Insights from a week dedicated to FinTech

week of FinTech in London. Fruitful meetings, inspiring talks and visions to establish London as the FinTech capital of Europe. As one of the founding members of the association, Bankable firstly attended the Innovate Finance Global Summit, a two-day-event where we both exchanged with varied visitors in our booth and participated in a panel with our partner Moneyou. We also spent a day discussing FinTech with challenging people at the International FinTech Conference hosted by HM Treasury at the London Tobacco Docks.

FinTech week really aimed to position London as the FinTech capital of Europe, with business leaders and policy makers backing up the same vision. We have heard announcements from policymakers, such as Bank of England, that are currently setting up new FinTech initiatives:

“We have set up a new FinTech hub that will sit at the heart of the Bank, to consider both how the Bank understands and how they apply FinTech, relevantly to its mission,” said deputy governor of Bank of England, Dave Ramsden.

Even the British government revealed their own take on the matter by releasing their first FinTech scenario ever: Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, unveiled a new FinTech strategy as the government is looking to support this fast-growing sector ahead of Brexit. Through the automation of regulatory compliance, they aim at “reducing costs for financial services firms, and removing a key barrier for FinTechs”, Philip Hammond said. He also stated that the United Kingdom is the best place in the world for FinTech companies – and will remain so after Brexit.

Policy makers were not the only ones making strong statements during the week – we listened to and took part in several interesting panels that discussed the future of FinTech (on the topics of Brexit, banking innovation, etc). The overall theme is easily summarised: it was all about collaboration. That is, collaboration between incumbents and FinTechs. We heard the word on every stage, with many of the panellists specifically stating that the ones that succeeded with collaboration and great partnerships are the ones that will succeed in the future. As Megan Caywood, COO and co-founder of Starling Bank said:

“The bank that partner the best will be the winner in the future”.

Also, the Chief Customer and Innovation Officer at Santander UK, Sigridur Sigurdardottir, said that

“[Banks] collaborating with FinTechs and start-ups is very effective; they get resilience and we get speed – with customers at the centre. There are challenges on the way: infrastructure and time-to-market”

The FinTech landscape is getting more mature, as we can see that more and more partnerships are being shaped between banks and FinTechs – something that Deutsche Bank’s Head of Strategic Investments, Richard Smith, also stated:

“We have large technology departments within the bank, but FinTechs bring speed and agility to launch quickly when we may not always have the bandwidth to hire quickly internally. With FinTechs, we are able to work more efficiently.”

Liesbeth Rigter, Moneyou and Eric Mouilleron, Bankable

Although the talk was about the future of partnerships between incumbents and FinTechs, we did not see many showcases of partnerships that have been fruitful and successful. Therefore, we are even prouder to have been on stage together with our partner Moneyou at the Innovate Finance Global Summit, to talk about trust and collaboration. Our CEO Eric Mouilleron and Liesbeth Righter, CEO of Moneyou, discussed the collaborative economy and who to trust, together with representatives from the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and NorthRow. Eric and Liesbeth elaborated on the key elements that made (and continues to make) the Moneyou-Bankable partnership successful – and hopefully inspired others to work for such rewarding and prosperous partnerships. (If you want to hear more about our partnership, listen to this podcast) As our CEO Eric put it:

“It is not fashionable to be alone these days”.

This week showed that we have an exciting year 2018 ahead of us – and quoting Liesbeth Righter’s conclusion to the panel:

“We do not know what the banking industry is going to develop into. But it is time to start figuring this out”

Eric also wrote an article on the topic of FinTech Nation 2018 that was published just before the event; you can read his article “The Rise of the friendly FinTech” here.

Eric and Liesbeth summarised their panel and the Innovate Finance Global Summit after their panel, listen to their key takeaways in this video.

