FinTech Magazine - September 2021

September 2021 | fintechmagazine.com

Finserv: Standout fintechs & technology innovations Banking: New banking requires new leadership

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The FinTech Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

JOANNA ENGLAND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

CREATIVE TEAM

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

OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JENNIFER SMITH

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

JANET BRICE

KIERAN WAITE SAM KEMP

EVELYN HUANG HABBIE AMOS JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DENEVE MOTION DESIGNER

TYLER LIVINGSTONE MARKETING MANAGER

EVELYN HOWAT

PROJECT DIRECTORS

JAKE MEGEARY MICHAEL BANYARD JOE PALLISER

ADAM FERGAR MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

RICHARD TURNER

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

JASON WESTGATE MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN PRESIDENT & CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

CRYPTOCURRENCY: TO CONFUSION AND BEYOND

“The world watched agog as the entire fiasco unfolded like a cheap plot in a Netflix Original”

FINTECH MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

“It’s money Jim, but not as we know it” The world’s most contentious currency continues to hit the headlines with hacks, heists and more The mysterious world of cryptocurrency isn’t for everyone. That much became clear in a new survey that revealed 36% of UK respondents who’d invested in Bitcoin et al. felt they knew so little about the subject that they were not qualified to answer questions on it.

The security issues surrounding cryptocurrency investment also came into play in the benchmark hack experienced by the Poly Network exchange. The world watched agog as the entire fiasco unfolded like a cheap plot in a Netflix Original.

US$600mn in digital assets were stolen - and then returned by a hacker (or group of hackers) who’d decided to expose the platform’s weak points in dramatic style - with apparent altruistic intentions.

Take that JJ Abrams!

Much, much more needs to be done in fortifying cryptocurrency investment and exchange networks against cyber hacks. This, along with better knowledge and regulation of the sector, will be instrumental in building trust in the system that currently feels about as stable as quicksand.

However, great strides are being made, with serious European investors being able to regulate their cryptocurrency trading via Eurex when Bitcoin ETN Futures lists later this month.

Ultimately, cryptocurrency is growing up - and maturation is never an easy ride. Let’s hope this process will see less serious contenders (Mooncoin, Putincoin and their ilk) disappear into obscurity and allow grown-up changes to transform DeFi as we know it.

JOANNA ENGLAND

joanna.england@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

fintechmagazine.com

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 08 Big Picture 10 The Brief 12 Timeline:

State of crypto

in a China 14 Trailblazer:

Dan Schulman 18 Five Mins With:

Jennifer Valdez

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40

The right architecture for next-generation banking

Standout fintechs and technology innovations

Oracle

Financial Services

48

Finastra

Finastra’s chief risk officer on the art of risk mitigation

58

Banking

New banking requires new leadership

66 DLL

Laser-focused on meeting customer needs, DLL is listening

80

Payment Solutions

88

The big question: Can global payments become more local?

Home Credit Vietnam

Agile to win over the pandemic

102

112

The digital journey, building the brokerage of the future

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Creating Digital Communities

120

128

A snapshot of data analytics in modern finance

Customer service powered by data meets ČSOB

Technology

ČSOB

142 RCBC

Enabling financial inclusion with FinTech innovation

166

Amerisure Insurance Enhancing culture through technology

154

Naranja

A fintech transformation

178

Oper8 Global Filling in the gaps

BIG PICTURE

10

September 2021

FinTech continues to rise in Africa Africa

Dominating the startup space, the FinTech industry in Africa has raised US$900mn over the last six years (twice as much as any other industry).

While South Africa currently has the highest penetration rate, with 94% having access to the internet and 67% having a bank account, still more than half of the whole continent is unbanked.

With FinTech investment on the rise, could it be the answer to fill the gap?

fintechmagazine.com

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THE BRIEF “Fintechs should invest time in their infrastructure and not solely on their product and its associated functionalities”

BY THE NUMBERS

With Global FinTech Revenue Expected to Grow by 11.7%, Deloitte Breaks Down the Current Figures and Future Predictions

Mark Lamars

Director of Vartan 

READ MORE

“Cross-border payments are more complex than domestic payments and because of this, involve more risk and regulation” Claire Gates

Chief Commercial Officer, PPRO  READ MORE

12

September 2021

€188bn - 2024

€174bn - 2023

€159bn - 2022

€143bn - 2021

€126bn - 2020

CEO, Auriga 

€108bn - 2019

Vincenzo Fiore

€92bn - 2018

“Those in banking will need skills such as openness, empathy, resilience, and the ability to communicate to thrive in a post-crisis world”

€80bn - 2017

READ MORE

WHO’S DOMINATING THE MARKET? Currently, the APAC and Americas regions are dominating the FinTech market, with both accounting for 40% of the global market share.

COPY VALUES 70% of the demographic considered company values before a purchase – so why should it not equally apply to employees?

CARD PAYMENTS In the UK, card payments accounted for 51% of all transactions for the first time in 2019, while the US’ contactless usage grew 150% between 2019 and 2020.

In simple terms?

American based digital payments provider – Square – has acquired Australian ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) company, Afterpay.

Valued at US$29bn, the acquisition has created a new giant in the BNPL sector.

What does the acquisition mean for Afterpay?

Completion of the acquisition will see Afterpay’s BNPL integrate into Square’s Cash App, expanding the company’s global presence, as well as strengthening the online payment capabilities for Afterpay.

So competition is heating up?

With the FinTech industry still relatively fragmented, by Square and Afterpay combining their financial capital, expertise, and resources, the acquisition sparks potential to disrupt the current landscape and maintain profitability in the wake of COVID-19.

Currently, there is a range of leading BNPL platforms, including Klarna, Afterpay and PayPal, with other companies such as Apple and Goldman Sachs working to develop their own services.

 ELEMENT VENTURES Element Ventures raises US$130mn to fund the founders and ideas that will power future financial technology in the UK and Europe.  US & CHINA Following the tightening of restrictions on overseas listings of Chinese companies in the US, China has called for closer communication with Washington to ease tensions.  SOUTH KOREA South Korea looks to FinTech’s for answers to growing household debts in the country (US$1.6tn). Companies such as PeopleFund allow borrowers to switch their risky floating rates to fixed-rate, amortised loans.

GOOD TIMES BAD TIMES

HAS SQUARE CREATED A POTENTIAL FINTECH GIANT IN BNPL?

 RAPYD Reportedly bringing its value to US$8.75bn, neobank Rapyd has raised US$300mn in its Series E funding round. Rapyd’s CEO and Co-FOunder – Arik Shtilman – plans to use the investment for acquisitions and research and development (R&D).

SEP21

fintechmagazine.com

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TIMELINE STATE OF

IN A

CRYPTO

CHINA

As Bitcoin witnessed skyrocketing demand in the last years, China became a central hub for Bitcoin mining. The country’s decision to suppress mining stations and potentially ban cryptocurrencies seems to cause issues in the global crypto scene. Here are the key dates to note from the status of crypto in China.

14

December 2013

September 2017

People’s Bank of China and the IT ministry orders banks not to be a part of Bitcoin transactions. But, interestingly enough, people could still be a part of Bitcoin trading.

China demands the closure of local exchanges, citing cryptocurrencies in money laundering, drug trafficking, and smuggling. As a result, traders move towards overseas exchanges via VPNs.

September 2021

May 2021

June 2021

July 2021

The authorities ban financial institutions and payment gateways from offering services related to crypto. The authorities also warned against speculative cryptocurrency trading.

The government seeks the end of Bitcoin mining hardware in the Sichuan province and Inner Mongolia, citing environmental pollution and excessive resource consumption as reasons.

China’s central bank shuts down a company that allegedly provided software services for virtual currency transactions. It also tightens the warnings for institutions.

fintechmagazine.com

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TRAILBLAZER

DAN

SCHULMAN CEO Company: PayPal Job Title:

P

ayPal's vision for democratising the financial service space is inspired by the philosophy pioneered

by Dan H. Schulman, the 63-year-old president and CEO of PayPal, who began a career in the telecom sector in 1981.

