, incumbent organizations. David is CEO and co-founder of 11:FS, a FinTech consultancy that helps banks become truly digital. He's also cohost of FinTech Insider, a blockbuster podcast about FinTech and financial services. Named among the Top 100 Most Influential FinTech Leaders of 2016, David is one of the most recognized and influential people in financial services. David worked at Lloyds Banking Group and Aviva on large-scale digital transformations and then led Gartner's Global Digital Banking practice before starting 11:FS. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, David Brear.

Two Queens of Fintech, Duena Blomstrom and Liz Lumley, join us today for an insightful conversation about bank-fintech collaboration, plus an exclusive announcement from Duena. Duena headed sales for Meniga, a successful Icelandic fintech startup, from 2010-2015. Duena has been investing in and advising fintech startups since then, especially on commercial and go-to-market strategies. Liz ran StartupBootcamp Fintech's 2015 London program and then led ecosystem development for the accelerator. She is currently Managing Director for Thought Leadership at Rainmaking, one of the parent companies of StartupBootcamp. If you like today's show, reach out. Tweet at us @rebankpodcast or at me, your host, @will_beeson. Connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or our website www.bankingthefuture.com. To find out more about Duena's exciting new endeavor, visit www.finwinners.com.

Eugene Danilkis is co-founder and CEO of Mambu, a banking technology provider based in Berlin. Eugene is literally a rocket scientist: He led a software engineering team developing NASA-certified software for the International Space Station prior to founding Mambu. Mambu is a cloud-based technology platform that enables banks and fintechs to rapidly address new market opportunities and reduce the high costs previously associated with software licenses, maintenance and in-house infrastructure. Mambu supports a range of customers all over the world, including OakNorth, a new UK bank we covered in Episode 12, when we sat down with their co-founder Joel Perlman. If OakNorth's early success is any indication, Mambu is a powerful platform. We've touched on core technology in a few episodes recently, which has been a conscious decision. Even with all the coverage around fintech, it can be tough to get clear, comprehensive insight into one of the most important components of banking & fintech success: core technology. Please enjoy today's episode with Eugene Danilkis.

Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan, founding partners of Reinventure, an Australia-based, fintech venture capital fund, join us today for a discussion on fintech investing.    Simon and Danny are entrepreneurs, and they bring that experience and mindset to venture investing.    We cover a number of interesting topics today, including how Reinventure thinks about fintech investing, how best to engage and support startups, where fintech is going in the next decade, the untapped opportunity in data and more.   If you like today's show, reach out. Tweet at us @rebankpodcast or at me, your host, @will_beeson. You can subscribe to Rebank on iTunes or your podcast platform of choice.   Thanks so much for joining us today. Please welcome Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We've got a great episode today with Tom Blomfield (@t_blom), co-founder and CEO of Monzo (@monzo), a new, digital-only challenger bank in the UK.   Monzo is seeking to fundamentally change the way banking is done and challenge a lot of assumptions about the way people want to interact with their money.   Tom is a serial entrepreneur, he founded an e-commerce platform for students called boso.com while he was in college and later launched GoCardless, a B2B payments company that raised funding from the likes of Accel, Balderton and Passion Capital and went through Y Combinator in 2011.   In 2013, Tom and his GoCardless (@GoCardless) co-founders were named among the top 5 entrepreneurs by the European Commission. Tom got involved in the digital, challenger bank space in the UK relatively early, at the bank now known as Starling before moving on to found Monzo which plans to launch in early 2017.   Monzo has generated a phenomenal following and has a live beta with thousands of active users and an extremely long waiting list.   As a special treat for Rebank listeners and a profound thank you for your support through our first 17 episodes, Tom is offering up a Monzo card giving immediate access to the highly sought after beta for one lucky listener.   To participate, send an email with your name and the title of your favorite Rebank episode so far to [email protected]. We'll draw a winner at 5pm GMT on Friday, December 9th, so get your submissions in.   As always, connect with us on Twitter @rebankpodcast or with Will directly @will_beeson.    If you like the show, subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher or one of the numerous other platforms where we're distributed.   Thanks, and enjoy today's episode with Tom Blomfield.

Brett King (@brettking) is a bestselling author and was voted Innovator of the Year for 2012 by American Banker. Since 2010 Brett has released 5 Global Bestselling books, including Bank 2.0, Branch Today – Gone Tomorrow, Bank 3.0, Breaking Banks and his latest Augmented. His books have topped bestseller charts for banking in 18 countries and have been translated into 9 languages. A global thought leader in financial services and customer experience, Brett publishes regularly in his role as industry advisor on Huffington Post, Internet Evolution, and Finextra. He has recently been featured on Fox News, Bloomberg TV, BBC, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and The Economist.   As if that weren't enough, Brett is the founder and CEO of Moven (@getMoven), one of the first mobile-only banking apps, which was described by Wired, Forbes and the New York Times as a "bank of the future.”