 

Ditto Bank, the new French bank dedicated to customers without borders, selects Bankable to provide API access to the UK Faster Payment Scheme

Ditto Bank, “the Bank that travels with you”, is a new generation French bank with global ambitions that offers a unique multi-currency model. Ditto Bank holds its own banking license and manages to combine the reliability of a bank with the flexibility of a FinTech. Designed for those who need access to multiple currencies on a regular basis (frequent travellers, expatriates, online shoppers, etc), Ditto Bank customers can use their app to open current accounts in different currencies, manage their money, make transfers and complete foreign exchange transactions, all from a mobile app created for and with the customer, who always remains at the centre of a seamless experience.

Ditto Bank was launched in Paris on February 15, 2018. Two weeks after the launch, Bankable is selected to provide Ditto with real time API access to the UK Faster Payment scheme. This allows every Ditto customer to have a UK Sort Code and Account Number from which they can send and receive GBP payments to and from other UK bank accounts. A step in the right direction to help Ditto towards their ambition of becoming a borderless bank.

“We chose Bankable among other candidates to access UK Faster payment via API, says Sylvain Pignet, founder and CEO of Ditto Bank. We are committed to promote and leverage open banking. Bankable’s prices were competitive but we also felt both organisations were culturally aligned. This partnership with Bankable is a first step, other joint projects may follow.”

Bankable’s proprietary API based “Banking as a Service” platform provides turnkey payment solutions with account/card issuance and management, transaction processing, as well as compliance and ancillary services. Apart from access to the UK Faster Payment scheme, Bankable is currently also providing access to SWIFT, SEPA STEP2, TARGET2 and soon SEPA Instant Payments. Bankable’s platform enables customers to focus on their brand, distribution and client acquisition instead of reinventing the “infrastructure wheel”. With accelerated time to market and faster revenue generation, Bankable customers increase the value and attractiveness of their business.

“We are very excited to partner with Ditto Bank, says Eric Mouilleron, founder and CEO of Bankable. Ditto has an original vision, a strong management team and prestigious financial backers (UAE Exchange and Travelex). Travelex has always been an inspiration for me. Prior to founding Ditto, Sylvain Pignet was Group Company Secretary of Travelex Group, working along Lloyd Dorfman, CBE, Travelex Group founder, to build the world’s largest retailer of foreign exchange. Given Sylvain’s vision and track record and the quality of Ditto’s management team and backers, we believe that Ditto Bank will become a dominant player.”

About Bankable:
Bankable is a global provider of “Banking as a Service” solutions. Our digital banking platform is available in white-label or via APIs enabling any financial institution, fintech or corporate to deploy a full array of digital banking services, including but not limited to: account services, mobile banking, domestic and international payments, real-time clearing solutions, FX services, e-wallets, and virtual & plastic card programmes and processing.
Bankable also provides access to major clearing systems such as SEPA STEP 2 & TARGET 2, UK Faster Payments & BACS, and SWIFT.
Eric Mouilleron is the founder and CEO of Bankable, headquartered at Level 39, Canary Wharf, London.
More information on www.bnkbl.com

For more information about Bankable:
Sofia Bressler | Head of Marketing and Communication | +44 203 725 7653

About Ditto Bank:
Ditto Bank is the first digital bank dedicated to currency management. Using the Ditto app, the customer can create multiple accounts in different currencies, all linked to a unique Mastercard Gold card, allowing them to make payments, withdrawals and transfers all over the world at no additional cost. Whether the client is an expatriate, a cross-border business traveller or simply a tourist, it is now very easy and transparent to manage their currencies abroad. The €9.90 monthly subscription includes all the account management fees and the exchange margin will not exceed 1% of the transaction amount. Sylvain Pignet is the founder and CEO of Ditto Bank, part of a credit institution ruled by the French Prudential Control and Resolution Authority.
More information on www.dittobank.com

For more information about Ditto Bank:
Jiwon Kim | Head of Marketing and Communication | +33 (0)1 75 60 05 65
Amélie Gillot | PR Consultant | +33 (0)1 44 82 54 56