He has handled several managerial roles and responsibilities at organisations across telecom and banking industries like AT&T, Virgin Mobile USA, and American Express. Throughout his career spanning 40 years, Schulman has shown relentless commitment to equality and the inclusion and integration of underprivileged communities across the globe. According to Schulman, inefficiencies of the financial infrastructure limit inclusive development and need modernisation.

16

September 2021

20

Years working in the industry

£1mn Donated to charity

fintechmagazine.com

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TRAILBLAZER

Born in Newark and brought up in Princeton, New Jersey, Schulman comes from a family of scientists and academics. He once told The New York Times that his mother even took him to a civil rights demonstration in Washington in his stroller, and his grandfather was a union organiser who worked for employee rights. Dan believes that social activism is in his DNA, and he uses his position to push that quality forward.

multi-talented veteran had envisaged the company's growth for the upcoming years.

As chief of PayPal, he wants to spearhead the change by expanding the operational horizons and increasing the overall access to the platform. Under his leadership, PayPal has embraced the increasing demand for cryptocurrency, another pivotal movement in making the financial space more transparent, accessible, and democratic.

By the time he joined PayPal in 2014, this

Schulman's ideas about the betterment

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September 2021

The First Checkout with Crypto Purchase

of organisations have always run parallel to striving for a sustainable future for the people around. For instance, Dan Schulman boosted the wages of PayPal employees in 2020, and it ultimately resulted in increased earnings and revenue.

He is a firm believer in the capacity of digital currencies to make the economy more inclusive and accessible. PayPal is already at the forefront of welcoming this paradigm shift.

For instance, amidst the most challenging times of the pandemic, the company made germ-free transactions easier using QR codes.

Schulman puts forward the idea that the reliance on digital finance will continue to grow, and the world is ready to embrace digital currencies and blockchain extensively.

A strategy that ensures competitive growth is safe in the hands of Schulman, and his rich experience will turn out to be crucial in how the world shapes the future of fintech.

As a board member of some innovative organisations in the fintech sector, Schulman could impart his philosophy and experience across the industry. fintechmagazine.com

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FIVE MINUTES WITH...

Jennifer Valdez President of Americas

2021 has been momentous for Jen Valdez, president of Americas, intelliflo.

In January this year, the high-flying mother-of-two tragically lost her husband while navigating her way through one of the most challenging years in modern human history. With admirable strength and honesty, she tells us what inspires her, and her hopes for the future

Q. WHO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY?

and provide positive encouragement and support in failure.

most important things I learned from her is to always have a positive attitude in life and try to lift people up around you.

It is incredible how powerful a positive mindset can be! All my life, my mum has been my biggest cheerleader. To this day, my brother and I call our mother first when we have exciting news to share.

And she is equally supportive when things don’t go our way.

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

» This would be my mother. One of the

Our family motto, and how I’ve chosen to raise my kids, is to celebrate success 20

September 2021

» In times of chaos, stress, and

reorganisation, it is important to stay calm and focused on your work. In my career, I have been through many acquisitions, divestitures, and reorganisations.

Instead of worrying about what may or may not happen, I view these events as an opportunity to contribute in an impactful way and lead others through the change. Again, this is where having a positive mindset is key.

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

» This is a tough one for me to answer

as I haven’t read much since my husband passed away in January. In 2020, I read one book per month for pleasure and even joined a book club!

I greatly enjoyed reading as it created time before bed to put down the electronics and get lost in a fiction story. There is nothing better than a book you just can’t put down because you want to know what happens next. Nightingale by Kristin Hannah was one of those books for me.

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

» I love coffee so my espresso machine

is a must-have for me. I even take it with me when I travel by car! And if you join me on a morning Zoom call, chances are that I will have a latte in hand.

While this doesn’t fall into the technology category, I also have a titanium French Press I carry when backpacking. I am serious about my coffee as it sets my mind right for the day ahead.

fintechmagazine.com

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FIVE MINUTES WITH...

We support more than

We represent over

30,000

3 million

advisers

end-investors

22

September 2021

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

» One person I follow on social channels

and am consistently inspired by is Sheryl Sandberg. Similar to me, she lost her husband unexpectedly and has been vocal about her journey through grief and how we, as a community, can support those who have experienced some form of tragedy.

She is a gifted writer of Option B which demonstrates her honesty and desire to help others. This resonated strongly with me. I am also a fan of her work with Lean In. I read her book years ago and it significantly impacted how I approached my role in the workplace.

I am passionate about creating an inclusive environment and advocating for one another in the workplace.

the loss of my husband. I am proud of how I remained strong for my two young teenage sons and was able to get back to work when the time was right.

I work with a great team of colleagues and customers who have been incredibly supportive. How you show up for others in a time of crisis is something that is never forgotten. I am so grateful.

Q. WHAT INSPIRES YOU IN FINTECH TODAY?

» I am excited about how there is more focus

on fintech than ever before. The pandemic has forever changed the way we work, and we are all relying more on technology and digital tools across all aspects of our lives.

» I am most excited to see my colleagues

This also rings true in the financial advice space where financial institutions and their advisors are implementing open, fully integrated, and cloud-based platforms to power the advisory experience.

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

Such an approach allows them to deliver stronger, more personalised advice and experience to their clients with greater confidence and ease, which makes all the difference. I am looking forward to participating in the ongoing, exciting digital transformation of financial advice.

Q. WHICH ACTIVITY ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO DOING WHEN THE PANDEMIC IS OVER? and customers in person. We have done a really great job staying virtually connected during the pandemic, but I have definitely missed face-to-face human interactions.

» This is still a work in progress for me, but

I am most proud of how I managed through

With over

$1 trillion assets serviced across our platforms fintechmagazine.com

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Creating Digital Communities

THE RIGHT ARCHITECTURE FOR NEXTGENERATION BANKING WRITTEN BY: OLIVER FREEMAN & ELISE LEISE PRODUCED BY: JOE PALLISER

26

September 2021

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

fintechmagazine.com

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ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

28

September 2021

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Sonny Singh shares how Oracle’s agile, deeply-invested banking architecture has been designed for success in a FinTech innovation-fueled landscape

O

racle offers an integrated suite of applications, plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. Oracle Financial Services, the fintech business of Oracle, enables financial companies to deliver better services. Oracle defines these services as being truly centred around the customer, digitised in their entirety, intelligent in process, and resilient as a growth enabler. Powered by cloud infrastructure and technology innovation, its financial services portfolio is built with deep domain expertise and a best-of-breed acquisition strategy.

Today, Oracle’s solutions blend decades-long knowledge of banking with consistent product innovation and investment to make it the industry-

leading platform for banks. It offers a mix of deep functionality, coupled with modern architecture and model choice deployment—giving financial institutions the best options based on their operating models and business strategy.

The foundation of next-generation banking success begins with the architecture and technology decisions made today Customer demographics, demands and shifting technology paradigms will decide the shape of next-generation banking.

Digital natives and adopters now demand banking embedded in their lives with seamlessly connected actions, advice, and support that is personalised to them and based on their life moments. fintechmagazine.com

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ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

FUTURE OF BANKING A Continuous Shape Shift

As a result, banks will need to reinvent themselves at a breakneck pace to retain and win new customers. There will always be fintech innovators offering a better customer journey, leveraging the latest data-driven capabilities that can take customers off the market. Therefore, banks must be inherently agile, open, and architecturally flexible.

According to Oracle, this is the only option.

