FinTech Magazine - December 2021 by FinTech Magazine

December 2021 | fintechmagazine.com

Partnered up: Banking and the digital ecosystem Payments: Automation and payment transformation Finserve: IoT and 5G connectivity

Companies to watch in 2022 LendingPoint: AI-driven, CreditTech Legal & General America: Transforming life insurance Pepper Financial Services: Lending in a digital age

BRITAIN’S

FIRST BLACK FEMALE CHARTERED FINANCIAL PLANNER TheWealthCheck’s Makala Green is an expert on all things finance

Allianz Global Investors turbocharges its digital transformation and vendor management journey with SirionLabs Through SirionLabs’ smarter contracting solution - SirionOne, Allianz Global Investors has modernized its supplier management processes. The multinational financial services company uses SirionOne to manage time-intensive tasks like contract searching, categorizing, obligation management and vendor collaboration. It has also been able to manage KPIs, milestones and deliverables while providing greater visibility to their suppliers.

Get Smarter Contracting!

Allianz Global Investors digitizes its supplier management processes with SirionLabs “Allianz Global Investors is leveraging best-in-class technology to supercharge the transformation of its vendor management,” says Helmut Boisch, Head of Vendor Management for Allianz Global Investors, about the key partnership with Contract Lifecycle Management leader SirionLabs. “The journey with SirionLabs stands out,” Boisch says. The bank uses SirionOne to manage everything from the simple but time-intensive tasks of categorising and searching through contracts, to specifics such as surfacing and monitoring obligations and raising those with vendors. “Those things get managed automatically in SirionOne, the smarter contracting platform,” says Boisch. “That’s just one example, but there are many others for how we use SirionOne.” Other important processes, such as structuring and organising KPIs, creating reporting dashboards for internal stakeholders, and tracking impacts and trends that do not fall within traditional metrics are also seamlessly handled inside SirionOne. But Boisch says the true value of the partnership lies in the “many things SirionLabs is doing to broaden the way that the software can be used”. “And that’s not even including all of the thought leadership that comes out of SirionLabs,” Boisch adds. “For a software vendor like SirionLabs to not only take the forefront of the development of how one steers a vendor like this, but to also provide the thought leadership and the ecosystem that allows you to connect with

other vendor managers, I think that’s a very, very powerful thing.” The result is a true, tightly integrated, holistic supplier ecosystem. Boisch is actively working to onboard more of Allianz Global Investors’ suppliers to simplify documentation, improve collaboration and provide greater control and accuracy over documentation and obligation oversight. The company is thus all set to extract the maximum value out of their contracts by evaluating contract performance in its truest sense.

Examples include tracking a certain number of obligations on the part of the supplier, accessing documentation to prove the completion of external audits, or other vital data the firm needs to measure and collect. “We are always looking at opportunities that require more scope within SirionOne, and how to connect the dots between Sirion and other providers that might be used in complementary departments within our firms,” Boisch says. “Over time, we’ll continue to expand that.”

Never miss an issue!

+ Discover the latest news and insights about Global FinTech...

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

The FinTech Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

JOANNA ENGLAND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON JANE ARNETA PRODUCTION EDITOR

JANET BRICE

CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON DUKE WEATHERILL JORDAN WOOD VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP

MOTION DESIGNER

TYLER LIVINGSTONE

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EVELYN HUANG JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN MARKETING DIRECTOR

ROSS GARRIGAN

MARKETING MANAGER

EVELYN HOWAT

PROJECT DIRECTORS

JAKE MEGEARY MICHAEL BANYARD JOE PALLISER

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

RICHARD TURNER

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

JOE MARRITT

MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

NEW YEAR, NEW FACES

“It's been 12 months of intense change that has emerged from necessity”

FINTECH MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

As we welcome 2022, we are also welcoming a new FinTech Magazine editor This month, we can bid our final goodbyes to 2021, a year that emerged from the terror of the 2020 pandemic, and saw the creation of a brave new world where digital transformation has swept across the globe. It's been 12 months of intense change that has emerged from necessity. But that necessity has driven innovation, and inspired and spawned a multitude of new services and products. With a range of cutting-edge trends set to disrupt 2022, life in fintech will continue to be fast-paced, exciting and diverse. From central bank digital currencies to crypto, and sustainable fintech initiatives as well as vast leaps forward in technology, there is so much to look forward to. New beginnings And Fintech Magazine is having its own seismic change for January 2022, as we welcome Derin Cag into the hot seat as the brand’s new editor-in-chief. Derin is truly passionate about all things fintech, and his encyclopaedic knowledge on the subject is an absolute asset to the team. I look forward to reading and learning much from all the new insights he has planned for FinTech Magazine next year. In the meantime, it’s not quite adios from me as I am still on the FinTech Magazine team. But I shall be prioritizing our other up and coming brand, namely, InsurTech Digital, which looks set to be thoroughly disruptive in 2022 as well. So, I hope you enjoy the festive issue and that the holidays are both restful and refreshing. Wishing you all a great Christmas and New Year – see you in 2022!

JOANNA ENGLAND

joanna.england@bizclikmedia.com

fintechmagazine.com

CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 10 Big Picture 12 The Brief 18 Timeline: PolyNetwork 20 Trailblazer: Michael Bloomberg 22 Five Mins With: Makala Green

Banking

Partnered up: Banking and the digital ecosystem

Transforming the life insurance space

Visualise to monetise

Legal & General America

Tableau

Payment Solutions

Automation and payment transformation

Pepper Financial Sevices Andrew Day: Transformational lending in a digital age

Finserv

IoT and 5G connectivity in Finserv

104

120

AI-driven, CreditTech

FinTech companies to watch in 2022

LendingPoint

Top 10

COMING SOON FOLLOW N OW

E DU C ATE • M OTIVATE • E LE VAT E

About March8

March8 is an inspiring and informative community for women executives, entrepreneurs, professionals and overachievers. We recognise, celebrate and champion the achievements and contributions made by women in both business and society. Our community offers practical and compelling career, financial and lifestyle resources to help women take their careers to the next level and achieve a work-life balance.

A BizClik Media Group Brand

FO LLOW N OW

BIG PICTURE

December 2021

Embracing ESG

Sweden, Scandinavia

Fintech startups in Sweden are embracing ESG directives, and encouraging more companies to adopt sustainable operations and processes. Leading the pack is climate impact startup Doconomy, which announced a $17mn funding round in September, making it Europe’s largest ever climate fintech round. Other green fintechs are the Stockholm - based data platform, Datia, and the renewable energy investment company, Trine.

fintechmagazine.com

THE BRIEF “Rather than seeing fintech companies as a threat, the big banks should see them as a hotbed of innovation that can enhance their existing services” Mahmood Noorani

BY THE NUMBERS We asked the FinTech community

The Bank of England has warned that the growth of cryptocurrency could end up damaging the global financial economy if it crashes.

How should regulators respond?

34%

Leave it alone

CEO, Quant Insight 

24%

Attempt to control it

“Human oversight cannot guarantee consistent security against fraud or hacking at those scales. So there is no going back on automation”

42%

Action some regulations

Martin Rehakl CEO, Resistant AI 

9,311

RISKY BUSINESS

That’s how many fintech startups there are in the EMEA region in 2021 according to Statistica

A new report from Gartner has called for changes in modern risk management to account for third-party relationships, mitigating risk in an ‘iterative way’ after a study revealed that only 29% of business and IT executives globally know how diligently their partners are working regarding security.

“Thanks to open banking, fintechs can plug-in-andplay with different APIs in one automated, secure process” Julie Chariell

Senior analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence  READ MORE

December 2021

US$26.5tn The global financial sector is expected to be worth US$26.5tn in 2022 with a CAGR of 6%.

According to a survey by the personal finance comparison site, Finder.com, children in the UK are embracing fintech. The data showed that 61% of children between the ages of 10 and 15 in the UK use an app to manage their pocket money. 10-year-olds But it's not just the teens who are managing their money electronically. The data showed the 49% of 10-year-olds were receiving and saving their pocket money through specially developed apps that keep a track on their spending, and incentivise them to earn more money by carrying out chores that are then logged on the parent version of the app.

 CRED The Indian fintech CRED has been valued at $4bn following its most recent $251mn fundraising drive. The startup has amassed over 7.5 million members.

 MONZO UK challenger Monzo has withdrawn its application for a banking licence in the US following application difficulties that have been ongoing since April 2020.

More young savers As well as encouraging a sensible savings mentality, the apps encourage youngsters to engage with different financial products and services through gamification incentives. The study went on to show that since 2016, Google search interest in the term ‘kids debit card’ has risen 227%, with a rise of 42% between 2020 and 2021 alone.

 CREDIT SUISSE Swiss police recently raided Credit Suisse offices and seized documents relating to the failure of the bank's $10bn range of supply chain finance funds that were linked to Softbank-backed Greensill.

GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES

YOUNG FINANCIERS

 POMELO The Latin American fintech, which launched earlier this year, has just raised $35mn in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global.

DEC21

fintechmagazine.com

TIMELINE POLY NET WORK

AND THE CURIOUS CASE OF

‘MR WHITEHAT’

The biggest cryptocurrency heist of all time happened amidst the most bizarre of circumstances. Over US$611mn of assets were stolen from the Poly Network DeFi platform. There then followed a very public conversation between the hacker and the victim, which played out on Twitter and resulted in all the funds being returned less than two weeks later.

Mr Whitehat

$611mn is stolen

The assets are transferred to hacker's addresses and consist of: $273mn Ethereum $253mn BSC $85mn Polygon

The hacker responds to Poly Network’s appeal from the previous day with a message of their own, which states they carried out the hack to reveal the network’s vulnerabilities. Poly Network announces on Twitter that $260mn of the stolen funds has been returned but that $353mn remains outstanding.

The hacker reveals his nickname as Mr Whitehat. News agencies report further attempts to return the stolen funds have been made. Coindesk says the hackers have attempted to transfer a portion of the assets from one of the three wallets into liquidity pool Curve.fi. However, the transaction is rejected. An estimated $100 million is also moved out of another of the wallets and is deposited into liquidity pool Ellipsis Finance.

August 10th

August 11th

August 12th

Poly Network announces the attack on Twitter in the following tweet: “Important Notice: We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked on @ BinanceChain @ethereum and @0xPolygon.”

December 2021

$260mn is returned

All assets returned

While Mr. Whitehat assures Poly Network of his intentions to return all the stolen assets, the crypto exchange still offers a $500,000 ‘bug’ bounty for the return of the assets, but the next day, he publicly turns the offer down.

Could this story get any weirder? As Poly Network attempts to recover the last $200mn of stolen assets, it offers Mr Whitehat a job at the company, as its chief security advisor.

All funds are duly returned to Poly Network by the hacker - or hackers. According to Mr. Whitehat, the intention had always been to return the stolen cryptocurrency after highlighting security vulnerabilities. He said in an interview over social media during the event, “That was always the plan! I know it hurts people when they are attacked, but shouldn’t they learn something from it?” He added, “I didn’t want to cause real panic in the crypto world. I took important tokens and didn’t sell any of them.”

August 13th

August 17th

August 23rd

Poly Network offers hacker $500,000

Hacker offered job at Poly Network

fintechmagazine.com

TRAILBLAZER

MICHAEL

BLOOMBERG

Job Title: Businessman, philanthropist and politician Company: Bloomberg L.P.

ot much is publicly written about Michael Bloomberg’s early life. But the banker, former New York Mayor, onetime US presidential candidate and founder of Bloomberg L.P. does not seem to have had a remarkable childhood or upbringing. Various reports show that he came from moderate beginnings and both his parents worked in respectable, blue collar professions. Bloomberg’s father was a Polish immigrant who worked seven days a week as an accountant and his mother was a secretary. The family lived in a quiet suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, and Michael was born in February of 1942. At the age of 22, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in engineering. The year was 1964 - and with a career in finance as his goal, Bloomberg enrolled on an MBA at Harvard University. After graduation, he took an entry-level position at Salomon Brothers investment bank - his launchpad into the dizzying world of finance. However, despite rising through the ranks and performing well, Saloman Has donated Brothers merged with Phibro Bros in 1980 and Bloomberg found himself without a role to charitable causes at the newly formed entity.

$8.2bn

fintechmagazine.com

TRAILBLAZER

U.N. Secretary-General Appoints Mike Bloomberg as Special Envoy for Climate Ambition and Solutions

Keen to avoid litigation, the bank pulled out its cheque book and he ended up in the comfortable position of being fired - with a severance package of $10mn. The incident was the push (and the capital he needed) to branch out on his own. In 1981, he formed his own company, Bloomberg L.P. While not strictly involved with investment banking, Bloomberg has always been at the forefront of financial information, software and media arm. As the company’s CEO and chairman for 20 years, Bloomberg amassed an incredible fortune. Last year, he was ranked the 20th richest man in the world by Forbes, and experts estimate he has a net worth of $59bn. 18

December 2021

A politician at heart Not content with being a leader in the world of finance, Bloomberg has also enjoyed a significant political career. He was the Mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013, and, when US elections took a farcical turn in 2020, he even ran as the Democratic presidential nominee. But the experience was a tough one as he was heavily grilled by rival candidate Bernie Sanders during the debate on the number of homes in his property portfolio. Bloomberg lives in New York and apparently has eight homes in the state. He reportedly owns several properties in London, Florida, Colorado, and Bermuda and has an extensive luxury car collection - last public count put the number at 42 vehicles.