David Robson leads IBM's Watson business in the European financial services sector. Perhaps the world's most recognizable AI system (after HAL 9000), IBM's Watson is live across multiple industries and is using artificial intelligence to solve hard, real world problems. For the uninitiated: Watson is a cognitive computer that can read, understand, reason and engage with humans in support of a broad range of knowledge workers including medicine, banking and insurance. David has been working with Watson for two years, advising banks and insurance companies on how to deploy cognitive technology within their operations. For more on Watson, follow them on Twitter @ibmwatson or visit www.ibm.com/watson.  

Brian Roemmele is the consummate Renaissance man. He is a scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker and doer. More than anything, I've found Brian to be an observer of the world, asking questions and following his seemingly infinite curiosity to the root of an astounding variety of issues.   Over the long, winding arc of his career, Brian has built and run payments and tech businesses, worked in media, including the promotion of top musicians, and explored a variety of other subjects along the way.   Brian actively shares his findings and observations across fora like Medium, Quora, Twitter and his own podcast, Around the Coin. Brian is one of the most prolific producers of top quality analytical content I've ever encountered. I would highly encourage everyone to follow Brian and actively consume the information he puts out.

Devie Mohan is a prominent fintech writer, speaker and commentator. Devie is the co-founder and CEO of Burnmark, a fintech research company established in partnership with Berlin-based FinLeap. She is also a market strategist and UK coordinator with FinLeap. Throughout the course of her career, Devie has helped numerous banks, startups, innovation groups and investors understand the trends in fintech, helping them set their corporate, marketing and investment strategies. She is an adamant proponent of a fintech ecosystem in which banks and startups collaborate to drive innovation. Devie is featured on several fintech influencer lists, including the CityAM FinTech Powerlist and the SWIFT-Innotribe Power Women in FinTech list, to name just two.

Oaknorth is a startup bank in the UK. Joel Perlman, Oaknorth's co-founder, is a UK-based serial entrepreneur. After starting his career at McKinsey, Joel eventually left to co-found Copal Partners, a financial research outsourcing company with his business partner, Rishi Khosla. Over a period of 12 years, they grew the business to almost 3,000 people before selling it to Moody's in 2014. Subsequently, Joel and Rishi founded OakNorth, a new UK bank focused on lending to entrepreneurs and mid-sized growth companies. From an outsider's perspective, OakNorth seems to approach banking in a pragmatic, entrepreneurial way, seeking cost effective, non-traditional ways to deliver value for customers and outcompete incumbent banks. Formally launched in 2015, OakNorth is to date the only completely new UK bank to break even, doing so in an amazing 11 months.

Chris Gledhill is the #1 fintech influencer globally and regularly speaks and writes about fintech, banking and the future of financial services.   Chris was lead mobile architect and led the disruptive innovation labs at Lloyds Banking Group before founding Secco (@seccoaura), a next generation "bank."    Chris has expertise spanning a wide range of disruptive technologies including Blockchain, AI, APIs, Big Data, Deep Learning, Virtual Reality, Crypto Currencies, Biometrics, Mobile & Wearables.   Chris is a regular blogger and his twitter feed (@cgledhill) has become a ‘must follow’ for anyone in the industry looking to keep up to date with the latest fintech developments around the world.

APIs and banking as a platform will revolutionize banking. This week we’ve got a special two part edition, with two guests who represent arguably the future of banking and financial services technology. Martin Häring is the Chief Marketing Officer of Misys (www.misys.com), a global core banking provider that recently opened its systems to third party development, in yet another sign that the industry is moving toward an API-connected, platform model. I think Misys is doing revolutionary work, and it’s good to see an established organization–a stalwart of global banking systems–taking the lead with such an innovative move. I think it’s reflective of the way fintech is going, the way banking is going, the way financial services is going, and the way technology is going more broadly. We’ve also got Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr (www.modulrfinance.com), a UK fintech building out a robust, plug-and-play payments platform to support corporates and fintechs looking to gain more efficient access to payment systems in the UK, above and beyond what’s offered by the banks. Myles has a really interesting take on where the industry is going in terms of systems architecture and platformification. I think the two guests, the two interviews, support each other nicely and really reinforce this broad based push toward wholly new systems architecture. As always, tweet at us @rebankpodcast and tweet at me directly @will_beeson to share your thoughts and continue the conversation.