To help banks adapt, Sonny states, ‘Oracle's banking architecture is developed to provide banks with the power to determine their success path in a rapidly changing landscape, based on their customer demands. Our strategy has been to provide 30

September 2021

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

“Prepare for change, expect continuous disruption and build for instability” SONNY SINGH

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES AT A GLANCE • Manages $200 billion (USD) in revenue for banks and payments processors • Processes transactions for more than 730 banks and FIs across 160 countries worldwide—including Tier 1 global banks, super-regionals, digital and neo-banks, Islamic banks, and microfinance organisations

a functionally rich and componentised product suite that helps banks drive a progressive transformation and continuous innovation strategy with built-in innovation.

Our customers can focus on outcomes and not waste time experimenting with new tech and architectures, and we give them a complete choice on deployment. This sets them up for the next generation of banking’.

Overall, Oracle Financial Services takes an architectural-first approach to provide a blueprint for banks to continuously adapt to the shifting shape of banking. To do so, it gives customers a complete choice of deployment that will set them up for the next generation.

• Processes $400 million (USD) in life and health insurance policies each year • 23 out of 30 globally systemically important banks (G-SIBs) run analytical applications for risk, finance, and compliance • Stands as one of the fastest-growing payments platforms with the industry’s most modern, standards-based platform • Leads in asset finance solutions, including mobile device, vehicle, equipment, consumer finance, sub-prime, property rental, and vacation ownership

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CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHTS W1TTY: The smart finance innovator uses Oracle

that is fundamental ‘client native’. With this

for hyper-personalised yet highly relevant

vision in mind, it chose Oracle Financial Services

financial services

to provide the platform for its next-generation

W1TTY aims to put customers in charge of their

transaction banking. Wisam Mahmood, EVP,

finances by delivering hyper-personalised

Co-Head, Global Transaction Banking, explains,

services at transparent rates. As a disruptor

with Oracle, we have 'the foundation of

to the status quo, W1TTY needs to move fast

innovation and product development, built with

on all fronts. W1TTY chose Oracle Banking to

the best in class microservices technology which

deliver an easier and more rewarding financial

enables us to add agility and product innovations,

experience to customers. The Oracle Banking

scalability, connectivity, and flexible deployment

suite, equipped with payments, a digital core,

models globally’.

microservices, comprehensive open API set, and

With its componentised framework and best-

cloud-ready architecture, helped WITTY provide

in-class microservices, OFS will enable the bank

digital services with native apps in a fully mobile-

to be highly responsive, ready for disruption,

driven experience to customers in just 13 months.

and deliver value back to corporates by offering

Launching in the fall of 2021, W1TTY will expand its suite of services, flexibility, and

services and solving problems at a lower cost.

scalability with the latest cloud technology.

FINXP:

‘The role of financial services in the next era is

Charting an alternative

to operate on a more personal level’, Ammar

banking future with Oracle

Kutait, Founder of W1TTY explains. ‘You have to

A fintech specialising in the B2B payments in

tailor each offering based on your customer’s

Europe, finXP challenges traditional European

current financial situation, life circumstances,

banking. By capitalising on the rapid expansion

and goals’. In Oracle, it found a truly scalable

of open banking to business, it provides faster,

solution that will serve its global ambitions for

more simplified payments to next-generation

years to come.

businesses that prefer flexible payments and

MASHREQ: Building the next-generation

32

Mashreq also wants to build a business model

banking. This agility is why finXP chose Oracle to build its open infrastructure.

According to Jens Podewski, CEO and

transaction bank with Oracle

Co-founder of finXP, financial services will grow

Mashreq Bank, one of the United Arab Emirates’

increasingly flexible. ‘Payment and banking

leading financial institutions, envisions building

service providers will need to adapt and have

the transaction banking business of the future. It

the right infrastructure, mindset, and business

believes that multi-channel coverage, end-to-

model to handle new customer demands. Our

end digitisation, seamless integration with client

customers will expect commercial banking

value chains, and analytical frameworks will be

to be more similar to consumer banking—a

the fundamental elements of next-generation

frictionless experience. In Oracle, we found

transaction banking. As the industry shifts,

a platform that enables us to empower our

Mashreq foresees a bigger role for distributed

customers by being agile and a versatile

services, APIs, and emerging technologies.

payments and banking provider’.

September 2021

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Building better digital banks

“ Next generation banking systems will be autonomous, intelligent, available in real-time, and highly secure” SONNY SINGH

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

A perfect blend of functionality and flexibility It’s time to think differently as the rules of banking are being redefined. Finding new revenue models, accelerating roadmaps to digitalise experiences, managing risk and regulation while delivering more with less is the new mandate. Market-leading banks will need to rapidly adjust to these new conditions, and as we mature into an ecosystem of embedded banking, survival will be based on the ability of banks to rapidly adapt their products and services to new channels and open ecosystems.

For example, younger customers are interested in payment methods other than traditional credit and lending. Oracle’s 20202021 Global Retail Banking Consumer Trends Survey & Report found that 20% of banked customers aged 30 and below are very likely fintechmagazine.com

33

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

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September 2021

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

to use an alternative method for all payments in the next 12 months. Exploring customised lending options and participating in market collaborations to offer revenue value-adds like POS financing or specialised consumer lending options creates a new revenue stream and customer acquisition path. In this type of ecosystem, banks with limited functionality will lose market share to their competitors.

Therefore, to succeed in the next generation, banks will need to deliver quality yet agile services that provide a differentiated experience. As such, Oracle’s banking portfolio is built with the richest functionality.

This creates a domain-driven design approach that spans retail banking, corporate banking, and business lines from financial inclusion to Islamic banking.

Open and interoperable right from the start Oracle’s product engineering prowess ensures that its banking solutions are open.

With 3000+ exposed microservices and open APIs across its platforms, its systems are designed to be interoperable, secure, and seamless across systems, gateways, and regulatory interfaces. Oracle Financial Services is also an early adopter of standards, making its services easy to consume and connected right from the start.

“Oracle is continuously investing to create the most modern digital, data and core platforms in the financial technology space” SONNY SINGH

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES fintechmagazine.com

35

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Programmed for continuous innovation Oracle Financial Services leverages enterprise innovation to quickly deploy early-market and industry-leading technologies, like cloud services, to stay ahead of disruption, bringing benefit to each of the customers regardless of size or geography. For example, banks have quickly deployed use cases—such as approvals on wearables, peer-to-peer payments, voice-assisted transactions, chatbot-based self-originations, and microtransactions via Quick Response (QR) codes.

The company is embedding artificial intelligence capabilities and automation processes into its systems to help banks track customer behaviour and preferences.

The more banks know, the better they can adapt to consumer demands and thrive in an 36

September 2021

ever-changing financial landscape.

Oracle’s technology paradigm of continuous innovation and continuous delivery supports this philosophy—and DevOps plays an important role in its iterative, agile design. All of its applications work together to pave the way for the effective digital bank of the future.

Microservices for the real world, not a buzzword Oracle Financial Services takes a foundational approach to microservices by building out new capabilities on a cutting-edge chassis that creates resiliency, scalability, and flexibility across the institution’s operations. Microservices allow banks to realise the benefits of modern architecture and create a protected,

Sonny Singh TITLE: EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER COMPANY: ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES Sonny Singh has served as general manager of Oracle Financial Services since 2013 and was named executive vice president in 2019. In this role, Singh has worldwide responsibility for Oracle’s product portfolio for the financial services industry across banking, insurance, and capital markets.

His organisation spans all business functions including product strategy, research and development, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), sales, consulting, marketing, and customer service. In addition, his operational responsibilities include Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS), a publicly held company, where he is a member of the Board of Directors.

Prior to his current role, Singh was the senior vice president responsible for all functions in Oracle's go-tomarket strategy, including product marketing, competitive intelligence, field enablement, and M&A integration across Oracle's entire product and services portfolio. His organisation delivered all of Oracle's strategic customer engagement capabilities, including solutions and expertise for all industry vertical segments; the Oracle Insight program, Oracle's branded value engineering competency; and Oracle Solution

Centers. Additionally, his organisation was responsible for the expert resources, tools, and capabilities for two key market segments: Oracle Key Accounts and Midsize.