“ THE COLD HARSH REALITY IS THAT WE HAVE TO BALANCE THE BUDGET” MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

Charity work Bloomberg is generous with his good fortune and has reportedly donated more than $8.2bn to charitable causes via The Giving Pledge initiative. He is still the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P. and despite his high ranking position, has kept a low profile in terms of his personal life. Bloomberg married his now ex-wife, Susan Brown, in 1975. The couple had two daughters - but divorced in 1993. Bloomberg now lives with senior banking executive and former New York Superintendent of Banks, Diane Taylor. fintechmagazine.com

FIVE MINUTES WITH...

MAKALA GREEN Makala Green is an expert on all things finance. She’s Britain’s first black female Chartered Financial Planner, founder of Green Wealth Planning and runs her Instagram account @TheWealthCheck to help people manage their money better. She's also passionate about opening up the world of finance as an attractive career to people of all backgrounds. Q. WHO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY?

» Beyonce! I just loved the strength and

confidence she possesses as a female. In a world dominated by men, it was refreshing to have a woman to look up to who encompassed many of the qualities I strived to embody myself. She showed me that you could be strong and feminine simultaneously; one doesn't cancel out the other. I also love her music; there's not one song I don't enjoy listening to. My favourite one has to be Independent Woman (Destiny's Child).

Q. WHAT'S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED?

» Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

I know it is one we have all heard before, but when you are outside your comfort zone, that's when you begin to grow and learn about the world around you and yourself. It's important to become more familiar with uneasiness because it helps you become more in tune with your instincts and know which feelings to trust and action.

Q. WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ - AND HOW LONG AGO DID YOU READ IT?

» Unshakeable by Anthony Robbins, which

I read last week. This book has practical information on how to invest your money and

reach financial freedom. It's a great read for anyone wondering what the best thing is to do with their savings.

Q. NAME ONE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY YOU COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT AND TELL US WHY (EXCLUDING YOUR MOBILE PHONE)

» My phone is everything to me, but

excluding that, I would say my AirPods (earphones). I love listening to music; it helps keep me motivated. When they first came out, I wasn't that convinced, but honestly, it really has made life easier since having them. Over-the-head phones are fantastic for music, but they are bulky and take up a lot of room in my bag. So AirPods are a real gamechanger, in my opinion!

Q. WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO IN TERMS OF LEADERSHIP AND MENTORSHIP?

» I have a group of women that I absolutely

admire who do amazing things, and I take advice from them at every opportunity. I also look to myself for leadership and mentorship by looking back at past actions and experiences. I often ask myself, "What could I have done better?" or "If I had another opportunity, what would I do differently?". I think having the ability to reflect and analyse your decisions is a skill you have to practice, and it's valuable to do so. It's also important to remember that your decisions are often

borne out of circumstance, so don't beat yourself up too much if you make a mistake. Keep moving forward!

Q. WHICH ACTIVITY ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO DOING WHEN THE PANDEMIC IS OVER?

was amazing. It was such a great feeling. These were in the Financial Adviser of The Year and Woman of the Year- Investment categories.

holiday; it would be great to relax and unwind on a beach. I adore the sunshine, and so to be able to enjoy it all day long would be a great gift – especially after the lack of it this summer.

Q. WHAT INSPIRES YOU IN FINTECH TODAY?

» I am most looking forward to going on

Q. IS THERE A PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT FROM THE PAST 12 MONTHS OF WHICH YOU ARE PARTICULARLY PROUD?

» Being shortlisted out of over 2,000

nominations as a finalist for two Professional Adviser Women in Financial Advice Awards

» I recently attended an evening event

celebrating fintech, and it was so refreshing to see young and female founders. Fintech is changing the face of finance, and it is so inspiring to see the shift. It's more accessible, more diverse, appeals to a much younger audience, and it's more affordable than traditional finance routes. I look forward to more progressive change and a world where we all embrace fintech. fintechmagazine.com

Flexibly build new ﬁnan products to meet your customers’ needs.

ncial

TRANSFORMING THE LIFE INSURANCE SPACE

WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY 24

December 2021

fintechmagazine.com

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

Mark Holweger, President & CEO of Legal & General America, tells us how the sector is transforming in the wake of COVID-19 and innovative technologies

s one of the largest life insurance companies in the US, Legal & General America has been providing protection for families and businesses for more than 70 years. But the past decade has seen a sea of change taking place that has been driven by increased connectivity and digital transformation. Four years ago, Mark Holweger moved to the US from Legal & General UK to become the President & CEO of Legal & General America. He has been at the forefront of the company’s digital transformation – a move that saw Legal & General America well prepared in terms of both services and operations when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Changes in the life insurance space It is hoped that increased digitisation and regulation changes in the US life insurance sector since the pandemic will make life insurance protection far more readily and easily available to customers. It’s an area that Holweger, who spent many years in the UK life insurance sector, is passionate about. “I think my background gave me an understanding of international businesses. My career started on the P&C side working for various international companies, running really broad spectrum and distribution channels,” he explains. 26

December 2021

Example of an image caption fintechmagazine.com

IF YOUR POST-IT HABIT IS MORE THAN A PACK A DAY YOU MAY HAVE FOMA. We know what it’s like to feel FOMA, or Fear Of Missing Anything. That’s why we’ve created insurance risk assessment tools that provide the most comprehensive picture of your applicants, making it easier than ever to identify risks and opportunities.

Milliman IntelliScript® See more. Fear less.

Video Placeholder 728.504 px * 416.288 px

WELCOMING DISRUPTION WITH A FEARLESS “YES/AND” MINDSET

By contrast, leaders who flourish through disruption have a “yes/and” mindset. They manage to preserve venerable cultures and brands even as

Digital underwriting got a boost from the pan-

they adopt groundbreaking new tech—not for its

demic, but insurtech—the real industry disruptor

own sake but because it generates real ROI.

—made its debut long before COVID-19 forced widespread change. Forward-thinking insurers

Insurers who’ve partnered with IntelliScript over the last 20 years can attest to that ROI.

began implementing Milliman IntelliScript’s data- IntelliScript offers ingenious but pragmatic data driven innovations years ago, but insurtech’s

aggregation and interpretation solutions that

early adopters didn’t just act because they were

modernize workflows, speed up decisions, and cut

afraid of missing out. They were afraid of missing

costs. It’s harnessed AI with its Risk Score predic-

anything—whether it was information that would

tive models and instantly illuminated hidden risks

refine decisions or the opportunity to write more

like tobacco and cancer with Medical Data.

business, trim a loss ratio, and meet changing customer expectations.

Christensen recognized changing business models and expanding markets as two hallmarks

Harvard’s Clayton Christensen popularized the of disruption. We can see those two things term “disruption” in his bestseller, The Innovator’s

happening today, as insurtech powers direct-

Dilemma. He noted that disruptive technologies

to-consumer distribution and makes it possible

rarely took legacy companies by surprise. Rather,

for carriers to profitably extend coverage to the

CEOs underestimated new tech or adopted a wait-

middle market.

and-see attitude—an unduly cautious either/or

As the original industry disruptor, IntelliScript is

mentality that impeded progress. By the time they

ready to help carriers meet whatever comes next.

were ready to move, customer expectations (and

With a “yes/and” mindset—and the right partner—

brand preferences) had moved on.

disruption can be welcomed, not feared.

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

Legal & General America: Transforming the Life Insurance space

“ There is no one size fits all ‘plug and play’ business model solution. Just a couple of variables in a business model means it won't work in another country” MARK HOLWEGER

PRESIDENT & CEO, LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

Holweger then moved into running emerging markets – which he says, encompasses basically every country bar the UK and the United States. He learned about international markets. He also set up and co-founded a new international digital direct to consumer broker, which, based in Gibraltar, distributes P&C products in Europe and the UK. 30

December 2021

“These experiences made me realise that there is no one size fits all ‘plug and play’ business model solution. And just a couple of variables in a business model means it won't work in another country either,” he says. Business models in new markets Holweger cites cultural and behavioural differences as the main drivers that prevent certain business models from working in other markets and says that the US life insurance market is fundamentally different to that of the UK as buying policies and getting coverage can be a long and arduous task. Holweger is dedicated to tackling these issues and transforming the space in his position as President & CEO of Legal & General America. “Insurance is about getting people back on track when things go terribly wrong. It’s about enabling them to carry on with their life,” he says, “and that’s what attracted me to it. I think we can make a real difference to society and help families.”

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

Because obtaining life insurance cover in the US is generally a drawn out process, it can also be expensive. As a result, only certain demographics prioritise having cover – and generally, these customers are within high income brackets. This is an aspect that needs to change, Holweger says, because those that fall hardest when tragedy strikes are the vulnerable, low to middle earning families who simply either can’t afford cover, or have chosen not to take it out because it’s difficult to apply for - and it's expensive. “Protection for this section of society needs to be more flexible,” says Holweger. “For me, life insurance is the life jacket, and how much life insurance you want depends if you just want a basic life jacket or you maybe need a safety boat. It's up to you, but it has to offer affordability as well.”

MARK HOLWEGER TITLE: PRESIDENT AND CEO INDUSTRY: INSURANCE LOCATION: MARYLAND, UNITED STATES Mark Holweger is President and CEO of Legal & General America’s insurance division, which includes operating companies Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York. He is responsible for the dayto-day operations of the business, ensuring service excellence, continued distribution expansion and achievement of the digital transformation strategy. In 2011, he joined Legal & General Group in the UK where he held a number of senior level positions including Managing Director, Partnerships for Legal & General Insurance

Digital transformation Holweger is adamant that digital transformation has provided the tools life insurance providers in the US need to offer better, faster, easier and lower cost cover.

and Director of Broker and Intermediary for Legal & General’s General Insurance business. In 2018, Mark relocated to the US as Executive Vice President of Distribution and Marketing for Legal & General America. Prior to joining Legal & General, Mark was a co-founder of Coverwise.com, an International digital insurance broker,

1981

and held various

Year founded

senior roles at other

630+

Insurance Group

According to a

2020

LIMRA Insurance Barometer Study, just

54%

of all Americans have life insurance coverage

EXECUTIVE BIO

Number of employees

insurers including RSA UK where he was Distribution Director for Emerging markets and AXA Insurance UK where he was Director of Corporate Partnerships.

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

“ The reality as well is sometimes missed in all this. As life insurers, we're there to pay claims. And 99% plus of claims are paid whether it's in the UK or the US” MARK HOLWEGER

PRESIDENT & CEO, LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

And for his team at Legal & General America, the task of reducing the protection gap can’t happen soon enough. According to a 2020 LIMRA Insurance Barometer Study, just 54% of all Americans have life insurance coverage. The number has declined over the past decade, as in 2010 63% of US citizens had some form of insurance protection. The study also shows there are 60 million uninsured and underinsured households in the US. Holweger says, “Our whole strategy actually, even pre-COVID, was all around digital transformation and making life insurance more accessible. We've already been pioneering and driving the use of data, leveraging new technology and digital platforms to make the purchase of life insurance easier. 32

December 2021

“We've taken a lot of our learnings from the UK. But one of the big differences in the US is the requirement of a medical or the need to often have a medical where you're taking fluids, which happens far less in the UK.” The procedures are triggered by contestability, explains Holweger, who points out that in the UK, a life insurer can check the information was correct at the time of claim. However, in the US, after two years, even if the information you collect about the customer was incorrect at the time - or maybe the customer made a mistake and didn't tell you about a medical condition they had, insurers must still pay a claim. “This is why in the US, the process has been so complex and it takes so long,” he says. “It takes months historically to get offered life insurance cover, and that's

because of all the medical records, asking customers to go to the doctors to have fluids taken to check that the life insurers have all the data.” While life insurers in the US inevitably dislike the two-year rule, Holweger takes a practical approach. “The reality as well is sometimes missed in all this. As life insurers, we're there to pay claims. And 99% plus of claims are paid whether it's in the UK or the US. But like I say, there's that significant difference between the two markets which historically has made life insurance in the US more complex and more expensive to buy.” Changing the culture But it’s not only processes that need to be streamlined. Marketing, distribution and creating products that suit the needs and

budgets of the uninsured, also must be prioritised. Holweger says that over the four years he’s been working in the US market, he has encountered several critical barriers that need to be addressed. “One of the key drivers of the protection gap is the cost of distribution. The need to have medicals, the fact it was taking months to get on cover, the fact that it's expensive; these are all preventing the industry from reaching new markets. Very often, brokers say, ‘I can't afford to talk to middle America and down because I don't make enough money because it takes so long to get on cover.’ There's such a complex process involved. “So, they just talk to the wealthy and sell life insurance to this audience. That is why the gap has developed. Nobody is talking to people in middle America and below about fintechmagazine.com

YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE, INSURED. Sophisticated web solutions are no longer value-added, they are expected. We can help.