Duena Blomstrom is an independent digital banking consultant, entrepreneur, VC, speaker and, in her words, "uncomfortably opinionated blogger." For the past 18 years, Duena has worked across Telco and Finance on strategy and consulting for sales and marketing, including a 5-year stint as Head of Sales and Marketing for Meniga. During her time at Meniga, the company went from being a tiny Icelandic start-up to a market leader in customer engagement. Duena works at the intersection of technology and behavioral science. She's passionate about helping banks transition from thinking product set to thinking customer needs. She's a regular guest on blogs and podcasts including Breaking Banks, and we're lucky to have her with us today.

Michael O’Connor is a fintech & banking advisor and investor with extensive experience analyzing, structuring and investing in banking and financial services deals. Before going independent earlier this year, Michael was a portfolio manager looking at credit and banking transactions for Arrowgrass Capital Partners, a prominent, London-based, financial services-focused alternative investment fund. Prior to Arrowgrass, Michael was a founding partner at Portman Capital Partners, where he advised UKFI and HM Treasury on alternative disposal strategies for UK government-owned banking assets. Michael has also worked in various senior roles at GLG Partners, Polygon Investment Partners, Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro. Michael is a superbly sharp, thoughtful guy with keen insight into where banking and fintech are going and why.

Slava Solodkiy founded Life.SREDA, a fintech-focused VC fund, in 2012 and has been running it ever since. Life.SREDA 1, which was focused on A-rounds in the US and Europe, invested $40m in 13 companies including Fidor, Moven, Simple, Anthemis, SumUp and Rocketbank. In November 2014, Life.SREDA launched its second fund, a $100m fund focused on B-rounds in Asia. So far, fund 2 has invested in companies including Fastacash, Mobikon, Lenddo, Ayannah and SoftPay. Life.SREDA also runs a $100m global blockchain fund. Slava and his team at Life.SREDA also regularly produce amazing fintech reports, including Money of the Future, which I'd highly recommend anyone with an interest in the space check out.

Alex Tapscott is a globally recognized thought-leader, advocate, speaker and writer focused on the impact of emerging technologies on business, society and government. Alex is the co-author of the critically acclaimed best-seller, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World. He is the author of dozens of articles featured in publications such as TIME, Harvard Business Review, The McKinsey Quarterly, Forbes, Fortune, Quartz, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and The Huffington Post. Alex is the Founder and CEO of Northwest Passage Ventures, a consulting firm focused on early-stage high growth companies. Alex is a passionate and vocal advocate for innovation, entrepreneurship and civic engagement.

Faisal Khan, a veritable payments & remittances guru, joins us for the show today. Faisal is a banking and payments consultant providing advisory services to banks, financial services companies and startups. He specializes is cross-border money transfer and all aspects of the value-chain associated with it, across B2B, B2C and C2C. Faisal has extensive knowledge in the design, integration & operation of payment networks and systems for international money transmission. Two things set Faisal apart in this space in my mind: his practical knowledge, based on extensive, on-the-ground research across the developed and developing worlds, and the depth of his knowledge around licensing, regulatory frameworks, and compliance. Faisal is extremely active on Quora as well at his own content-rich website faisalkhan.com. He is also on Twitter @babushka99.

Chris Skinner is one of the world's most authoritative voices on the future of banking. Chris is a writer, speaker, analyst and commentator covering all things digital banking. Chris has published multiple books on the future of banking and fintech, including most recently ValueWeb, which in Chris's own words explores "the open-sourcing of financial services using apps, analytics, APIs...and blockchain." Chris is on the Advisory Boards of a number of companies including Innovate Finance, Moven and Meniga. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand, Next Bank, City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance. The Wall Street Journal named Chris one of "The Top 40 Fintech Influencers Globally." If that wasn't enough, Seth Wheeler, Brookings Guest Scholar and Former Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House, called Chris “one of the most authoritative voices on Fintech anywhere.”

This week, we're joined by Jason Bates, co-founder of 11:FS and the bank formerly known as Mondo. Banking is becoming digital. In the UK, four digital-only retail banks are poised for roll-out, and the trend extends to Europe, the US, Canada, and much of the rest of the world. Jason has extensive experience in digital transformation in banking, including co-founding not one but two digital challenger banks, Mondo and Starling. Join us for a deep dive into the problems digital banks are trying to solve and where banking is likely to go from here.

Data science is fundamentally reshaping the way businesses operate and customers experience interactions. In Episode 2, we take a look at what's going on in the world of data science, where recent and coming developments are likely to have a huge impact on customer experience across industries and in turn shape customer expectations for banking and financial services. Skylar Lyon, Senior Data Scientist at Accenture, breaks it down for us.

Jeff Tijssen is Managing Principal and Head of Fintech at CAPCO, a fintech consultancy. Where better to start our fintech journey than with the current state of the banking industry? Jeff's experience working for and with numerous incumbent banks in Europe and the UK shapes his views on the current landscape and where we're going.