Prior to that, Singh was group vice president for Oracle Consulting, where he led Oracle’s services business in North America Strategic Accounts. Singh began his Oracle career in 1990 and has had held a number of leadership roles in Oracle’s consulting and sales organisations, focusing on Oracle Applications.

Singh holds an MS in industrial engineering from Stanford University and a BS in mechanical engineering from Punjab University, India.

ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

ORACLE IN BANKING Oracle in Banking

Continuous Evolution and Results Continuous Evolution and Results Extreme Flexibility Built on core principles on parameterization componentization

Multi-Country Deployments Experience across +160 countries

Functional Richness Covers all needed functionality out of the box—CASA to Lending and Asset Finance as well as Investments and Subscription Pricing

Business Model Adaptability From Mobile only to digital only. From Microfinance to Investor Servicing.

API

Open REST APIs Global FinTech ecosystems with +3,000 open APIs

Extended Core Regulation, Risk, Finance and Compliance Integrated with Modern Risk and Finance and Oracle ERP

KYC & AML Compliant and comprehensive customer onboarding as well as KYC processes, Intelligent AML as well as detecting fraud and trapping customer behavior

Cloud Ready Ready to be deployed on Cloud

Architecture Evolved with Microservices Architecture

Blockchain Adapted to Blockchain use cases

Machine Learning & AI Offered with smarter intelligence and predictability to detect customer buying patterns, attrition as well as NLP based automation

Digital Experience Platform Core agnostic customer experience and engagement

Payments Real-time, ISO 20022 platform ready

38

September 2021

“ Banking should be invisible and embedded within the customer’s life” SONNY SINGH

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

scalable environment to deploy new capabilities quickly, bringing continuous innovation to the marketplace. This provides responsiveness and predictable experiences to customers and bankers and helps them leverage AI/ML for workflow automation.

As the banking ecosystem evolves, microservices and a component-based architecture will help banks weather the unknown and transition away from monolithic and legacy environments.

Cloud as the essential element of adaptability Cloud will be the default infrastructure option for market-leading banks. Running

on Oracle’s cloud infrastructure, Oracle Financial Services offers its solutions on a cloud-ready model, with an increasing suite of cloud-native applications. Based on preferred business models, banking customers can choose better methods of deployment. As Oracle sees it, to compete in next-generation services, banks must adapt to a continuous shapeshift. And to achieve lasting success, they’ll need the right architecture and technology—Oracle’s speciality.

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FINSERV

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September 2021

STANDOUT

FINTECHS AND

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS As the fintech space becomes increasingly competitive, standing out from the crowd with an innovative solution is essential to success WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

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he recent announcement that Apple will be entering the BNPL space was enough to send the shares of established industry providers tumbling. The reason? When someone bigger and better than you offers customers the same service experience, you are most definitely on a losing streak.

Therefore, offering services that have an innovative edge is the only way to survive in the cutthroat world of finserve. With the fintech space growing exponentially, creatively packaging products and services have never been more critical.

New technologies that enable faster services, better customer interaction and next-generation security are key factors in determining how quickly a fintech company will scale in the current, competitive environment.

Fintech differentiators According to Mark Lamers, director of Vartion, the Dutch data analytics company, innovation in the financial services industry is a fairly new requirement for success. He says, “The financial market is a conservative market which relies greatly on proven and controlled processes. The latter consumes a lot of energy for the organisation, its employees and in the end, the clients.”

Fintechs ease the accessibility, usage and integrability of services and products of financial services by utilising new technologies encapsulated in modern control frameworks, points out Lamers.

“Each step in the entire chain can be targeted by fintechs to challenge both each other and the financial providers they serve.”

Customer centricity One element that fintechs should place at the forefront of their strategy is their relationship with the customer. Creating a business model that puts the user at the centre of the processes makes total sense in an increasingly competitive environment, says Lamers.

“ Even for emerging technologies, start with principles of solid security controls and use only what is needed to prevent escalations later on” MARK LAMERS

DIRECTOR OF VARTION

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FINSERV

“With a rather full market, what would make a fintech stand out from the crowd is customer experience, support, and most importantly, building a brand that has a purpose which is engrained in the fabric of the company.

“This purpose will need to connect with the target market of the company and should become a verb in their everyday lives.”

Lamers says that fintechs can provide “superb customer experiences” by reimagining traditional products into newer, digitised versions. Technology is on the side

“ Fintechs should invest time in their infrastructure and not solely on their product and its associated functionalities” MARK LAMERS

FINTECH TECHNOLOGY TRENDS FOR 2021 1. Microservices: Moving away from the old, legacy system monolithic models, microservices break down the applications into smaller, more flexible services that can be integrated, slowly upgrading more traditional platforms.

Examples of microservices would be blockchain, cryptocurrency and AI. These solutions are changing the face of the finserve industry.

2. AI and ML: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have been hugely instrumental in transforming other services and products. The collection, aggregation and resulting insights from big data provide invaluable information on market demand and customer preferences.

3. Decentralised finance: Currently enjoying exponential growth, decentralised finance (DeFi) looks set to revolutionise the finance industry.

The technology is proving popular because it operates outside of the central, regulatory financial systems and democratises finance for those poorly served by incumbents.

4. Predictive analytics: Being able to predict market activity and possible threats to security are both immensely useful elements provided by predictive analytics. Not only can companies make far more accurate decisions based on algorithmic information, but they can also increase their fortification - a critical component in today’s environment.

DIRECTOR OF VARTION fintechmagazine.com

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Hackquarters X | Fintech - Payment Innovation

of the innovators because it is designed to make the lives of its users better, easier and faster.

Transforming products can also be realised by using the latest technology and integrating the newest trends. However, Lamers warns that just because providers choose to use the latest technology does not guarantee them success. What does promote success is having an excellent product that is also very user friendly.

“With just a quick tutorial, a person that is not tech-savvy should be able to use the product with the greatest of ease. Being easy to use will make you stand out of the crowd,” he advises.

Will Marwick, CEO of the global fintech company IFX Payments, agrees. He says customers have become increasingly demanding and expect personalised and swift services. Fintechs must keep up to stay relevant.

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“Customers now want everything at their fingertips, instant service, fresh new apps that have innovative values and go beyond the traditional offering.

“Klarna is a great example of an exciting fintech that revolutionised the market through the offering of instant credit that the traditional banks couldn’t at an appealing point in the customer’s purchase journey.”

Marwick adds that established companies relying on legacy systems are falling behind in comparison to the new generation of finserv companies. “This type of innovation is why some incumbents are now losing out to new fintechs that are offering quick and easily accessible products meaning the only choice they have is to entertain new market entrants.”

A focus on security and data With cyber-attacks and fraud crimes on the rise, companies can also differentiate

“ Customers now want everything at their fingertips, instant service, fresh new apps that have innovative values and go beyond the traditional offering” WILL MARWICK IFX PAYMENTS

themselves by making the customer feel safe.

This assurance must be rooted in customercentric services so that even if additional levels of security are required, processes are still swift and simple for the user.

Lamers says companies need to consider adopting a ‘security-by-design’ approach,

FINSERV

where fortification is at the heart of the business model. He advises working with trusted partners that can implement riskcontrol frameworks into the organisation to ensure an end-to-end security chain.

“Even for emerging technologies, start with principles of solid security controls and use only what is needed to prevent escalations later on,” he says.

Being at the forefront of data collection technology is another way to improve 46

September 2021

“ This type of innovation is why some incumbents are now losing out to new fintechs” WILL MARWICK IFX PAYMENTS

FINSERV

services and offer a uniquely tailored service to customers. Investing in business infrastructure to achieve this is critical, says Lamers. “Fintechs should invest time in their infrastructure and not solely on their product and its associated functionalities. When a proper infrastructure is in place, one can see an increasing number of data points as an opportunity to uncover even more insights than one had before.”