Serving and protecting your customers is your number one priority. Your digital presence is ours. Legal & General America partnered with Progress Siteﬁnity® and Americaneagle.com to advance their digital presence, and transform their customer’s online experience. Learn why they are being recognized as a leader in the ﬁeld. Digital transformation journey Starting in 2017, Legal & General America (LGA) embarked on an enterprise-wide digital transformation journey. Very early in this journey, it was clear that the leading component for the company’s digital

implementation provided by Americaneagle.com and Progress Siteﬁnity®, the website will continue to empower a ﬂourishing digital transformation for LGA. The redeveloped website and digital marketing strategies have shown great results.

transformation success would be the online brand experience of customers and advisors. Beginning with the LGA website, the brand had to consistently deliver

34%

27%

Increase in Search Engine Keyword Success

Increase YOY in Sales Conversion Rates

an online experience that engaged, converted, supported, and retained customers. The customers needed to feel protected that their security was paramount. At the same time, the website had to serve advisors, equipping them with the right assets to promote day-to-day success.

. Visitor-ﬁrst experience while growing reach Progress Siteﬁnity® and Americaneagle.com, a global digital agency, were selected to add their extensive digital solutions experience and capabilities to execute LGA’s digital transformation plan. The combined

Every day we ﬁnd a new tool, or we have a new set of data we

efforts of the IT team, marketing team, and these two

want to integrate. Every time we

partners led to the implementation of a new Siteﬁnity

want to do a new integration, it’s

website. The Siteﬁnity platform has provided the

so easy to do it. Siteﬁnity takes

scalability, integration, agility, and operability that LGA

all the headaches away that we

desired.

used to have.

Within the website are two rebranded experiences one for customers and the other for advisors, now tailoring content to the appropriate audience. Both customers and advisors have expressed conﬁdence

Megan Morris, Brand & Experience Manager, Legal & General America

and satisfaction in using the new website. This sophistication is just one small sample of the customized strategies now in place to drive increased reach, conversions, and revenue. As a result of the

Read the Full Story

“ Nobody is talking to people in middle America and below about the benefits of life insurance. That's what we have to change” MARK HOLWEGER

PRESIDENT & CEO, LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

December 2021

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

the benefits of life insurance. That's what we have to change. We have to make it easy and accessible for all families in America.” Another barrier to market entry is the fact that life insurance isn’t something that protects the obvious, as other types of cover do. And getting the message across that having life insurance can be – well, lifesaving in the event of a crisis – isn’t an easy task. “People don't wake up in the morning and think, ‘You know what, I'm going to go and buy some life insurance.’ They might think about a house and a car because it's a tangible asset, but not with life insurance,” says Holweger, who believes that getting the message across to that market segment is all about good communication and better accessibility. Digitisation is also an essential ingredient. “When you explain to somebody what life insurance does and actually how affordable it is, because basic term insurance is not expensive, they say, ‘Well, why wouldn't anybody buy that?’ But somebody has to explain to them, and that's not happening in the United States because the cost of distribution was just too high. “That's why digitising and making it easier and simpler is going to transform the market, '' he says. “It will make life insurance more accessible for more people, but most importantly it'll mean that they can become educated. And you have to explain to the customer exactly what life insurance does.” A rapidly changing market Despite the fact that the pandemic has placed many global industries under unprecedented strain, the US life insurance sector has actually been driven forward over the past two years. Holweger says that not only has it placed mortality at the forefront of people’s minds, but it's resulted in insurance companies becoming more agile, fintechmagazine.com

Add Speed, Ease and Clarity Achieve a clear, robust picture of an applicant’s health history with ExamOne’s powerful, unique data solutions LabPiQture™ and ScriptCheck®. Learn More > TWITTER

December 2021

FACEBOOK

YOUTUBE

åINSTAGRAM

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

“ By putting low code into our business we can have our people able to adapt the journeys and build the journeys as well” MARK HOLWEGER

PRESIDENT & CEO, LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

innovative and embracing new technologies. Legal & General America has also started to offer cover that suits the marketplace better, in that it is easier to apply for – and more cost effective. “We've absolutely seen more interest in our products since the beginning of the pandemic – and that’s mainly because COVID has made American families think about the ‘what ifs’. However, the increased interest has also been a result of the product which we offer. It’s fairly straightforward. It isn’t complex. The policy is backed by an upstanding, financially stable company.” Holweger says that change was forced to happen during the pandemic because

providers could not expect their customers to go to clinics to have medical examinations that would enable policies. The event essentially acted as a catalyst for the insurance industry in the US to leap forward and innovate via the use of data, thus transforming the space for providers and customers alike. “It's really made life insurers realise we have to change how we operate. Legal & General America were already going down that route. But it accelerated the process. We’re using data analytics and AI, to reduce the number of questions we have to ask and we can use data to get instant decisions. Currently in the US we're over 25% in terms fintechmagazine.com

LEGAL & GENERAL AMERICA

of instant decision, and we're on our way to targeting 50%. This is transformational for the US market because it enables customers to achieve instant cover.” Holweger says Legal & General America is focusing heavily on its digital platform, which works on agile principles, carrying out sprint releases every two weeks as part of the company’s strategy to allow for great flexibility and constant development. This ensures the platform stays up to date with the changing market trends. The underwriting process has also been reinvigorated through robotic process automation (RPA) to create better efficiency. This has enabled Legal & General America to keep their pricing competitive and therefore 40

December 2021

more accessible to customers. Low code is another aspect that has been transformational. “We don't have to have complex programmers doing all the work. By putting low code into our business we can have our people able to adapt the journeys and build the journeys as well. So we're leveraging lots of things at Legal & General America,” he says. Future-proof strategies Clearly, Legal & General America is leading the way as life insurance in the US transforms, and Holweger says the journey is an exciting one, which will be dominated by new distribution channels, data driven processes, clearer and more customer friendly products and services as well as better cost value products.

“New companies will realise that because everything is digital, it can all be done via mobile on apps, customers can go instantly on cover. It means that we'll get new distribution channels coming into the market to talk to families about the importance of life insurance.” More industry mergers But alongside this shift, companies and the ecosystem will see dramatic changes. Holweger says that traditional providers will have to change if they want to survive, and this will result in two outcomes. Some will embrace the new technologies. Others will decide that the new market requirements are not for them.

“There will almost certainly be a rise in M&A as company owners sell up to other businesses. Equally, we will see a rise in partnerships as traditional companies collaborate with insurtechs to diversify their offerings and find more technology appropriate solutions to legacy processes,” he says. The future, it seems, is a positive place to be, because reinvention is revitalising the industry. He adds, “One thing about brokers, they adapt because they are smart people, and these changes we’re seeing are really exciting.”

fintechmagazine.com

PARTNERED UP: BANKING AND THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

December 2021

BANKING

Forming strategic partnerships to drive growth is becoming a critical part of the banking industry’s future-proofing strategy

cosystems, digital partners, and collaboration. These nowfamiliar terms are commonplace in the banking, finserve and technology industries. As legacy systems struggle to morph into entities that can operate on the new digital plane, partnering has become more than just a buzzword. For many companies, these business relationships are their salvation in a time of unprecedented change. While fintech startups have the advantage of designing their core processes and models around digital transformation, they often hit stumbling blocks when it comes to growing their businesses. By comparison, incumbents hold all the cards with a ready database of willing customers and usually a big budget to finance the seachange. However, for those well-established, hallowed halls of finance, adopting new technologies and practices is expensive. It’s also disruptive, and entirely alien in terms of lean and agile principles and the latest BI practices. The remedy for this situation lies in collaboration and ‘side line’ rather than core developments. For example, many banks today, rather than attempt to transform themselves too fast and risk mistakes, have taken to launching digital versions of themselves as subsidiary arms. And they partner with software and technology solutions companies to make the magic happen.

fintechmagazine.com

Meet the Top 100 Leaders in FinTech

OUT NOW

A BizClik Media Group Brand

December 2021

fintech m

agazine

.com

TOP LEAD ERS 2021

Creating Digital Communities

BANKING

“ The reality is that banks’ IT operating models aren’t typically geared towards third-party collaboration” PAUL CRERAND MULESOFT

Strictly business partners According to Nikolai Hack, Head of Strategy and Partnerships at Nucoro, the partner networks revolution has resulted in a couple of marked events. He says that two things have happened in recent times. The first is that partnering (as opposed to building or buying) has moved from the fringes and auxiliary parts of a proposition to its core. He says, “Whereas in the past, you would have partnered on non-essential aspects like KYC checks and digital signatures, now you partner on key parts of the offering like your lending or saving products.” The second change is that whereas partnering used to be mainly a tool for smaller players to move faster, it has now also moved from fintech and challengers to the biggest incumbents in the space.

Exactly when these shifts took place is difficult to decipher, but Hack believes there is a fine line between partnering and the more classical way of looking at it as using the services (or integrating the products) of an outside player. “One thing is certain, however, the government-imposed lockdowns and forced closures of physical businesses have shown many players that they need to move faster in their digital transformation – and partnering allows you to do that,” he concludes. Todi Pruteanu, VP of Ecosystems at FintechOS, offers insight into this. “Through a partner network, banks can accelerate the speed-to-market and distribution of fintech solutions, and in return fintechs can gain access to banks and the banks’ customers,” he says. “The reason why these networks have grown in popularity is because they benefit both parties.” Pruteanu believes the relationship between fintechs and banks is complicated and becoming more complex. “Fintechs fintechmagazine.com

“ It is only logical that we will see more partnering happening in the future” NIKOLAI HACK NUCORO

initially set out to replace banks and “eat their lunch.” Many are still looking to do so. But over time, competition has evolved into collaboration. “Whether a bank is small or large, they’re all collaborating with fintechs. That could be through partnering with them, acquiring them, or funding them. It’s quite clear that competition has made way for collaboration, where we now live in the era of the partnership.” A shift in perception Some experts say the shift has been due to several factors, and that the incumbent sector embracing partnerships is indicative of changes that are yet to take place. Mahmood Noorani, CEO of Quant Insight explains, “The banking sector is quickly waking up to the fact that partner networks 46

December 2021

with specialist fintech providers can have a major impact on performance, cost-saving, and customer services. Rather than seeing fintech companies as a threat, the big banks should see them as a hotbed of innovation that can enhance their existing services.” Generally, says Noorani, the real push began in March 2020 – uncoincidentally at the start of the pandemic. Up until this point, small fintech operatives and incumbents had been competing, with banks in a superior position. “Banks have talked a strong game on fintech and innovation, but in practice, few are really moving. This has started to shift in the last 18 months. In the investment space, we’re already working in partnership with several major banks providing quantitative

BANKING

API trends in banking

financial market analytics and trading insights, to enhance decision-making.” Noorani now believes fintechs have the upper hand. “From analytics, AI capabilities to cloud computing and payments services, fintech companies have so much to offer traditional banks,” he says. Advantages of partner networks The pros to partnering up with an expert operative are numerous, and, says Hack, provides three, distinct advantages to banks. These are: • Reducing risk and complexity: By relying on a tried and trusted technology or product that is already running and operating successfully elsewhere you can remove a whole lot of uncertainty from the decision making process for or against a project.

APIs have transformed the partner network space because they have simplified the act of diversifying services, products and solutions. Application programming interfaces (API) streamline programming and are defined as ‘low code’, because they provide all the required building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer. Paul Crerand of Mulesoft offers his thoughts and a case study on the use of APIs in banking. He says, “APIs will emerge as the preferred solution for building partner networks, acting as a central mechanism for enabling the integration that banks require. We’ve already seen how this works in practice. “For example, UK-based SME-lender Allica Bank uses APIs to connect its apps, data, and devices, so it can quickly bring together all of its digital capabilities and plug in those of other organisations to create market-leading experiences. “Allica’s brokerage portal has been rated the best on the market by its customers, because its API-led approach enables it to draw data from a variety of external sources to speed up the overall lending process dramatically.”

• Faster innovation: A core principle of the modern economy is the separation of tasks and the efficiency gains we derive from it. By focussing on what you're good at and getting someone else to do the other bits, everybody can play to their strengths and bring new propositions to life or launch a new product faster than otherwise possible. • Developing outside the box: Banks' legacy systems are hopelessly convoluted and fintechmagazine.com

BANKING

reform and innovation from within is hard, if not impossible. Connecting an existing stack to something that runs mostly outside your architecture can sometimes be the only way forward to do anything meaningful new at all. And it buys you time to work on the restoration of the core and transition your organisation bit by bit instead of all at once. However, any large-scale move cannot be without consequences. Hack advises that there are aspects to be mindful of. He says, “You have to be aware that you won't be building up native IP and owned capacity in whatever area you are partnering in. The core expertise for a technology, process, or product will sit with the player you cooperate with, not with you. “It is unlikely that you want to be, or can be, an expert in all fields that collectively make up your business proposition. Hence this focus on what matters should probably help.” Despite this drawback though, on balance, as long as companies do their homework and make the necessary preparations, partner networks are a good idea. He continues, “You have to rely on the partner to do their job right, probably without knowing much about their secret sauce. Since you are more likely to partner in areas that you are less familiar with (which is the reason why you are partnering in the first place) you have to make sure that a proper due diligence process is in place.” Pruteanu expands on this point, saying that partner networks can help to build a wider range of complimentary services and products to acquire more customers and boost profitability. 48

December 2021

“To avoid problems, there are essential requirements that need to be in place. For example, there must be trust between parties. Without mutual trust, especially in a world where data privacy is becoming paramount, the relationship will be problematic. “Moreover, financial service providers need solutions to any problem. Any collaboration must deliver a tried and tested holistic solution rather than a bundle of different and hard to connect tools.”

