The second and last part of the Fintech Summit, which took place on September 16th in the frame of the phygital edition of ICT Spring, focused on the democratization of banking processes and on the redefinition of finance, from digital payment to Fundtech. As usual, tens of local and international experts shared their expertise, views and vision with a digital audience.

The democratization of banking processes

The first part of the afternoon session focused on the democratization of banking processes. Master of Ceremony Frank Roessig (FinTech Lead - Head Digital Solutions for Finance, Telindus) officially introduced the topic and stated: “Who is a Fintech? Today, big financial institutions are practically Fintechs too. The major online players also in a way and so are tech companies. The scope is broad, it’s not only startups”. On the question “who is driving Fintech?” he answered “clients, clients, clients”. He also explained that there are more than 5 billion mobile devices active in the world, and that people spend an average of 6 hours online. “Clients are therefore the biggest driver: no client, no Fintech,” he underlined. Frank Roessing also discussed the impact of Covid-19 and the need for Fintechs to develop services aiming at seniors, with a specific user experience.

 

“Africa: one continent, different strategies” was the name of the keynote speech delivered remotely by Abderrahman EI Andaloussi (Strategy Deputy Director, Bank Of Africa). The expert first shared the example of M-PESA launched in Kenya as a transfer solution in 2007 and which has now many more services. At that time, 54% of Kenyan population already had a mobile and it enabled the younger generation to send money to their parents in the countryside: “it answered a particular need at the moment. The solution was even allowed by the central bank. M-PESA did not replace banks but rather created a new market”. The expert then shared the different realities across the continent with many parameters that need to be taken into account. He added: “there are 4 main categories: the nascent markets, the transition markets, the sleeping giants and the relatively mature markets. For instance in the nascent market, everything has to be done, there is no infrastructure, etc. And when it comes to the mature markets, they are almost like Europe and follow the trends of developed countries, at their own path”. Abderrahman EI Andaloussi concluded his presentation by focusing on the Bank of Africa’s journey on digital transformation: keeping its Panafrican footprint, putting customers first, leading an internal culture transformation, etc. And also, according to him, collaboration equals innovation.

According to Yves Eonnet (CEO & Co-founder, TagPay), “the banks strike back”. The expert focused on the impact of digital in the bank and shared the history of TagPay. “We first shared our vision on how banks were going to evolve and started working on a new generation banking architecture, mainly in Africa. Now, we are covering any need of the bank, also in Europe, notably to transform their operations,” he explained. The expert then shared the long history of retail banking which is now at the end of a long cycle as it is built on an architecture that is more than 50 years old. He commented: “it’s not the end of banking, but the end of a banking cycle. We are now entering a new cycle, with a lot of tech even if we don’t even know how far we will go. There are opportunities all over the place, with the three planets aligning: customers, threats and technologies”. According to him, everything needs to be reinvented: business models, culture, marketing, etc. The expert ended his presentation by explaining that banks need to make profitable and sustainable operations by going for a full replacement of the architecture, a progressive modernization or by creating a spin-off (designing a new bank next to the old one, and concentrating all the innovation in this new platform.

A fireside chat entitled "Innovation imposes collaboration" then brought together Jacques Putz (CEO, LUXHUB) and Sven Siat (Head Connectivity, SIX) as well as Mounaim Cortet (Senior Manager Strategy, INNOPAY) as moderator of the session. “The global phenomenon and trend is to facilitate innovation through collaboration. LUXHUB and Six Group just announced a partnership which allows Six to leverage the tech developed by the Luxembourgish startup. Together, they aim at offering new open banking products and services” first highlighted the moderator. As explained by Sven Siat, the market in Switzerland is market-driven and there is no regulatory requirement for open banking. Jacques Pütz then reminded the audience that we recently celebrated one year of PSD2 in production, with many APIs now working. “Yet, open banking is still a big challenge for banks who need to understand this new economy. And some are now thinking of adding more value services over it. PSD2 is actually an enabler for collaboration between financial players. With Six, we can learn from each other and innovate faster,” commented the CEO of LUXHUB. The experts then explained that they have a shared vision when it comes to scouting the market for interesting applications and getting new ideas together, that will benefit other partners and the final clients. Jacques Pütz concluded: “innovation imposes collaboration. We would like to push banks to collaborate more with Fintechs. They need to be ready when open banking becomes the new normal”.

The organizers then virtually welcomed Sophie Bialaszewski (Head of People & Capability Transformation, Lloyds Banking Group) who focused on curiosity, as the fuel for change. “At Lloyds, we are transitioning to a new way of working. And to inspire people, it is useful to use curiosity: people will much more likely engage” she first explained. Why curiosity matters: it helps individuals to be creative, helps leaders to inspire with motivation, teams to collaborate better, business performance and engagement increase. In other words, curiosity is good for individuals, teams and organizations. She then described the different people profiles (socially curious, unconventional thinker, etc.) and shared some of her main recommendations: “curiosity is just a skill, we can build and develop it, you need to be curious about the world around you, focus on motivation and on what inspires people, know the content and subjects they are working on, do they collaborate across the different areas, etc. She ended her presentation by explaining that there were different ways to promote and develop curiosity: create experience for people to feel the change, bring outside people in, create a platform to share their stories and build a community.

A round table discussion on the democratizing banking processes then brought together Nigel Verdon (CEO & Co-Founder, Railsbank), Jeremy Light (VP of EU Strategic Accounts, Ripple) and Matteo Rizzi (Unconventional entrepreneur, book author, venture partner and co-founder, FinTechStage). It was moderated by Frank Roessig. “The interaction with the consumer is going toward embedding the finance experience into the customer experience. We need to bring finance to the forefront of engagement. It will also reduce friction. We can now understand data and there need to have a data centric view of the world” first stated Nigel Verdon. According to Jeremy Light, the key word is digital inclusion. He also highlighted the fact that there is a strong growth in digital wallets. He added: “by 2024, half of the population will use it. It operates 24/7 at a lower cost. And consumers can make payments on demand”. Matteo Rizzi shared the example of Mozambique, highlighting the 3 ways emerging markets are doing finance: inclusion, engagement or reintermediation. He also insisted on the importance of last mile UX. Finally, the experts shared their wildest Fintech dreams. Nigel Verdon would like to see a mortgage that allows everybody to get housing, Matteo Rizzi a super low level entry insurance product which would for instance for farmers, and Jeremy Light would like to see payments become as easy as sending an email, with the background check, security, etc.