In terms of technology trends, he sees artificial intelligence as a key component and a route to success in the sector. He concludes, “Implementation of various Artificial Intelligence techniques such as transformer-based namedentity recognition and the utilisation of explainable Artificial Intelligence assist in the adoption of machine-controlled actions as they offer increased confidence by clients in these emerging technologies. fintechmagazine.com

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FINASTRA’S

CHIEF RISK OFFICER ON THE ART OF RISK MITIGATION WRITTEN BY: ELISE LEISE PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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FINASTRA

Elona Ruka-Wright, Chief Risk Officer at Finastra, talks strategy and thought leadership inside one of the world’s leading financial technology companies

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isk management is as much an art as it is a science’, says Elona Ruka-Wright, Chief Risk Officer at Finastra. We’re speaking about the art of risk mitigation and her role on a Monday morning, and she dives right in. ‘While there are aspects of risk that you can predict based on statistical data, no risk stands alone. You have to connect the dots; think about unintended consequences’.

This is partly what draws her to risk management: the intellectual challenge.

‘You need critical thinking to constantly evaluate and make decisions’, Elona explains. ‘There is no business without risk.

It’s about making informed and balanced decisions that maximise opportunities while minimising risk. You can’t let infinite available data paralyse you, or you run the risk of doing nothing’. As Finastra’s Chief Risk Officer, she leads all aspects of the firm’s global risk management and governance practices, manages crisis situations, and builds strong relationships with regulators.

Having come to Finastra following a 20-year career built in established banks, Elona holds a unique perspective on the fintech industry.

‘Fintechs are different; they’re often more agile, more globally dispersed, and more diverse in their products and customers’, she says.

But both Black Knight (where she worked previously) and Finastra (her current company) serve big banks. ‘In many ways’, she says, ‘we have similar risk management programmes and practices as the world’s largest institutions’.

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Elona Ruka-Wright Chief Risk Officer at Finastra

FINASTRA

“No risk stands alone. You have to connect the dots; think about unintended consequences” ELONA RUKA-WRIGHT

CHIEF RISK OFFICER, FINASTRA

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Finastra’s Global Focus remote working in just a “There is no business As the largest purefew days. At the start of without risk.

It’s about play software vendor the pandemic, we faced that serves the financial familiar risks—safety, making informed and services industry, Finastra balanced decisions that security, and resilience— operates across the but we knew that they maximise opportunities globe, with key hubs and would accelerate and centres of excellence evolve’. She points out while minimising risk” located in Europe, that risk management Canada, Asia, and the US. demands collaboration.

ELONA RUKA-WRIGHT Some risks that Elona ‘There’s no competition’, CHIEF RISK OFFICER, FINASTRA and her team oversee she says. ‘We look at are universal, such as ourselves as peers cybersecurity, health and and partners. And we safety, and operational disruption. Yet others communicate regularly within our industry are localised—such as political strife in Hong in order to do our best work’.

Kong, hurricanes in the US, tsunamis in the Gulf of Thailand, or Brexit.

Banking as a Service: FusionFabric.cloud In terms of risk, there’s also the global Not all change is bad. ‘At Finastra, we see pandemic. ‘First and foremost, we huge market opportunities arising from focused on our people’s health and safety, new business models’, Elona tells us. ‘We prioritising employee wellbeing’, Elona says. see Finastra as being a financial ecosystem ‘We moved over 95% of our workforce to orchestrator’. The firm’s FusionFabric.cloud 52

September 2021

FINASTRA

platform, for instance, is the foundation for Finastra’s Banking as a Service (BaaS) proposition. An open developer platform for innovation, with over 150 apps, it’ll lead the way in which solutions are written, deployed, and purchased. The platform enables organisations to access capabilities that extend core solutions and, in turn, will help financial institutions bring relevant solutions to their customers.

‘Since we collaborate with a network of infinite developers, we can far surpass what Finastra’s developers can do alone’, Elona explains. ‘As our suite of apps and solutions grows, it creates opportunities for traditional and non-traditional banks and, ultimately, for Finastra and its customers. It increases their relevance and scale—and consequently, their growth and digital transformation’.

Agile Operations The pandemic has accelerated digitalisation—and risk management is

TITLE: CHIEF RISK OFFICER INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: CENTRAL FLORIDA Elona recently joined the Office of the CEO, where she heads up Finastra's global risk management and governance practices and is the company's key liaison with regulatory bodies and auditors. She is accountable for Finastra's Enterprise Risk Management framework, strategy and governance, as well as regulatory compliance, enterprise policy governance, client and third-party due diligence, business resilience, crisis management, and internal audits.

EXECUTIVE BIO

Digital Risk Management With digital transformation being a key driver for financial services institutions, how does it impact risk management? ‘On one hand, digital evolution introduces new risks’, Elona explains. On the other, risk management has turned to digital tools to cope with COVID-19. ‘Reliable and timely data coupled with the ability to automate and analyse risks is critical to driving insight’, she adds. But is tech always the answer?

To answer that, let’s return to Elona’s vision of risk management as an art.

‘We have a proliferation of tools’, she says. ‘But they can never fully replace professional judgement and a healthy dose of scepticism. If something doesn’t seem right—even if the data says it’s perfect — I trust my team’s intuition and expertise’.

ELONA RUKA-WRIGHT

FINASTRA

Unlock the door to Open Finance with Finastra

FUSIONFABRIC.CLOUD

DID YOU KNOW...

Benefits for Financial Institutions

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• Accelerates innovation and time to market • Embraces digital transformation and the cloud • Engages customers with better experiences • Enhances business decisions with data insights • Streamlines workflows and unlocks efficiencies • Creates new business models and revenue streams

September 2021

no exception. As a direct result of the pandemic, Finastra has rapidly taken steps to keep up with the complex threats that companies now face. To proactively manage risk, Elona’s team has taken an agile approach. ‘We’ll see an emerging risk and launch a targeted response’, Elona explains.

‘And when we evaluate new strategic initiatives or business projects, we identify risks that we want to nip in the bud’.

In addition, Finastra has started to conduct more frequent and short sprint risk assessments, refresh its audits and crisis scenarios, and implement new enterprise Governance Risk & Compliance (eGRC) and risk data visualisation tools and functionality. This is all part of Elona’s strategic approach to continuously prioritise—to determine the balance

FINASTRA

between risk-taking and risk avoidance.

‘There is no business without risk’, she emphasises. ‘You just have to know where to draw the line’.

In the end, risk management comes down to mindset. ‘Our job is more than merely preventing disaster’, she says. ‘We aim to be an enabler: to help Finastra mitigate risk and maximise opportunity’.

Building the Next Generation of Talent What’s more, Elona cares deeply about building strong teams. ‘One of the parts I like most about my job is developing the next generation of talent’, she explains, ‘culture starts at the top’. At Finastra, she appreciates that she has the support of its board and its executives in making risk management a priority.

“ I feel privileged to work for a company that cherishes diversity, equity, and inclusion, where you can belong and bring your whole self to work” ELONA RUKA-WRIGHT CHIEF RISK OFFICER, FINASTRA

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FINASTRA

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That’s why when it comes to the ‘Great Resignation’, or the fabled exodus of skilled workers from their jobs following COVID19, Elona is more level-headed than most.

‘Good people are, of course, hard to replace, especially in roles that require domain expertise’, she says. There’s certainly a war for talent, but she has a strategy.

“Simply buying talent isn’t enough — we have to develop and nurture it” ELONA RUKA-WRIGHT

CHIEF RISK OFFICER, FINASTRA

In addition to leveraging Finastra’s global recruitment networks, she intends to invest in internal risk management training and education programmes. ‘We support individuals at all stages of their careers’, she says. ‘Risk management is an entry point into an organisation. It gives you great visibility and insight into all parts of the organisation. It’s a great career option with many exciting trajectories’.