“ We fully expect partner networks to expand dramatically in the coming years, particularly in a postCovid economy” MAHMOOD NOORANI QUANT INSIGHT

A boom in APIs And ultimately, technology and the setup of legacy systems means partnerships are not only advantageous, but also unavoidable. Even so, making them work in practice is not without its challenges. Paul Crerand – Field CTO EMEA at MuleSoft, explains, “Making partner networks work in practice is often far from straightforward. The reality is that banks’ IT operating models aren’t typically geared towards third-party collaboration. All too often, banking IT is a complicated mix of

legacy systems, where valuable customer data is scattered across disparate silos. This makes it difficult for banks to draw the right customer data sets together to collaborate with others.” Crerand says that to navigate these challenges, banks are increasingly implementing API-led integration. By placing APIs in front of each system they need to draw data from banks that can become more composable and, exposing their IT assets as a network of reusable capabilities that others can discover and tap into. “A third-party wishing to make use of a certain banking capability can simply plug the bank’s API into their own product or service, to create a connected customer experience. The more that banks are able to open themselves up in this manner, the more opportunities they have to join new value chains, unlocking more revenue as a result.” Partner networks of the future Strategic partnerships are here to stay – and the technology driving them will continue to iron out the challenges many of them, still in their relative infancy, are facing. This is a conclusion most experts agree on. fintechmagazine.com

BANKING

“ There must be trust between parties. Without mutual trust, especially in a world where data privacy is becoming paramount, the relationship will be problematic” TODI PRUTEANU FINTECHOS

Noorani says, “We fully expect partner networks to expand dramatically in the coming years, particularly in a post-Covid economy. Forward-thinking banks will look to nurture partnerships as well as acquire and embed fintech into their existing services to stay ahead of the competition.” Hack also believes this is the logical step forward, because, in an ever more complex world of constantly evolving technology, “regulatory and commercial frameworks intertwined with faster changing consumer demands and expectations, it is only logical that we will see more partnering happening in the future.” Crerand concludes, that with customer expectations for frictionless digital services at an all-time high and continuing to rise, “APIs will become a crucial cornerstone of banks’ IT strategies, offering the flexibility and agility they need to become ‘digital ready’ and continue to redefine customer expectations and industry standards for connected experiences.” fintechmagazine.com

December 2021

TABLEAU

Visualise to monetise WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK

fintechmagazine.com

December 2021

TABLEAU

View data clearly with Tableau’s simple, self-service analytics platform which empowers customers to make gamechanging, data-driven decisions

Peter Chizlett

isualise to monetise with Tableau,” is the message from Peter Chizlett, Regional Vice President of Embedded Analytics at Tableau EMEA, who is helping organisations transform the way they use data. The post-covid business landscape will see the ‘survival of the data fittest’ with those that win adopting both a data transformation and harnessing the monetisation of that data. Tableau is working with organisations to share data clearly using its intuitive selfservice analytics platform which empowers users of any skill level to make game-changing data-driven decisions, solve problems and leverage insights. “The race is on. Companies need to evolve fast to survive and thrive,” said Chizlett, speaking from his home office near London. “All organisations, large or small, have data and all of them are doing, or thinking about doing something, with that data externally. So the race is on – it's a form of digital Darwinism.” Tens of thousands of organisations around the world, such as Charles Schwab, Verizon, Schneider Electric, Southwest Airlines and Netflix, rely on Tableau to help them, and their customers, see and understand data. Tableau was founded in 2003 in Mountain View, California, and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. In 2019 the company was acquired by Salesforce for US$15.7 billion and continues to scale its mission to help its customers see and understand data – while also focusing on R&D. fintechmagazine.com

TABLEAU

“Salesforce realised the analytics platform could give them the edge in their offerings to customers. We're already starting to see the benefits of ownership by Salesforce with Einstein Discovery being added to the Tableau platform and even more horsepower behind innovation and R&D.”

PETER CHIZLETT TITLE: R EGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, EMEA LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM INDUSTRY: COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Mission to see and understand data Tableau’s mission is to enable people to see and understand data and make decisions based on these findings. “If you think about what came before business intelligence tools, it was typically rows and columns of numbers so it was hard to identify anomalies or opportunities,” said Chizlett who cites working with an airline that was mystified why they had an absenteeism problem. “We worked with the airline who didn't know the problem was with scheduling until they put their data into Tableau. It revealed that the absenteeism was always on a Tuesday because the staff couldn't be rostered again until several days later if they’d phoned in sick on the Tuesday.

Pete Chizlett has had various roles in the technology sector for more than 25 years. Embarking on his career at Hewlett-Packard he quickly moved from internal to field sales roles before starting with the Microsoft Services division in 2008. Chizlett started leading teams at Microsoft in 2012 where he focused on Business Application sales and went on to lead teams in both Enterprise and Commercial segments. In April 2019 he joined Tableau to lead sales teams covering Northern EMEA before leading the Embedded Analytics and OEM Solutions Business. He lives in Binfield with his wife and two children.

2003 EXECUTIVE BIO

Year founded

50,000+ Number of employees

US$15.7bn The amount Salesforce paid for Tableau

86,000+

Organisations around the world, rely on Tableau

TABLEAU

Visualise to monetise

“This is not something they would find in a spreadsheet. They could only see this when the data was visualised – through a heat map or a graph – so that's how we help organisations. In this case it helped improve employee satisfaction by changing rostering policies, and we know employee satisfaction drives revenue and customer loyalty – which is one of many ways of monetising data, albeit indirectly.” Another example of monetising data is used by a major online retailer in the UK that charges suppliers to access information on what items are best-sellers. “This allows suppliers to tailor their promotions, pricing and supply to all of their retailers,” said Chizlett. “This customer helps external organisations find their own insights and act upon those.”

“ Visualise to monetise with Tableau” PETER CHIZLETT

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF EMBEDDED ANALYTICS, TABLEAU EMEA

Tivian as a customer and partner “At Salesforce and Tableau, our number one value is trust. Together, we use our currency of trust to earn the privilege of being our customers’ guide to success in their strategic transformations,” said Chizlett. “We are only successful if they are successful. When a customer uses our products, internally our customer success experts are brilliant fintechmagazine.com

TIVIAN: EXPERIENCE DATA THAT DRIVES SOLUTIONS

UNDERSTANDING

EXPERIENCE DATA

“At Tivian, we continually try to improve the employee and customer experience, and we partner with a lot of large companies like Ipsos, Kantar PwC, and, of course, Tableau Software,” says Austin. “Survey data is some of the most complex data, and it is the job of me and my team to make it understandable.” Commenting on future plans, Austin says they are focused on delving deeper into AI and more text analytics.

EXPERIENCE DATA THAT DRIVES SOLUTIONS Tivian - described as “open and creative” by partner Tableau Software - drives solutions with their experience data by always asking: Why?

Asking the simple question “Why?” helps Tivian enrich data for its global partners and improve the customer and employee experience. Tivian is a leader in experience intelligence management. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, which has been operating across 35 countries for more than 20 years, partners with Tableau Software to drive solutions by analysing internal and external data. “Under the hood, Tivian is a Ferrari for uncovering business challenges,” says Rob Austin, Director of Business Intelligence at Tivian. “We collect experience data, analyse and interpret it using Artificial Intelligence (AI), and turn it into actionable solutions. “I think of data and business intelligence as a sat nav, which helps you make decisions. But when you add experience data, it’s like having live traffic information,” says Austin.

EXTERNAL BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Tivian focuses on external business intelligence. “We look at our customers and our customers’ customers and share those dashboards out to them. We look at the ‘Why?’ question. We can get this by asking the right people, by doing market research. We try to enrich that ‘what’ data with the ‘why’ to give us a fuller picture.” Austin notes that Tivian’s team of experts in customer and employee experience data sets the company apart from its competitors. “We tend to have millions of data points, and we use cutting edge AI and text analytics to drive this.

Intelligent experience management tivian.com

TABLEAU

“ All organisations, large or small, have data, and all of them are doing, or thinking about doing something with that data. So the race is on – it's a form of digital Darwinism” PETER CHIZLETT

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF EMBEDDED ANALYTICS, TABLEAU EMEA

December 2021

TABLEAU

at helping them deploy and adopt so they get maximum value. When the user is one step away from us, we have to truly partner with our customer to ensure they are successful and their customers are successful too. One company that has been a great customer and partner since 2014 is Tivian who are very open and creative. “We've recently started working much more proactively together as part of our

Embedded Partnership Programme. This entails closer insights into the Tableau product group for Tivian, but also Tivian feeding back to our product group. They're the ones that are closest to our customers. This helps us take insights and develop our products to meet customer needs. “Our Embedded Partner Programme also means we are agreed on business goals, things that Tivian wants to achieve. We approach those goals together to see fintechmagazine.com

TABLEAU

how Tableau and Salesforce can help Tivian be successful in their markets. “We know that by working with Tivian, we're helping an innovative partner in the world of analytics. When you consider your own product as the gold standard in analytics, as we do, that makes for a pretty good partnership.” Competitive differentiation Chizlett pointed out that one of the benefits of embedding analytics into either B2B portals, websites or software for customers or governments is creating competitive differentiation. “As consumers and citizens demand more information, competitive differentiation is an essential trait. If you think back over the last 18 months, the demand for information among citizens in uncertain times was really high and it was all about being engaged, transparent and delivering value. So, not just giving citizens information, it's about giving them insights by which they can make decisions to make their lives better,” he said. “The same applies in business. “If we look at B2B organisations, it is not just about competitive differentiation, but you also have to be able to expose or share analytics and insights with customers because that is what they are looking for no more than ever. “For Independent Software Vendors (ISV) it's competitive differentiation again. You no longer log into an application without expecting to see some insights from the application, otherwise, many of these applications are just information repositories. Unless you get insights out of them, they're sometimes nothing more than a good place to file information. In their own right, information repositories are helpful 62

December 2021

“ We know that by working with Tivian, we're helping an innovative partner in the world of analytics. When you consider your own product as the gold standard in analytics, as we do, that makes you a pretty good partnership” PETER CHIZLETT

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF EMBEDDED ANALYTICS, TABLEAU EMEA fintechmagazine.com

DID YOU KNOW...

TIMELINE OF TABLEAU SOFTWARE Tableau was founded by Chris Stolte, Pat Hanrahan and Christian Chabot when the Department of US Defence approached the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University for a project to look at people’s ability to analyse data. According to Peter Chizlett, Regional Vice President of Embedded Analytics , for Tableau EMEA, Stolte searched the market for tools but was disappointed. “The rest, as they say, is history… Tableau, and VizQL, the underlying engine that drives the platform, was born. “Over the next 10 years, Stolte, Chabot and Hanrahan built out a multimillion dollar business, which IPO’d in 2013. The reason it was so successful is because there was nothing else really out there that was so

user-friendly, and Tableau has always been innovating to meet the evolving needs of their users.” In 2019 Tableau was acquired by Salesforce for $15.7 billion which has allowed for more R&D and potential for growth. Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce said: "We are bringing together the world's #1 CRM with the #1 analytics platform. “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers. It's truly the best of both worlds for our customers--bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.”

TABLEAU

“ Salesforce realised that the analytics platform could give them the edge in their engagement with customers. We're already starting to see the benefits of ownership by Salesforce with the Einstein Discovery being added to the Tableau platform and more focus on R&D” PETER CHIZLETT

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF EMBEDDED ANALYTICS, TABLEAU EMEA

but delivering insights from that information can be transformative for their customers.” What is Einstein Discovery? Powered by machine learning (ML), Einstein Discovery delivers predictions and recommendations within Tableau workflows for smarter decision-making. “Einstein Discovery is incredibly intuitive and it's helping Tableau deliver analytics to everybody. So analytics as part of this mission will be ubiquitous. It also means that from an embedded standpoint, our customer’s customers can ask questions about the data.”

The platform allows data scientists, analysts, and business users across an organisation to create powerful predictive models without needing to write algorithms. It is a no-code environment that empowers anyone to quickly and confidently make decisions guided by ethical, transparent AI in Tableau. It allows users to bring tomorrow into today’s decisions with just a few clicks by embedding custom predictions anywhere people can view or use Tableau. Einstein Discovery insights are integrated into your Tableau workflow, to ensure it does not disrupt analysis. Future forecast Chizlett said the future of embedded analytics is looking strong with a compound annual growth rate of 14% up until 2027.