This final point hits close to home, as Elona started out in risk management and grew to love it. Now, she wants to build the next generation of global leaders. ‘Simply buying talent isn’t enough’, she concludes.

‘We have to develop and nurture it’.

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NEW BANKING REQUIRES NEW LEADERSHIP Commentators from Microsoft and Auriga guide us on how transformational leadership could revitalise post-COVID banking WRITTEN BY: WILL GIRLING

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ears from now, it’s not inconceivable that the difficult months of the COVID19 pandemic will be regarded as a critical turning point in banking’s history.

Headlines regularly chronicle the latest branch closures among high street brands, customers are switching to innovative challenger banks that can offer a better digital experience, and the capacity for Big Tech firms to fulfil banklike roles is posing an existential threat to the industry’s survival.

The successful navigation of this uncertain territory will not tolerate atavism or a desire to maintain the status quo; something needs to change. Enter ‘transformational leadership’, a managerial style that could be the guiding light for banking’s revitalisation. Far from being a new idea, it has, in fact, existed since the early 1970s when sociologist James V. Downton (in his book Rebel Leadership: Commitment and Charisma in the Revolutionary Process) first outlined what 21st-century leadership should 58

September 2021

look like. Instead of executives who merely go through the motions of control, this new breed of leader is charismatic, empathetic, inspirational, receptive to new ideas, and capable of forming a coherent vision for a better future.

Helping us explore how this model of leadership can fit into banking and help sustain its longevity are Falguni Desai, Digital Strategy Advisor, Financial Services, Microsoft; and Vincenzo Fiore, CEO at Auriga.

Pre- and post-pandemic leadership The pandemic has arguably been seismic enough to create a watershed in bank leadership. According to Fiore, “Those in banking will need skills such as openness, empathy, resilience, and the ability to communicate to thrive in a post-crisis world.

A greater focus should now be on how transformation seems to be at the expense of customer relationships and partnering

BANKING

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BANKING

“Leaders are expected to be global flag carriers who embody a greater purpose and mission that encompasses society and the environment” FALGUNI DESAI

DIGITAL STRATEGY ADVISOR, FINANCIAL SERVICES, MICROSOFT

opportunities.” Indeed, this is something we have previously explored in our article ‘Tech with a human touch: A loyalty-led approach to banking’.

For Desai, the pandemic was merely the moment that digital literacy became an essential leadership asset instead of a bonus; evolving stakeholder requirements had been laying the foundation for this shift at least a decade previously during the digital transformation boom. “Leadership today requires a multidimensional repertoire beyond just financial, digital, and operational skills,” she states. “Leaders are expected to be global flag carriers who embody a greater purpose and mission that encompasses society and the environment, as well as the financial stakeholders.”

The new executive résumé Before a bank sets out a higher purpose to which it can aspire, it is first necessary to consider which specific qualities a

Falguni Desai DIGITAL STRATEGY ADVISOR, FINANCIAL SERVICES, MICROSOFT Desai’s role is to serve clients in the banking and capital markets sectors, with a particular focus on digital transformation.

She has previously worked at Credit Suisse, BDO, Thomson Reuters, IBM, BNP Paribas, and Deloitte.

“My background is in M&A, transformation, and corporate strategy working at banks, financial media conglomerates and consulting firms. I’ve worked with business leaders to drive large scale growth and transformation inside their companies.”

Vincenzo Fiore CEO, AURIGA For almost three decades, Fiore has been acting CEO of Auriga, one of Europe’s leading software solution providers for the retail banking sector. Currently, with offices based in Bari, Rome, Milan, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid and Guadalajara, the company’s capacity for international expansion is proven and unlikely to stop any time soon.

Fiore is an alumnus of the University of Bari, from which he earned a degree in Information Sciences.

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transformational leader should have in their portfolio. Desai breaks them down into the following: • A willingness to learn • Humility and curiosity about trying unconventional ideas • The ability to digest emerging trends quickly, evaluate their value, and capitalise on any latent opportunities • The courage to immediately halt projects that no longer function as envisioned and redistribute resources to more valuable areas • The imagination and commitment to remodelling five-year plans as more agile 24-month agendas

Furthermore, Desai emphasises that transformational leaders must not be afraid of redesigning banking’s often antiquated structures, albeit within the predefined limits of regulatory compliance. Innovating within this complex framework is far from an easy challenge, yet it is highly necessary: slow, complex, and ineffective operations are the inheritance of failing to 62

September 2021

do so, a potential death knell for fast-paced banking in the digital world. “Most banks have evolved over a period of 100 or more years, in which time financial regulations have intensified. Without redesigning processes, it’s like planting good seeds in bad soil; transformation is just as much about subtracting the old as it is about adding the new.”

Leading millennials and Gen-Z “Building a better business starts with enabling a diverse workforce to perform optimally and by building trust and confidence among employees,” says Fiore.

“The way they are treated now will have an impact on perceptions and values in the future.” The socially conscious decision making of millennial consumers has been noted for several years - such as Forbes’ research, which found that 70% in the demographic considered company values before a purchase - so why should it not equally apply to employees?

For banks to prize technology to the detriment of people, Fiore continues, would be highly counterproductive. “As machines take on more robotic processes, people are still proving to be valuable assets as unique human skills come to the fore.” Therefore, leaders must take on the empowerment and education of their employees personally, providing opportunities for career advancement and demonstrating a genuine commitment to making the industry better.

In short, banking executives need to show they care in order for their staff to care.

“We’re used to talking about millennials and Gen Z as if they have yet to join the workforce, but they have already arrived,” adds Desai. “Millennials, in particular, make up more than 30% of the workforce. They want many of the same things that other

BANKING

“Those in banking will need skills such as openness, empathy, resilience, and the ability to communicate to thrive in a postcrisis world” VINCENZO FIORE CEO, AURIGA

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generations have wanted, but they are more comfortable switching employers to get it.”

Banks inherently have large organisations full of interesting career paths and diverse roles.

Ultimately, she suggests giving employees the chance to work in a new division or designing a new role inside the bank rather than forcing them to look elsewhere.

A change has got to come In more ways than just leadership, banking is standing at a crossroads of great historic importance, and the time for choosing a direction is fading fast. In Fiore’s view, transformational leadership will be all about recalibrating the sector for a truly people64

September 2021

centric approach. “To ensure that vital digital services remain up and running, leaders must do everything possible to protect missioncritical talent. By showing their support now, companies can create goodwill that will carry over to when better times return.” As physical branches continue to close and agile digital teams begin to gain greater prominence, the demand for managerial ‘soft skills’ to coordinate collaborations and partnerships in remote settings is likely to increase.

Meanwhile, Desai more specifically points to empowering middle management as the crux of a successful transition. “When the top 100 middle managers understand why the transformation needs to happen, you

BANKING

“Transformation is just as much about subtracting the old as it is about adding the new” FALGUNI DESAI

DIGITAL STRATEGY ADVISOR, FINANCIAL SERVICES, MICROSOFT

have a much greater chance of success.

Transformations succeed or fail in the middle management layers of a company.”

Every bank will have a ‘values’ or ‘mission’ section on their website; how much buy-in do these collections of aspirations have?

The real test for post-COVID leadership will be to what extent ‘culture’ goes beyond a set of hollow promises. “Culture is a fuzzy word that's often misunderstood,” concludes Desai. “I think of culture as the unspoken, but understood, way that things are done.

Cultures don’t change from the bottom up.

Leaders must set the tone at the top and then exemplify the culture in their decisions while empowering others to act.” fintechmagazine.com

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LASER-FOCUSED ON MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS, DLL IS LISTENING WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD

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DLL

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DLL

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DLL

Leveraging scale, diversity and tech, DLL is customer-centred and is committed to changing how they do things to support their customers

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hey say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but DLL is showing ‘them’ wrong.