TABLEAU

“ At Salesforce and Tableau, our number one value is trust. Together, we use our currency of trust to earn the privilege of being our customers’ guide to success in their strategic transformations. We are only successful if they are successful” PETER CHIZLETT

REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF EMBEDDED ANALYTICS, TABLEAU EMEA

December 2021

TABLEAU

“In uncertain times, people, citizens, customers and businesses are looking for data more and more to give them certainty. The pandemic has meant that many organisations have accelerated their digital transformation but this also means there has to be a data transformation. “Every single customer has data and that data is growing. Monetising that data doesn't necessarily have to be building new products, but it can be giving yourselves competitive differentiation or business advantage through leveraging that data. “I think solving problems and curiosity is human nature. We have more than a

million members in the Tableau community who are passionate about seeing and understanding data. If you ask a question of the community around Tableau, you'll get the answer, I wouldn't say it's an Olympic sport yet, but watch out…” Discover more with Tableau Whitepapers: Power of Data Analytics in Fintech Solutions Data Monetisation

fintechmagazine.com

AUTOMATION AND

PAYMENT

TRANSFORMATION

December 2021

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

The transformation of the digital payments space is moving faster than anyone could have anticipated in the wake of the pandemic WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

“ Paytech will be unrecognisable, and the need for automation will be as antiquated as cheques are today” JASON OLLIVIER CONTIS

ack in 2019 - before the world shifted on its axis, digital payment solutions from chip and pin and online transactions, to ApplePay were thriving. At that time, according to data released by the Federal Bank of San Francisco, US consumers used cash in 26% of their transactions, and this was down from 30% in 2017. The diminishing role of physical money was sedately winding itself down, allowing everyone to adjust accordingly. Then earlier this year, the same source released its most recent findings - and revealed that cash usage in 2020 had dropped dramatically to just 19%. Data suggests cash will drop further still, and could even go as low as 10% by the end of 2022. Fear of spreading COVID-19 through the use of banknotes and increased online shopping has hit traditional currencies hard, and even though the world has now opened up, the numbers continue to tumble. As cold hard cash and pocket-jangling change becomes increasingly obsolete, financial technology companies are finding evermore ingenious ways to help us do business through digital payment solutions. From voice recognition biometrics to blockchain technology and seamless Amazon store payments, automation is at the heart of this massive transformation. fintechmagazine.com

FINANCE THAT SCALES WITH YOU Easy multi-entity management and reporting Sage Intacct cloud finance software for financial services

LEARN MORE

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

A glimpse into the future of payments But what will this fast-moving financial future look like, and who will benefit from the transition? According to a recent survey by Marqeta, the way we pay our bills and make purchases will look very different in a decade. Those debit and credit cards we love to carry will almost certainly become obsolete, while slick mobile payment apps will also disappear. The research found that: • The future iterations of ambient commerce include a mixture of facial recognition and AI-based decision making • Payments may become increasingly invisible as we move to more “ambient” models of commerce – such as the recent emergence of till-less grocery stores. By 2030, this will evolve even further so there will be no cards or payments devices. Instead, a person’s biometric data would be captured by cameras, along with the item they are purchasing and sent directly to their bank. While (32%) of surveyed consumers find the idea of ambient commerce ‘creepy,’ experts believe given how quickly Uber and the like have been accepted as a norm, the convenience would soon win people over • 51% of consumers surveyed saying they would consider using a contactless microchip implant to make payments • 31% of 18–24-year-old respondents say they would be comfortable with AI making automated decisions on their behalf to choose the most ethical way to pay

Changes brought by automation Automation of payments has become the logical solution to what would otherwise be a labour intensive and time consuming process. Martin Rehak, CEO of Resistant AI says manual processing simply isn’t a realistic option anymore, given the volume of transactions payment processors deal with today. This change, although accelerated by the pandemic, was inevitable. He explains, “Human oversight cannot guarantee consistent security against fraud or hacking at those scales. So there is no going back on automation. Done properly, automation can harden many parts of the payment process to improve security — but the caveat, here, is “properly.”

“ Thanks to open banking, fintechs can plug-in-and-play with different APIs in one automated, secure process” FRANCESCO FULCOLI TRANSFERGO

fintechmagazine.com

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

Shannon Kreps, Vice President of product marketing, Medius, a global spend management fintech, agrees. She says, “Automation enables manual and timeconsuming tasks such as the accounts payable (AP) process to be managed far more quickly and accurately.” She also points out that the fundamental purpose of automation is to boost business productivity – for example in the case of AP automation, automating payments enables it to automate workflows, reducing chances of common errors such as incorrect PO numbers, line items not matching POs, missing VAT numbers and invoices that have been addressed to the wrong department, she says, “occur all too frequently.” But it's not only about streamlining back office processes. Automation in the payment solutions space has also been massively instrumental in driving forward ecommerce and enabling multiple payment points. Julie Chariell, Senior Analyst, Fintech, Bloomberg Intelligence believes the proliferation of electronic payments has contributed to greater adoption of e-commerce, by enabling multiple types of payments beyond cash and check at the point store. “This, along with the introduction of NFC (near-field communications) technology, has enabled contactless payments at the point of sale, where smartphones or NFC-enabled cards can be held near a reader as a touchless way to pay. While this technology existed before the pandemic, Covid-19 and the related desire to avoid touching anything, especially cash, drove rapid adoption.” In essence, automation is at the heart of all the latest innovations in the paytech space that are driving the online transaction revolution. 72

December 2021

Payment technology drivers According to Francesco Fulcoli, Chief Compliance Officer for TransferGo, there are currently three main technologies that drive automation in paytech. The first is the way companies acquire customers. Between KYC providers and specialist screening and geolocation technologies, fintechs can verify, process and conduct customer riskassessments in real-time, leading to an onboarding time of under two minutes. Fulcoli explains that as part of this, AI and machine learning is key to the growth of automation in paytech. He says, “When

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

“ We are already seeing retail stores with no cashiers. Shoppers can just grab and go” RON DE BOS

DIGITAL RIVER

Ron De Bos, Director Products Management – Payments for the global ecommerce enabler, Digital River, the global ecommerce enabler, agrees. He says, “AI in the payments industry can enhance customer service, by providing hyperpersonalised credit scores and offers. It can also drive new forms of transactions – we are already seeing retail stores with no cashiers – shoppers can just grab and go. De Bos also points out that AI is responsible for big advances in the areas of payment orchestration, billing optimisation (DCA, TOD submission of renewals optimisation), customer identification and authentication based on multiple data sources, fraud detection, payment optimisation, credit scoring, monitoring, and alerting. applied to transaction monitoring and screening, it can handle requests at scale, and at pace, and is more efficient than other processes in significantly reducing error. “Finally, the method in which fintechs connect to payment systems has been underpinned by automation. Thanks to open banking, fintechs can plug-in-and-play with different APIs in one automated, secure process. Information is exchanged in realtime between different financial providers or intermediaries, enabling the user to enjoy a range of benefits including faster and more secure payments.”

A driver of digital currencies Automated transactions and the development of the space are also set to change the financial markets as we know them. Cryptocurrency and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) are being driven forward at an extraordinary rate because technology is enabling their usage in more and more marketplaces. Indeed, recently the Bank of England issued a warning that cryptocurrency could even lead to another large-scale financial crash that damages the global economic fintechmagazine.com

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

AUTOMATION CASE STUDY Rob Israch, GM Europe, at Tipalti, tells us about how automation has helped scale Hopin “The event technology platform Hopin is one of Europe’s fastest growing start-ups. It launched in June 2019 and was valued at $7.75bn just two years later. It has seen tremendous growth as it helps customers host immersive virtual, hybrid and in-person event experiences. For the company’s finance team, this meant needing to process a huge volume of international payments, initially in a time consuming, manual and complicated manner including manually selecting the correct currencies. Knowing it needed to automate in

December 2021

order to gain the visibility and overview needed to help sustain and scale the company’s growth, the team at Hopin worked with Tipalti to cut out manual intervention and future-proof processes. This meant being able to bring invoice processing back in house, while the multientity setup provides complete visibility across operations.” Melissa Richards, Senior Accounts Payable Analyst at Hopin, “Our workflow is quick and easy with all our payment processes in one central location - the days of juggling different systems and exporting files are long gone – we have no manual intervention. With automated accounts payable, we can continue to scale and not have to add more headcount to keep up.”

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

“ Human oversight cannot guarantee consistent security against fraud or hacking at those scales. So there is no going back on automation” MARTIN REHAK

CEO OF RESISTANT AI

financial system, simply because its accelerated usage shows no sign of slowing down, and its stability is negligible. De Bos says blockchain technology is the motivating factor behind the increased use of crypto - and even the social media giant Facebook is considering entering the digital currency market as a result of it. “The largest and most successful technology for making international payments possible is blockchain. The immutable and transparent nature of blockchain places it at the forefront of the payment industry trends. It's an excellent candidate for an international cashless currency. Even Facebook is planning to create a virtual currency.” Chariell concurs, “Payments automation makes it easy to accept multiple types of payment mechanisms, from cards to digital wallets to bank accounts directly, and most recently, to crypto payments. Visa and Mastercard, the backbone

of the automated payments network, are allowing cards to be used to buy crypto and access crypto accounts to make payments at any merchant accepting their cards.” She adds, “Crypto providers such as Coinbase, have built crypto-wallets for investors to store and transact in their digital currencies, plus tools to help merchants accept crypto-payments.” What will the future of payments look like? As Amazon matches forward with its entirely contactless stores, the world of payments is already becoming unrecognisable when compared to just a decade ago. But what will it look like in the future? Kreps believes it will simply be much more efficient - but this will be driven by necessity rather than innovation for innovation’s sake. “I think [the paytech space] will be much better than today – with increasing trade across borders, especially when there are issues like today with supply chain, we’ll need to find ways to pay suppliers faster and electronically, with increased transparency.

fintechmagazine.com

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

“ Thanks to open banking, fintechs can plug-in-and-play with different APIs in one automated, secure process. Information is exchanged in real-time between different financial providers or intermediaries” JULIE CHARIELL

BLOOMBERG INTELLIGENCE

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

“It will need to be quick to avoid issues in FX fluctuations and to stop suppliers worrying about long settlement times – this space is definitely changing and will allow us to expand where we trade quickly,” she says. Other experts say there will be changes that transform it entirely - and that even automation itself will be outmoded by better technologies. Jason Ollivier, Head of Disruption for Contis, says, “Paytech will be unrecognisable, and the need for automation will be as antiquated as cheques are today. Processes will be so innately efficient that the idea of automation will be redundant.” Ollivier believes that blockchain and open finance movements will be mainstream and act as channels through which data analytics optimise the act and safety of transacting. He says, “Something as painful as getting a mortgage will require me only to input the amount I want to borrow and the property (including the price) I am looking to buy. My identity will automatically be anonymised, relevant information about me will be automatically pulled (salary, years in job, relevant bank account details) and automatically posted for the mortgage providers to review and bid for my business, in similar way to internet advertisers bidding to put their content before an internet user based on the their browsing history.” Ollivier adds, “What comes back to me as a customer is a summary of offers in a form that allows me to either press 'accept' or 'decline'. For me as the user, the process will be streamlined to such a degree that it becomes as simple as, ``this is what I want, and I accept.”

fintechmagazine.com

ANDREW DAY:

TRANSFORMATIONAL

LENDING IN A DIGITAL AGE

WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD

December 2021

PEPPER GLOBAL

fintechmagazine.com

PEPPER GLOBAL

Andrew Day, Chief Data Officer for Pepper Global Financial Services Group, talks technologies, data and emerging market challenges

he world of financial services has shifted, with the past decade particularly having ushered in a raft of new technologies that have transformed the industry globally. Data, the way it is used, and the services companies offer have all undergone massive changes which have been accelerated since the start of the pandemic. Andrew Day, CDO for Pepper Global, believes the use of data will be key in improving the financial wellbeing of millions of people globally, who have been left behind by traditional financial systems. A data and analytics leader with a career background that saw him spend many years in the telecommunications industry, Day believes that the key to better customer services, products, and a healthier financial market, is all dependent on how data is used. In the world of finserve, it’s also a way to bring financial literacy to those who have been sidelined by traditional institutions. Doing data differently Day believes data and its handling is a cross-industry skill – and that all businesses could benefit massively from the correct handling and analysis of data. “I think the headline is that a lot of the problems you solve in any industry with data and analytics are transferable from industry to industry. So how you collect, collate and manage data is the first part of the process. 80

December 2021

Example of an image caption fintechmagazine.com

PEPPER GLOBAL

“ We build innovation projects and experiments that enable us to test the innovations” GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

number one problems in the telco space, for example, is predicting who is going to leave your network and join another person's network. You have exactly the same problem in lending businesses. Who is likely to prepay their loan, move their loan somewhere else?”

A lot of the problems that any business faces in understanding, predicting, and adapting to customer behaviours are completely consistent.” Customer behaviour, he says, is key. And understanding it will result in better business management, regardless of which industry you might be in. “One of the

A company of two halves Pepper Global acts as a lender in multiple countries and a specialist servicer – working with banks, non-banks, fintechs, and funds. Day’s main role is to work out how the organisation can leverage data it gathers from its 13 globe-wide centres, and use it to deliver better outcomes to customers.

ANDREW DAY

December 2021

ANDREW DAY TITLE: GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER COMPANY: PEPPER GLOBAL INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION: LONDON, UK

EXECUTIVE BIO

He describes the task of recognising and managing data as a three-pillared process. The first pillar is recognising that as a group, or rather in the group function. “We don't have a monopoly on good ideas,” says Day. “One of my roles is to work out how we surface the good stuff that's happening in the various business units around the world. We work out what’s happening from a data and analytics and tech perspective. We then make sure that's shared across the group so we can replicate that where appropriate.” The second part of the process involves innovation and experimentation – an area that Day is passionate about. He heads up a team of engineers, data scientists, and technologists, who work with the business

Andrew has responsibility for managing and driving commercial value from Pepper Global’s data and identifying new business opportunities through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. He has extensive experience in driving transformational change through the exploitation of big data across diverse industries, including telecommunications, media, retail and financial services. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science majoring in Geography and Geographic Information Systems with Honours from the University of Salford.

Control Today, Navigate Tomorrow® Powering your automation and transformation journey With the BusinessOptix platform you can: • Document, streamline and evolve your business processes • Manage process variance and risk • Simulate and plan for future growth

CLICK HERE TO CHART YOUR COURSE WITH BUSINESSOPTIX

A D

PEPPER GLOBAL

“ I think the thing with fintech that inspires me is the ability to be customer-focused and data-driven” ANDREW DAY

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

units to identify applications that could potentially deliver value back to Pepper businesses and their customers. He explains, “We build innovation projects and experiments that enable us to test the innovations. When we find ones that work, we push them into the business units and the business units then take ownership and deliver those outcomes to the customers.”

The third pillar of the process involves the upstream customers. Day says, “We work with banks and fintechs, delivering analytic solutions for them on a commercial basis. We take the experience we've got in managing our own business using AI, machine learning & data, and provide that as a commercial service to some of our partners.” By his own admission its broad remit is in a very entrepreneurial business, which Day describes as “very exciting.” Emerging markets and data patterns In his capacity as CDO, Day is playing a lead role in Pepper Global’s decision to use its expertise to launch cutting-edge financial services in Indonesia – which has one of the highest unbanked populations globally. According to a recent report by the Jakarta Post an estimated 66% of fintechmagazine.com

“ The fintech world is all about meeting a customer need through technology and underpinning that with data and insights” ANDREW DAY

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

December 2021

Indonesia’s 275 million-strong population is currently unbanked. Breaking into an emerging market brings with it a massive set of challenges that include lack of technological infrastructure, geographical roadblocks, no financial history and cultural resistance to change. As Day says, “How can you credit check someone with no financial history - or enable people to get into the world of financial services, to build a credit history, and really drive financial inclusion?” Giving customers alternatives in that part of the market, he says, is a huge opportunity that is massively beneficial for nations and customers alike. “The idea that you can make borrowing accessible, get people onto the financial services ladder, and enable them to build a credit file, is a very exciting prospect. That then becomes self-fulfilling in many

PEPPER GLOBAL

Title of the video

respects. It's often seen as the way that the middle classes grew up in nations, that notion of becoming increasingly financially inclusive.”

And establishing some sort of profile on customers without a credit history is far from impossible because data can provide key indicators on loan repayment capacity. Weighing up the challenge “Without credit files and credit bureaus, Day believes the opportunities by far outweigh we're quite often reliant on data that acts the difficulties, even though one of the as an alternative to traditional credit challenges is that as people enter the world of scores,” says Day. borrowing in particular, the commitment that “We've had to learn the hard way in they're taking is quite often misunderstood terms of what data is valuable in those or poorly understood. “Part of our job is to be processes and see that partnering with a responsible lender. Being mindful ecosystems in that respect is a of bringing customers into a lifetime valuable way to progress into journey is incredibly important. emerging markets.” We do that in a way that suitably “That’s not to say that traditional informs them, and gets them into credit data isn’t important. It's critical Year Pepper a position where they understand where it exists, but either where it Global was founded their commitments, and that we lend is lacking or non-existent, seeking to them in a responsible fashion.” alternative methods is a necessity.”

2000

fintechmagazine.com

PEPPER GLOBAL

It’s an evolving process that is growing and improving as technology and more information is gathered. Indeed, it’s even possible that alternative credit checks could even become more of a reliable indicator of solvency and loan repayment reliability, than old-fashioned financial histories. “Inevitably, when you're starting with a blank sheet of paper without any borrowers, you have to hedge a little bit. You take some chances. You make some sensible decisions around the data you can get access to, and you create rules around who you should and shouldn't learn to lend to. Off the back of that, you lend some money and see what happens. It's a classic machine learning challenge. “As you start to gather data, performance data on loans, then you can start to work out what data genuinely enables you to score well in the broadest sense and make increasingly more reliable decisions.” Defining useful data sources Deciphering which data is the most useful in assessing customer reliability, is where Day’s former experience in telecommunications comes into its own.

“ Inevitably, when you're starting with a blank sheet of paper without any borrowers, you have to hedge a little bit. You take some chances. You make some sensible decisions around the data you can get access to” ANDREW DAY

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

December 2021

$68.1bn

Total Assets Under Management

$17.5bn

Lending Assets Under Management

1.7m

Customers

$50.5bn

Servicing Assets Under Management

3216+ Employees

*All figures are in USD and correct as of 30 June 2021

$1.82bn

In April 2017, American hosting company GoDaddy acquired 123 Reg from the parent company, HEG.

123 Reg is is the UK's top domain registrar.

$1.82bn

American hosting company GoDaddy acquired 123 Reg from the parent company, HEG.

fintechmagazine.com

The Analytics Automation Playbook for Finance & Accounting

TWITTER FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE

“Finance technology optimization means extracting more value from accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems while adopting digital technologies to improve finance processes.” Gartner Top Priorities for Finance Leaders in 2020

DISCOVER MORE

PEPPER GLOBAL

Pepper is concentrating more on long-term values for customers rather than short-term sales. Their aim is to build a relationship with their users, providing them with a range of services that keep them coming back for lifecycle events. He explains, “Mobile telco data becomes important in some markets and there are a number of people that are building credit scores from mobile phone data. We actually see the world in more than one dimension from a scoring perspective. The credit score is one thing, but also the ability for us to manage a customer through a life cycle, to think about lifetime value or longevity of loan, the ability to cross and upsell are all part of that scoring process, and so the more data, both specific customer level data that you might get from a mobile phone or from an app, a wallet or whatever, as well as markets data and local market data is valuable.” And there are highly accurate ways to assess the viability of a customer in terms of loans that are also outside the IoT sphere. Day explains that data on weather patterns in various regions can indicate if and when a loan will be paid. If rainfall is exceptionally high or low, it indicates

“ We look for signals in markets that are not necessarily the traditional signals, and couple of those where we can with customerlevel data, and that's part of the magic sauce” ANDREW DAY

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

crop volumes will be below par and as a consequence, the local economy will suffer. Pollution is also an indicator. The higher the air pollution is in an area, the greater indicator of better credit scores. “Why is that? Because air pollution is an indicator of economic activity. We look for signals in markets that are not necessarily the traditional signals, and couple those where we can with customer-level data, and that's part of the magic sauce,” he explains. Data harvesting and management As the IoT grows exponentially, and more and more data becomes readily available to companies, insights become razor-sharp. But so too do the potential pitfalls. Too many times, businesses have fallen foul of regulations, by either selling customer data to third party companies, getting bogged down with data gravity and silos, or even letting sensitive and exploitative information fall into the hands of cybercriminals. Managing the way data is collected, used, stored, and then disposed of, is a task that bears heavy legal and ethical ramifications. fintechmagazine.com

PEPPER GLOBAL

“ There's not a single big lever. It's about a myriad of applications across the value chain” ANDREW DAY

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

Day is only too aware of the cost of poor information management, and says though it can be handled effectively, it’s not an easy task. He explains, “I would like to say it's really clean and straightforward. But that's far from the case. Pepper has a standard footprint of technologies. But like every group company, it’s not helpful or practical to mandate the specific use of these in each of the business units. They are at liberty to create or choose the technologies that help them deliver the best possible service into the local market. We're there obviously to provide advice, but we certainly aren't the tech and data police.” Instead, Day’s job is to make sure all units are operating as efficiently as possible. And to do that Pepper uses technologies that include Microsoft Azure and GCP. These are paired with tooling that is core to data management, enabling the data to be shared across the group. “We use DataRobot, Alteryx, Tableau and Snowflake in some business units,” Day says. “We also have Power BI widely deployed. So it really is a question of us providing advice on tooling from a group perspective, and letting 92

December 2021

PEPPER GLOBAL

the individual business units decide how the technology suits their own situation. A really good example of this is actually as we enter some of the emerging markets, the availability of some cloud providers isn't there, so we have to think creatively about how we move from cloud to cloud, or from technology to technology.” Data as a growth enabler Day works with data from a holistic perspective, with the view that it is of use throughout the entire value chain. The end-to-end process is critical, he says, because data answers key questions that emerge throughout the process, such as: 1. How to make the right investment 2. How to manage customer engagement more efficiently 3. How to manage operations 4. How to develop the right products 5. How to understand customer behaviour For Pepper, the deployment of natural language processing (NLP) in their call centres, has been an innovative step in gauging the intentions of the customer, from stressrelated phone calls that could dictate better question patterns, to pick up on potential fraud attempts. “Amongst other applications, we're using NLP to help manage compliance processes,” Day says, “So, literally every step of the process from thinking about what products you might develop for a marketplace through to managing a customer in the latter stages of them being a borrower is where we see the opportunity to drive value through data. “I think there's not a single big lever. It's about a myriad of applications across the value chain rather than one big thing fintechmagazine.com

GROUP CHIEF DATA OFFICER, PEPPER GLOBAL

that's going to make a massive difference, although they do vary in scale obviously from application to application.” Digital transformation While many new fintechs took to digital transformation with ease because they were 94

December 2021

built with agile core technologies, other companies with a longer history have not found the task quite such a smooth ride. But shaking off the old and embracing the new can be an invigorating process if the business culture is welcoming of change. He explains, “I think businesses that are 20-plus years old have a degree of legacy certainly from a tech perspective. Widespread use of cloud, software as a service, etc., are relatively speaking in technology terms, new to the party. And actually, when we started 20 years ago, smartphones didn't exist. “So I think it's fair to say that the business has been on a journey. I think a lot of that is

PEPPER GLOBAL

about how we reframe the businesses in a kind of digital, data, and tech savvy way.” Day says an example of this ‘reframing’ is the way Pepper Savings Bank in Korea created a digital bank alongside the existing bank, largely because trying to create a sea change within the legacy platforms is challenging and innovating on the side was the answer. “I think it's also fair to say that over the last 20 years, the relationship between lenders, borrowers, and intermediaries, like websites and brokers, has completely changed. They used to be very linear. You want a mortgage, you go to your mortgage advisor or your broker, you apply for the loan that he thinks is right for you, and you do that through paper-based or maybe emailbased transactions. But today, the customer journey is far from linear.

“People want to engage through WhatsApp and SMS, email and video calls, and face-to-face so we've had to think about how we re-engineer business processes and customer processes as a result of customer demand.” Day says this is a common theme around the way that Pepper approaches its markets because the company prioritises thinking about the customer at the core of the process and product development. “Ultimately, I think the thing with fintech that inspires me is the ability to be customerfocused and data-driven. The fintech world is all about meeting a customer need through technology and underpinning that with data and insights, and I think how you create enduring customer relationships has historically been very transactional but could be far beyond that. The focus is now on how you build trust by improving the experience and helping customers reach their financial goals, and in turn to come back to you when they need to. He adds, “I think in the financial services world, a lot of organisations think about that one-time transaction. How do I sell this customer a loan? How do I sell this customer a pension? How do I sell them a product? I might sound like a bit of a broken record, but providing customers with an opportunity to re-engage with you is the thing that I think will set the winners apart from the losers. “For me, that means the key measure of success probably isn't assets under management or the number of products you've sold, it's lifetime value, and I think that's probably the number one change that customers deserve, and it re-frames the whole financial services conversation.”

fintechmagazine.com

FINSERV

IoT and 5G CONNECTIVITY in Finserve

Greater connectivity should equal better financial services. We take a look at the IoT and what the technology will do to the space WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

December 2021

ot so long ago, 3G was the transformative technology of the decade. It opened up a world of possibility for finserve customers, initially through the advent of mobile banking. However, 3G was limited; slow, and rather insecure depending on if you were using a public network. It’s days were limited when 4G arrived. Since then, the fintech industry has taken off on a global scale and completely transformed the financial services space.

FINSERV

We have e wallets and ApplePay, open banking and BNPL and cross-border, real time, low cost transaction options. We have crypto exchanges and can manage all manner of services via our mobile devices. Insurtechs are also revolutionising underwriting and claims through wearables and telematics technology. The customer space But more than that, the development of the mobile network as part of the IoT, has

“ The next generation mobile network will enable not only more advances for fintech and financial services, but it will also allow for continued security maturation within the industry as well” BOB CIPOT

SYNOPSYS SOFTWARE INTEGRITY GROUP

fintechmagazine.com

FINSERV

resulted in many more data sources, taking information from sensors, computers, smart home appliances and more, which when aggregated can create the ultimate customer profile for service providers. These KYC developments have, in turn, transformed other industries, not least of which has been the finserve space. But if 4G has been capable of creating these developments, what milestones will 5G usher in? With an average performance that is 100 times faster than 4G, with higher bandwidth and low latency, the possibilities, say experts, are endless. Manish Devgan is Chief Product Officer at Hazelcast, a leading open source in-memory computing platform, that helps Global 2000 and financial services companies to achieve ultra-fast application performance. He says, “In the finserve industry, higher bandwidth, lower latency and more reliable networks provided by 5G will create a foundation for secure, real-time applications and services. “Pervasive data streams fuelled by ubiquitous connectivity will require realtime platforms that combine disparate data, filter and aggregate data, and leverage

“ Another prerequisite for fintechs seeking to individually-target services for consumers through instant data processing at the edge is better use of system memory” MANISH DEVGAN HAZELCAST

artificial intelligence, to provide actionable intelligence. Devgan predicts that drawing on 5G's benefits, mobile and wearable device-initiated commerce has the potential to grow at a much faster pace. 5G networks will, for example, enable real-time fraud-checks catapulting mobile payments to mainstream adoption. Boris Cipot, senior security engineer for Synopsys Software Integrity Group agrees with Devgan. He believes the anticipated changes to finserve as a result of 5G innovations, will be industry-changing.