“We are listening, even if it means we change what we do and have done for the last 50 years,” says Rafe Rosato, Chief Innovation Officer of DLL. Rooted in its history, DLL remains committed to supporting the communities in which it operates by offering financial services, expertise, manpower, in-kind contributions and more. Rafe says, “Ultimately, our mission is to first do good in the world.”

DLL has kicked off a new journey in which they leverage diversity and the power of scale and partnerships to help them in becoming a value-led, customer-centred business that will fuel growth— naturally.

Forwarding the Strength of Community Rafe shares the DLL story: “DLL is a whollyowned subsidiary of Rabobank Group, which is a Dutch cooperative bank. The bank itself has been in existence for over a hundred years. DLL was launched in 1969 by five individuals who worked for Rabobank.

They started up this little Dutch equipment finance company when a client asked if Rabobank would be interested in financing equipment and providing a lease product.”

Rabobank itself emerged from the Raiffeisenbank and the Boerenleenbank, two banks modelled on an agricultural credit cooperative established by rural German mayor Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818-1888). Raiffeisen believed that credit fintechmagazine.com

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DLL

Laser-focused on meeting customer needs, DLL is listening

“ Traction on Demand was the best fit for us from a cultural standpoint, but also a willingness to have that persistence and flexibility that would bring the right thinking and experiences” MATHEW MOORE

GLOBAL HEAD OF CRM, DLL

cooperatives could structurally improve the daily lives of rural people and bring an end to suffocating usurious practices.

Rafe continued, “The Raiffeisenbank was an early version of what we would refer to as a credit union now. And essentially, those two organisations came together with the belief that the community was important and the idea that financing the community was critical to its strength. So, therefore, those who were successful in the 70

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community pooled their money to promote and support others so that they could likewise be successful.

“The way we translate that today is that there are many businesses in the world that are looking to acquire equipment and technology that generates value in a community – whether it's in goods and services, whether it's employment, or whether it's just general economic activity.

At DLL, we are partnering for a better world by providing financial services to communities so that businesses can get the goods and services that they need in order to create value for their customers.

And ultimately, every day are we ask ourselves, what have we done to further the strength of our communities?”

The Power of Scale for a Better Customer Experience “The power of DLL is our global scale, the diverse portfolio of the industries we

DLL

MATHEW MOORE TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF CRM INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION: CANADA “My role is to bring forward our CRM platform and customer management journey across each of our countries and global business units, including marketing sales, service and analytics.

“I had a great mentor in my last role at a tech company who helped us to understand how to dive deep into an organisation and understand the real issues and be able to solve problems, enterprise-wide. The lessons that he taught us and his ability to do that helped shaped my thinking, my career and my leadership.”

“For me, it's about persistence and flexibility. Persistence to get to that end goal and flexibility in terms of how you get there. And that means failures. It means trying again. It means experimentation.

Having done a number of transformation type programs, it is a key theme across each of them that I've experienced over the last 10 - 15 years of really bringing strategy forward and making it real and tangible for an organisation and for their people.”

1969

Year founded

4,500+ Number of employees

EXECUTIVE BIO

operate in and our ability to provide scalable solutions and a seamless experience around the world,” says Daniela Weitmann, Head of Digital Transformation at DLL. She continues, “That global scale is one of the key differentiators for our success today. It's a particularly critical advantage as we fuel our digital transformation.

“There are some things that we are focusing on in our digital transformation. The first one is we are creating products that are informed by what our customers want and need. This is critical. Our second area of focus is to move away from letting technology dictate what type of experience we provide to our customers. Rather, we are putting the customer at the centre of everything we do and allowing their input to influence and shape our digital solutions.

“We know that our customers want a premium, consistent, and seamless experience.

We know that our customers want self-service and through multiple channels, such as mobile chat, email, phone and more. Therefore, we are leveraging the knowledge and experience that we have to deliver amazing customer experiences at a global scale.”

Rafe further explains the imperativeness of understanding customer needs. “Part of our value proposition is this concept of co-creation and the idea of authenticity. We don't have all the answers, but we have a willingness to find answers. When we talk about

Let customer experience lead the way.

In the era of customer obsession, success depends on building trust through exceptional digital experiences. Partner with Salesforce and Traction on Demand to create industry-leading and human-centric experiences, delivered to customers where and when they want them.

Start your digital transformation at tractionondemand.com

Traction on Demand x DLL: Transforming the Customer Experience.

Be agile but do it with intention’. He adds that established businesses such as DLL benefit from adopting an experimental approach. ‘What works? What doesn’t?’ he asks. ‘And how can we best serve the customer?’

‘It all started with a 6:30 am phone call’, says Aaron Zuccolin, VP of Industry Solutions and Financial Services Practice Lead. ‘Right from Traction on Demand’s first experience with DLL, Rafe—DLL’s Chief Innovation Officer—made it very clear that the customer came first’. This customer ‘obsession’, as Aaron puts it, forms the very foundation of Traction on Demand and DLL’s partnership.

Collaborating for Success

A Shared Customer Obsession ‘As a global company’, Aaron explains, ‘DLL wants to deepen their relationship with their customers’. Traction on Demand will help the group build a scalable platform and work with DLL to eventually hand over complete platform control.

Along the way, they’ll incorporate some lessons from fintech.

Most fintechs collect high-quality data, learn quickly, and adapt fast. ‘You see what’s working’, Aaron says. ‘Pivot. Adapt.

DLL and Traction on Demand work well together because they hold similar corporate values—community, honesty, and opportunity. ‘We’re not an up-and-out culture’, Aaron tells me. ‘We create paths for our people so that they can pivot’.

That’s partly why he’s spent nine years at the company and why he loves working with DLL. ‘We’ll definitely work with them to strategise what’s next and give DLL the next leg up in the industry’, Aaron tells me.

‘We do excellent work together. And we align on what’s important—the customer experience’.

LEARN MORE

DLL

“ We are creating products that are informed by what our customers want and need.

This is critical” DANIELA WEITMANN

HEAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, DLL

our customers, we really don't think of them in that traditional supplier/customer relationship sense. What we're looking to do is really create a partnership with equal contributions to the outcome for each party. It would be easy to say we provide payment solutions for our partners, but our partners need many more things than just some way to pay. They need new ideas.

They need new access to markets. They need training. They need tools. They need new products and services.”

DLL aims to bring more customer-friendly options, such as utilisation products, and scale it across DLL’s long list of partners 74

September 2021

and geographies. Rafe says, “It is very important and vital to our success that we really understand the customer needs. And then leveraging those needs to identify commonalities across different channels, geographies and industries, and create scale.

How does one industry benefit from the learnings of another and vice versa?

“Our global reach is putting us in a position to simplify the equation. It creates easier access. And if we can create easier access through these types of partnerships, it'll poise us to really accelerate our growth, and more importantly, the growth of our partners.”

DLL

DANIELA WEITMANN TITLE: H EAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION: NETHERLANDS “Before joining DLL one year ago, I worked in three different industries celebrating brands I love. I'm an activist and supporter of women and gender diversity in the workplace and mother of two teenagers.”

“I've always had a set of mentors that joined my turning points in life and in careers as well, as you cannot compartmentalise life. They range from previous bosses or consultant partners, or even headhunters that before shifting industries or shifting countries— I've lived in six countries throughout my professional life— have always been a sounding board for me.”

“What happens in the consumer world will make its way into the business world.

Experiences that you have in any industry becomes the standard of the experience that you want to have or to be served in the in. My ambition is to accelerate our digital journey at DLL, with the

EXECUTIVE BIO

Customers: The Epicenter of Digital Transformation Across the spectrum, customers are calling the shots. Having worked for big-name brands for many years, Daniela would know.