Which UK networks offer 5G so far? • EE • O2 • Vodafone • Virgin Media • Three UK • BT • Sky Mobile • HMD Global fintechmagazine.com

FINSERV

“To quote Marc Andreessen cofounder and general partner at a16z, ‘software is eating the world’,” he says. “5G is the next phase of better connectivity and faster data transfer speeds. The next generation mobile network will enable not only more advances for fintech and financial services, but it will also allow for continued security maturation within the industry as well.” A question of data Although speed of delivery, many more data points and greater amounts of information 100

December 2021

being gathered, all point to the possibility of sharper insights, better risk assessment and more accurate customer preferences, it also brings a raft of pitfalls with it. Data gravity is already a problem for many large scale operatives. The more data companies gather, and the more devices being used, increases the digital footprint, resulting in greater opportunities for data to be compromised or stolen. And the cost of lost data, as well as the poor management of it, can result in harsh penalties. Recently in the UK, for example,

FINSERV

“ A continuous parade of headlines about data breaches, leakages, compromises, and other doom and gloom reveals that the software that serves as the foundational layer for our society is brittle and porous” JONATHAN KNUDSEN

SYNOPSYS SOFTWARE INTEGRITY GROUP

the courts ruled that a man using several smart doorbells on the exterior of his house to provide him with better property security, has breached the data rights of his neighbour, who was incidentally filmed by the devices. The courts ruled in her favour and he was forced to sell his home to pay the resulting fine. In a recent annual report by IBM, the technology giant revealled that the cost of lost data to companies in the USA in 2021, was a massive US$4.24bn. That was the highest yearly figure reported by the study, since it was first issued in 2003. Greater connectivity will almost certainly result in greater risk, says Mark White, Senior Manager, Financial Markets and Fintech at Telehouse. “Ultimately, more connections means more risks. So, the challenge is how to take advantage of increased connectivity without compromising security or compliance.” White points out that the digital ecosystem is coming into its own and offering solutions to this most pressing of

problems. “Many are turning to colocation as the answer; providing the connections to strategic partners fintechs need, while ensuring infrastructure remains secure, resilient, PCI, EBA and FCA compliant.” Jonathan Knudsen, senior security strategist, Synopsys Software Integrity Group, also sheds some light on the situation. “The underlying theme, in financial services and everywhere else, is cybersecurity,” he says. “Our appetite for functionality and interconnectivity has far outrun our ability to build, deploy, and operate software securely. A continuous parade of headlines about data breaches, leakages, compromises, and other doom and gloom reveals that the software that serves as the foundational layer for our society is brittle and porous.” Knudsen says that as more devices go online and more of the day-to-day operations of the human species become

fintechmagazine.com

101

FINSERV

“ Many are turning to colocation as the answer; providing the connections to strategic partners fintechs need, while ensuring infrastructure remains secure, resilient” MARK WHITE TELEHOUSE

an exchange of electrical impulses in cyberspace, security and software will become inseparable. “Everyone will recognise that security must be part of every phase of software, from its design and creation through to its testing, deployment, and operation. In the same way that safety is woven inextricably into the fabric of automobile manufacturing, cybersecurity will be woven inextricably into the fabric of software—how it is built, how it is deployed, and how it is operated.” Real time applications According to recent analysis, by the Global 5G Technology & Volume Forecast Report 2021, the worldwide 5G technology market size was valued at US$4.10bn in 2020. As long as security protocols are correctly observed, 5G, better connectivity and an increase in devices, will also result in a boost for the software industry. In fact, new 5G technology is estimated to provide various vital benefits to numerous sectors such as IT and telecoms, utilities and manufacturing, entertainment and media, transportation, aerospace, defence, healthcare and logistics. “Improved connectivity will not only increase data volumes but also result in 102

December 2021

velocity enabling a whole new breed of realtime applications,” says Devgan. He points out that a consumer’s behavioural data can be analysed in realtime to provide more context-aware recommendations. As a result, fintechs now need to instantly understand customers (particularly those influenced by online trends) and increasingly process data streams as the data is generated. In addition, he says, it will be much easier to process an insurance claim in real-time by combining weather data with traffic conditions, vehicle and road conditions, photographs from the accident site and driver’s history. “5G ultra-low latency use cases will require a combination of 5G networks and edge computing. Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) remains very challenging at the edge because available computing power is often limited by physical space. Faster edge data processing demands a data architecture that capitalises on advantages in both the software and memory layers.”

TECHNOLOGY

Infrastructure changes required However, there will need to be swift changes implemented sooner rather than later. Although 5G has already been rolled out in pilot areas globally, there are still relatively few apps that require its features. Similarly, the commercial sector will also have to implement a number of changes to facilitate the new technology. Devgan points out that most edge sites don’t have the space for hardware infrastructure based on servers in data centres. However, he believes this problem can be resolved by running a streaming engine - which can handle both historical data (data at rest) and data in motion (such as browsing products on an iphone). “These capabilities are essential for the ingestion, transformation, distribution and synchronisation of data streams as soon as they are created,” he says. "It’s also crucial that a data streaming tool has a streamlined code base - in other words, that developers don’t have to write complex applications to handle those multiple data streams. “Another prerequisite for fintechs seeking to individually-target services for consumers through instant data processing at the edge is better use of system memory. This breakthrough can be achieved by pooling memory for applications using sets of networked, clustered servers - this approach enables the infrastructure to share data structures with other applications running in the cluster.” The future face of finserve With all this in mind, predicting the trends and innovations that will take place in the finserve space over the next decade, is no easy task. But experts have their suspicions in terms of where the key developments will take place.

Cipot says, “In a decade, I anticipate paper money will have disappeared. In its place, payment methods via smart devices will be the standard, preferred payment method— even over and above card transactions. We’re already seeing many regions of the globe moving in that direction rather rapidly.” White agrees, but also points out that the new technology will provide endless opportunities for customers to enjoy tailored products that provide complete flexibility. “Financial service providers have a huge opportunity to provide the seamless, secure and personalised services that today’s consumers crave. But doing so will require a digital transformation. They will need to simplify their business and operating models to enhance customer service and structurally reduce cost.” As data volumes and connectivity increases, he says we can expect to see new developments such as predictive modelling to prepare for ‘what if’ scenarios, automation of front-end sales and customer facing environments and customer care being enhanced by selfservice functionality. White adds, “Having the right IT infrastructure to enable fast, secure and seamless connections will be critical for success.” fintechmagazine.com

103

AI-DRIVEN,

CREDITTECH WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

104

December 2021

PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD

LENDINGPOINT

fintechmagazine.com

105

LENDINGPOINT

106

December 2021

How LendingPoint is using AI and smart data models to drive fair credit decisions - within only four seconds - for UScitizens who need it most

hat can you do in four seconds? Make a contactless payment for your latte, take a snapshot with your smartphone and get credit approval from LendingPoint. Four seconds is the time it takes for this US-based “nontraditional lender” to offer its customers credit, according to KN Kasibhatla, Chief Technology Officer of LendingPoint. The customer-first approach used by LendingPoint harnesses the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data models to offer credit to those who are tackling a home improvement project, consolidating debt, or paying for an unexpected medical expense (and much more), and moves away from the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) evaluation model to approve credit. A FICO Score is a three-digit number based on the information from credit reports and traditionally used by lenders across the US. “Based on your credit profile and information on your application form, it only takes four seconds to get an approval on the LendingPoint platform,” said Kasibhatla, who has experience in both technology and finance. “We believe in using AI and data models to deliver money to people whenever and wherever they may need it. We use technology to drive these decisions. To do this, we have collected more than 60 billion data points on our consumers. fintechmagazine.com

107

LENDINGPOINT

LendingPoint: AI-driven, CreditTech

“Our algorithms give us access to credit that other people don’t have access to and we are able to do this profitably. This is big news in the FinTech industry where most of the players are not profitable. We are able to serve our customers and make money while we are doing it,” said Kasibhatla speaking from his office in metro Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 2015, LendingPoint recently surpassed US$4bn in loan originations this year. It was built on the principle of providing fair credit to people who had fallen through the FICO net but were deserving of credit to help with medical bills or home improvements. Since then, LendingPoint has broadened their customer base to serve FICO ranges between 575 – 850, and added working capital financing options to small businesses. “At LendingPoint we provide unsecured personal loans for consumers across the credit spectrum, many of whom are people the more traditional banks don't pay attention to. 108

December 2021

LENDINGPOINT

KN KASIBHATLA TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER INDUSTRY: FINANCE LOCATION: KENNESAW, USA The ability to always ask questions helped KN Kasibhatla, Chief Technology Officer at US-based LendingPoint to drive their digital transformation. “When I came to LendingPoint it enabled me to ask the dumb questions that lead to better solutions,” said Kasibhatla whose role covers all aspects of technology from data science, analytics, and cybersecurity. Kasibhatla came from a diverse career background having worked in telecoms and marketing. Although he had studied finance - with an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business - he had always stayed on the technology side of the industry.

The Next-Gen Software Partner To FinTech Leaders Over the past decade, leading FinTech companies have scaled successfully and rapidly by partnering with Trantor. We build, deploy and maintain software solutions for Fintech companies and innovative enterprises. Our CaptiveCoE™ (Center of Excellence) engagement model empowers companies scale their product development efficiently and at a lower cost. While you focus on strategy, design, and product; let us do the heavy development lifting.

Learn more

LENDINGPOINT

“ AT LENDINGPOINT WE PROVIDE UNSECURED PERSONAL LOANS FOR CONSUMERS ACROSS THE CREDIT SPECTRUM, MANY OF WHOM ARE PEOPLE THE MORE TRADITIONAL BANKS DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO. BANKS ARE VERY GOOD AT GIVING MONEY TO THOSE WHO HAVE MONEY - WE FOCUS ON SERVING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED MONEY” KN KASIBHATLA

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LENDING POINT

Banks are very good at giving money to those who have money - we focus on serving the people who need money,” commented Kasibhatla. By combining technology and proprietary algorithms, they are driving a better lending and borrowing experience by finding more reasons to say ‘yes’ to their customers and are now serving hundreds of thousands of people. LendingPoint also works with small business and merchant point-of-sale lending solutions to further unlock access to affordable loans.

Digitisation with a human touch Kasibhatla, who focuses on all aspects of technology from development, support, data science, and analytics, pointed out that as a relatively new company, LendingPoint has the added advantage of being cloudbased from the beginning so there has been no legacy architecture to wade through. “We were founded by people who believed in big data and using nontraditional data to determine people's creditworthiness and we have always been a cloud-based company which has been an advantage for us,” said Kasibhatla. “We have never had any infrastructure on the ground and started out as a purely digital experience. But one of our interesting twists is that we also talk to consumers over the phone and listen to their challenges and try to solve them. I like to think of this fintechmagazine.com

111

LENDINGPOINT

2015

year LendingPoint was founded

US$4+bn in loan originations

60bn

data points have been collected by LendingPoint on their consumers

99%

of credit applications to LendingPoint are digital

63%

of credit applications are mobile-first

“ BASED ON YOUR CREDIT PICTURE AND INFORMATION ON YOUR APPLICATION FORM, IT ONLY TAKES FOUR SECONDS TO GET LOAN OPTIONS ON THE LENDINGPOINT PLATFORM” KN KASIBHATLA

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LENDING POINT

112

December 2021

as digitisation with a human touch. The FICO score is now less than 5% weight in our models as we work in non-traditional ways to measure somebody's ability to pay back. “The point-of-sale and e-commerce have evolved over time. It started directly with the consumer, then they came through a website, where they could apply for their loans and get money. But as our consumers' needs started evolving we expanded into the areas popular with our consumers. We're very focused on providing access when they

LENDINGPOINT IN FOCUS LendingPoint is a provider of unsecured personal loans for consumers and small business owners across the credit spectrum. By combining technology and proprietary algorithms, they work to drive better lending experiences and financial freedom for their customers. Borrowing range Personal loans range from US$2,000 to US$36,500. The loan amount approved can depend upon an individual credit profile and the information provided during the application process. Lending Point takes several factors into consideration including a customer’s current DTI (debt-to-income ratio) and PTI (payment-to-income ratio).

DID YOU KNOW...

need it most, that is why we entered the point-of-sale and e-commerce spaces. “During the pandemic, buying via e-commerce became a necessity and has remained a high-demand preference . We followed customers online and increased our offerings to include a working capital solution to online sellers.” Kasibhatla pointed out that 99% of the total credit applications are digital with 63% of those now starting on mobile. “We have seen this transition from a website-

What states do LendingPoint offer loans in? LendingPoint offers loans to consumers in 48 states and the District of Columbia. Currently we do not offer loans to consumers in Nevada and West Virginia. How does LendingPoint keep personal bank information safe? LendingPoint takes extensive precautions to protect personal information using robust industryleading procedures and safeguards, including encryption, to secure and protect your personal information.

fintechmagazine.com

113

LENDINGPOINT

DID YOU KNOW...

WHAT IS A FICO SCORE?

114

Thirty years ago, the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) debuted FICO Scores to provide an industry-standard for scoring creditworthiness that was fair to both lenders and consumers. A FICO Score is a three-digit number based on the information in your credit reports. It helps lenders determine how likely you are to repay a loan. This, in turn, affects how much you can borrow, how many months you have to repay, and how much it will cost (the interest rate). This traditional score is used by 90% of banks in the US LendingPoint is now using data and technology to drive decisions on offering credit to many citizens who have been refused credit using this score. “We believe in using data and technology to deliver money to people who need it which is not necessarily reflected in their FICO scores or any of their credit scores. We use technology to drive these decisions,” said KN Kasibhatla, Chief Technology Officer at LendingPoint.

December 2021

driven to a mobile-driven digitalisation and that requires a more specialised way of presenting our brand and how we engage with and deliver for our customers. How loyalty pays off for LendingPoint LendingPoint takes pride in its customer experience, and it shows, 26% of their platform originations in Q2 came from their current customer base. The company has a focus on AI and data on their e-commerce and point-of-sale to retain and attract customers across the US.

LENDINGPOINT

“ OUR ALGORITHMS GIVE US ACCESS TO CREDIT THAT OTHER PEOPLE DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO AND WE ARE ABLE TO DO THIS PROFITABLY. THIS IS BIG NEWS IN THE FINTECH INDUSTRY WHERE MOST OF THE PLAYERS ARE NOT PROFITABLE” KN KASIBHATLA

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LENDING POINT

“That trust becomes a two way street. So our customers want to stay with us longer, and trust us enough to have multiple financial products,” said Kasibhalta who pointed LendingPoint is on an aggressive growth trajectory doubling originations this year.”

“We focus heavily on how we talk to our consumers, how we treat our consumers, what their experiences are that they want to come back and do business with us. We treat our customers in a way in which we would like to be treated ourselves. That’s an important part of our core work ethic.” Commenting on how their credit rating varies from FICO, Kasibhatla said: “FICO is a look back, while we look forward and ask – ability versus intent to pay back. Our goal is to make sure we set up our customers for success, we don’t want them to overextend.

Long-term partnership with Trantor Kasibhatla commented on the value of their long-term partnership with Trantor - an IT consulting company that focuses on digital transformation - the company has been with LendingPoint since day one. “They have been an important part of our success and have worked across the company and built strong relationships throughout - they almost feel like an extension of LendingPoint. They work across marketing, legal, customer experience, product, and risk which allows them to understand our business goals. By being embedded in our processes they are able to become part of the extended ecosystem that we have here and help us solve the business problem.” fintechmagazine.com

115

LENDINGPOINT

“ FINTECH IS A VERY DISRUPTIVE INDUSTRY, SO IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO ASK THE QUESTIONS, THERE ARE NO DUMB QUESTIONS - THE ANSWERS WILL ALWAYS SURPRISE YOU” KN KASIBHATLA

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LENDING POINT

When its smart to be dumb Kasibhatla believes asking simple questions always results in smarter solutions for a company which has benefited LendingPoint as they have embarked on their digital journey to make financial freedom easier for their customers. “When I came to LendingPoint it enabled me to ask the dumb questions as I am not from this industry. It allowed me to ask questions and get down to the answers that lead to better solutions, not just for our customers, but also for our employees,” said Kasibhatla whose role covers all aspects of technology from development, support, data science, analytics, and cybersecurity. “In business sometimes people do things just because that's how they've always done them. FinTech is a very disruptive industry, so it's always good to ask the questions, there are no dumb questions - the answers will always surprise you. That's the only way you learn,” said Kasibhatla. Kasibhatla joined LendingPoint 10 months before the pandemic and came from a diverse career background having worked in telecoms and marketing. Although he had studied finance he had always stayed on the technology side of the industry. 116

December 2021

“This industry is an amazingly fast moving and innovative industry - that’s what attracted me to this particular vertical. The old ways of doing business are being torn down every day. We are constantly seeing new ways of servicing our customers and using technology to deliver what they need at that point in their journey is pretty amazing.” Planning proved key to navigating pandemic Despite starting with LendingPoint a few months before the pandemic, this challenge

LENDINGPOINT

did not side-step Kasibhatla as he had learnt to plan and prepare for the unexpected thanks to the inspiring leadership of his former CEO. “In my early days I had a CEO, Leo Cyr, who had been a marine. He always had us plan and prepare and be ready for unexpected contingencies. I worked for a telephone company at the time and this helped us to survive when a direct hurricane hit the data centre. We managed to keep our network running throughout that time and that helped me when the pandemic hit.

“In early January, 2020, nobody would have thought the whole world would be working remotely. Now, everybody's living on Zoom calls and technology enables those things. Sometimes, it takes a catalyst like the pandemic to drive these changes. “My role is to make sure the tools are there for my colleagues to do their job and the customers to access fair credit. When we had to go remote, we had all the tooling already in place for the call centre to operate normally. fintechmagazine.com

117

118

December 2021

LENDINGPOINT

“ WE BELIEVE IN USING AI AND DATA MODELS TO DELIVER MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST WHICH IS NOT NECESSARILY REFLECTED IN THEIR FICO SCORES. WE USE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE THESE DECISIONS” KN KASIBHATLA

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LENDING POINT

“The main job of technology is to enable people to do their jobs. From our consumer's perspective, it's not just the cool looking screen, you've got to make sure that they experience the workflow, processes, everything else behind the screens is aligned to give them a good experience. “We take real-time feedback from our customers on a bill log, we track everything so we know what's going on, where the friction points are, and we address those things on a continuous basis. Our goal is to provide a fully automated approval process, that's where AI comes into place, not just on the approval side, but also on the backend side to make sure we are able to remove friction points and make it a more pleasant journey for our customers using AI and data. We try to make it flexible and fast for them.” As Kasibhatla effortlessly drives the technology behind the algorithms at LendingPoint, it won’t be long before they are offering credit options within three seconds of logging on - watch this space.

fintechmagazine.com

119

FINTECH

COMPANIES TO WATCH IN 2022 Discover the fastest-growing financial technology companies across the world as the fintech sector takes off

120

December 2021

TOP TOPTEN 10

As the financial industry changes and evolves with new technologies, staying on top of trends becomes more crucial. The best way for this is to keep an eye out for innovative companies emerging as leaders in fintech. There are a number of predictions for the future of fintech, as well as numerous companies attempting to shape the sector. As a result, we have compiled a list of the ten fastest-growing fintech companies to watch out for in 2022.

WRITTEN BY: DERIN CAG

fintechmagazine.com

121

TOP 10

10 Paidy

Currency raised in 2021: $120mn Founded: 2008

In 2008, Paidy began as a Japanese payments firm that allows consumers to purchase items and pay later. In more recent years, it expanded to offer financing options on Rakuten, Japan's largest online retailer, and Amazon.co.jp. The future for Paidy looks set as it currently has over 6,000,000 users and continues to expand, with a workforce of over 145 staff. In 2021, the fintech company secured $120mn (USD) in new funds.

Papaya Global

Currency raised in 2021: $250mn Founded: 2016

The Israeli software as a service (SaaS) platform Papaya Global was founded in 2016 to automate international payroll and HR procedures. The company enables businesses worldwide to access a network of preferred vendors. As more businesses are predicted to choose SaaS services over onpremise software, Papaya Global is ideally placed to benefit. The firm has an expanding workforce of 245 personnel, and it secured $250 million (USD) in new investment this year.

TOP 10

Grab Financial Group

Currency raised in 2021: $300mn Founded: 2018

In 2018, Grab Financial Group started providing digital-only payments, financing, insurance, rewards, and investment-related services. The Singaporean company has a staff of 150 individuals and is on track to become one of Asia's most prominent fintech startups. It is a separate unit of Grab, the ride-hailing app. In 2021, it raised $300mn (USD) in new capital from investors.

Dapper Labs

Currency raised in 2021: $550mn Founded: 2018

Based in Canada, Dapper Labs is the company behind the viral success of CryptoKitties. The fintech startup was formed in 2018 to create game-related products using blockchain technology and has over 252 employees, including former staff from companies like EA Sports, Hasbro, Disney, Amazon, and Zynga. In 2021, it secured $550mn (USD) in new funding for further expansion.

fintechmagazine.com

123

DIGITAL PAYMENTS

Avoid the Top 5 Most Common Open Source Vulnerabilities Within Financial Organizations Learn what open source vulnerabilities are commonly found in financial services organizations.

LEARN MORE

TOP 10

06 Rapyd

Currency raised in 2021: $600mn Founded: 2015

In 2015, Rapyd launched as a full-service provider of payments that integrates fintech services. The company provides merchants with a payment platform that Rapyd can easily integrate into any existing app or website, including WordPress, Wix, and Shopify. They are headquartered in the UK and have 320 employees. In 2021, they raised $600 million (USD) of capital to grow their business.

05 Mollie

Currency raised in 2021: $675mn Founded: 2004

In 2004, payments integration business Mollie was founded in the Netherlands. The company provides a range of services, including online payment processing for merchants and user-friendly payment options for end-users. It has since grown into a workforce of over 515 individuals and secured $675mn (USD) of new funding from investors this year to support the company's expansion.

fintechmagazine.com

125

TOP 10

04 Fenergo

Currency raised in 2021: $600mn Founded: 2008

Launched in 2008, Fenergo develops software for financial services companies such as asset managers and investment banks to assist them with compliance requirements. The company's flagship product, Client Lifecycle Management (CLM), enables organisations to identify clients, manage their information, and monitor transactions in real-time while complying with regulations at the same time. The Ireland headquartered startup has a workforce of more than 700 employees and received funding of more than $600mn (USD) this year.

126

December 2021

Trade Republic

Currency raised in 2021: $900mn Founded: 2015

Trade Republic is a Germanybased exchange that was founded in 2015. It allows customers to trade financial products, including cryptocurrencies and publicly listed securities. The company boasts a workforce of over 460 individuals who are committed to delivering the best trading experience possible for their app-based users. In 2021, Trade Republic raised $900mn (USD) in new capital from investors to use towards platform development and growth.

TOP 10

BharatPe

Currency raised in 2021: $545mn Founded: 2018

As one of India's biggest fintech startups, BharatPe provides business owners with app-based payments and card acceptance options. It offers zero transaction fees and no monthly costs, making it one of the most appealing alternatives for small and medium-sized businesses wanting to expand in India. In addition, the company also offers a card payments machine so business owners can accept card payments at physical locations. BharatPe was founded in 2018 and also boasts a P2P lending solution called the 12% Club to enable alternative financing options that are not available through traditional banks. It has a workforce of over 1,100 employees and received funding of $545mn (USD) this year from investors to develop new products and services.

fintechmagazine.com

127

EMPLOYEES ARE WORTH KEEPING Don’t risk losing them to older methods of cannabis testing. WATCH OUR VIDEO

Only the ultra-sensitive

HOUND® MARIJUANA BREATHALYZER

tests for very recent cannabis use, providing results in minutes.

The HOUND® MARIJUANA BREATHALYZER makes it easier to hire and retain trusted employees. CANNABIS DETECTION WINDOWS 2 PEAK IMPAIRMENT3 up to

1m on th

24 ho ur s

Urine Oral Fluid

up t o

rs hou -3

CONCENTRATION

2-3 hours

to 3 months

Breath HOURS

DAYS

WEEKS

MONTHS

More employees are choosing to legally use cannabis. Because tests of oral fluid, urine, and hair can detect cannabis use for days, weeks, or months, there is a greater risk of positive results. The era of cannabis legalization requires new technology to balance SAFETY + FAIRNESS . TM

JOIN THE WAIT LIST 1

2 3

The HOUND® MARIJUANA BREATHALYZER is for law enforcement, employer, and insurance use only. Not for any medical or therapeutic use. https://houndlabs.com/2018/09/06/how-long-can-marijuana-be-detected-in-drug-tests/ https://houndlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/drugshumanperformfs.pdf

Hair

TOP 10

BlockFi How To Setup Flex Payments

BlockFi

Currency raised in 2021: $850mn Founded: 2017 US-based company BlockFi was founded in 2017, it specialises in crypto-asset lending. The company provides loans in USD, GBP, or EUR against cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) or Litecoin (LTC). It is a platform of choice for people who are looking to take advantage of their cryptocurrency assets while maintaining access to liquidity. BlockFi also provides a variety of financial services, including an interest rate account for cryptocurrency holders. The company also has a trading platform, allowing instant exchange of crypto-assets for individuals. It also boasts the first credit card in the world to reward Bitcoin. Over 850 people work for the fintech company, which secured $850mn (USD) of new funding in 2021.

fintechmagazine.com

131

The ‘Risk & Resilience’ Conference

2022 27th - 28th April

STREAMED & IN PERSON TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

BUY TICKETS

SPONSOR OPPORTUNITIES