She shares, “In the retail world, we say that in the end, the consumer decides, not your boss. It's not the strategies that you put on paper. It’s the consumer that will decide how to access your brand. There are three main aspects that are driving consumer choice, and if we make a parallel, to our world, those three main drivers are access, experience and price.”

industry you operate

evolution I've experienced after almost a decade in retail.

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DLL

Looking at the consumer trends that are making their way into the 'business to business’ world, Daniela says, “The first one is that consumers want whatever, whenever.

Therefore, it’s critical for us to provide that self-service capability. The second lesson is that consumer patterns are shifting based on the experience and price parameters that we considered sacred in the past.

“It's experience versus transaction, it's premium versus value. At any point of the customer journey, relevant experiences will provide a lifelong relationship with your customers, not a transactional one.”

RAFE ROSATO

beginning, which means that there's a lot to

INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES

be gained from failing. It harkens back to the way children behave on playgrounds. They freely make mistakes, and they freely ask for a

“When I first came out of university, I followed

do-over. And that's something that in our adult

many of my classmates from the University

lives, we've distanced ourselves from because

of Pennsylvania to Wall Street and went into

of the fear of judgement. And quite frankly,

corporate banking. With the consolidation

the entrepreneurial effort that I made in my

of banking, I saw that there was potentially a

twenties was a failure. Still, it was the single

limited future. So, I went off as an entrepreneur

most important part of my life, professionally,

and had my own business for a number of

because I learned so much from it. And it led to

years, which turned out to be not so successful.

some other decisions that wound me up here,

I had my first experience in failing, so to speak.

which has been quite a

Then, I wound up in the equipment finance

wonderful journey.”

business. It was somewhat serendipitous that I wound up in the industry. However, I do believe

EXECUTIVE BIO

“For me, it's never too late for a new

TITLE: CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER LOCATION: GREATER PHILADELPHIA

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DLL has been advancing on their digital transformation journey for many years, “I like to believe that bringing in diverse leaders is a testament to how serious DLL is about our digital transformation,” says Daniela.

She continues, “The main shifts we are experiencing in digital transformation is that we are now starting with the customer at the centre and working ourselves backwards to see what the shifts are that will enable our business growth and the growth of our partners going forward, knowing what the end-user wants and needs.

that the start date back in September of 1995 was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

“Now, I've been with DLL for just about 26 years. And throughout my time here, I’ve taken on a number of different roles in the organisation across risk, sales, program management, strategic marketing and the beginnings of our efforts in digital over the past number of years.

September 2021

DLL

The DLL Partnership Ecosystem “We've operated for 50 years with our core strengths in financing and risk management.

Our core strength has not been creating unbelievable user experiences in a digital ecosystem. So that's why we're pulling from the outside and looking to partnerships to really, truly further our understanding.”Rafe Rosato When it comes to choosing the right technology and solution partners, Daniela says, “There are three things that I usually like to reflect on when we look into ecosystems. The first one is our identity, purpose and values and simplifying what we offer, so people understand. The second is our agility. We need partners that will complement and enhance our agility in this fast-paced world. And the third one is how we are going to scale? Is it going to be a territorial expansion, are we going to expand

to other services, or is it going to be towards different demands? Those three aspects are critical when we look into which partnerships to select when we look into ecosystems.

“We've got a number of technology and solution partners that we work with within our digital transformation and within our CRM program. You have to choose wisely because you are with these people on a day-to-day basis, and you need to have some shared values. We've partnered with Salesforce, Cognizant and Traction on Demand

“ Ultimately, our mission is to first do good in the world” RAFE ROSATO

CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER, DLL fintechmagazine.com

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as our core partners for our CRM program. It's really about understanding who their people are and ensuring they will mix with our people.

Do they understand our strategies, values, mission, vision, and can they contribute to it?

Those are key things. You want to be able to pick people and organisations that will help you see around the corners and call things out and help bring your organisation along so that you can reach your full potential and really maximise the efforts and the investments that you're making.”

Rafe explains that in leaving sales and changing roles, he began to see things in a different light. “What dawned on me was that as a company, we did not have a unified way of understanding who our clients were. With over a thousand commercial representatives in 30 countries, we had very different means and understanding of who our clients were. And that's an existential risk because you're only as good as that one 78

September 2021

pinpoint of a person in the field. And we needed to pull together and gain a better understanding so that the other members of our organisation would understand who our clients are and what their needs might be.

And with that, the entire global organisation then becomes exponentially better.

“We started a process with Salesforce through some innovation efforts a number of years ago. Salesforce allowed us to use a CRM system in a manner that was right for us. It was done with the mindset that using the tool gives all of our members a better way to understand who our customers are.

We have put a lot into successfully setting it up, allowing us to truly leverage it and really get the value out of it.

Mathew Moore, Global Head of CRM at DLL, picks up the conversation from there. “With Traction on Demand, we ran a traditional RFP process almost two years ago now. Almost from the get-go, when we met the team at Traction on Demand, we could tell there was something different about them just in terms of their approach, their language, and the thinking that they had. As we went through rounds of interviews and responses, we recognised that Traction on Demand was the best fit for us from a cultural standpoint, but also a willingness to have that persistence and flexibility that would bring the right thinking and experiences and could flex with us as we navigated deploying and expanding our Salesforce and CRM footprint.

“DLL has got a fantastic team, but we recognised that we had some gaps that we needed to fill. We recognised pretty quickly that Traction on Demand had that scale and had those experiences and could really come alongside our people and compliment them and help us to accelerate our digital transformation journey.

DLL

“ In the retail world, we say that in the end, the consumer decides, not your boss. It's not the strategies that you put on paper. It’s the consumer that will decide how to access your brand” DANIELA WEITMANN

HEAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, DLL

“The organisation has heavily invested in our CRM capabilities with Salesforce as a core of that platform, and it’s not just investing in the technology; it’s investing in the people and the process to understand the customer journey and the experiences that we want to create. The organisation has brought forth the right resources in terms of the right people and external parties, as well as the technologies to really dive in and recreate the ways of working.”

Building a Stronger Future Through Diversity, Equity and Inclusion At DLL, everyone gets a seat at the table. “The most important part about our company culture is driving diversity throughout the organisation and giving each member a voice in the outcome. We are a consensus-oriented type organisation, and that's because our lineage over the last hundred years was really built on community. This created cooperative fields throughout everything that we do” stated Rafe.

“What we're looking at right now is how we can bring in voices from different backgrounds, overall enhancing our diversity. We have an intense focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in our organisation because if we get that right, we can collectively make our future brighter and more rewarding. It’s a process. We're certainly nowhere close to where we would like to be, but I believe that we're taking the right steps to being a more diverse and inclusive organisation.

THE BIG QUESTION:

Can global payments become more local?

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PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

Claire Gates, Chief Commercial Officer at PPRO, helps us discover how local payment methods are combining to create a robust cross-border network

WRITTEN BY: WILL GIRLING

“ Cross-border payments are more complex than domestic payments and because of this, involve more risk and regulation” CLAIRE GATES

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER, PPRO

W

hen considering the multitude of payment solutions that exist globally, one cannot help but conclude that we’re living at a time where consumer choice has never been greater.

Hastened in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the hygiene conscious swap cash for contactless options, popular alternative payment solutions have exploded in popularity, including: • Card-based payments • Bank transfers completed in real-time • Direct debits • Mobile wallets • Buy now, pay later • QR codes • Cryptocurrencies It’s clear that the hegemony of cash is being toppled.

In the UK, card payments accounted for 51% of all transactions for the first time in 2019, while the US’ contactless usage grew 150% between 2019 and 2020, with 175 million cards now on the market (according to Visa). With new payment trends unlikely to reverse in the post-COVID world, it seems as if the change is only going to accelerate.

In this new and diverse space, there is no profit in excluding any solution from the US$2tn payments market. Instead of restricting options to a small handful of generic choices, could it be that enabling local methods to flourish within a global network is the ultimate method for facilitating cross-border payments that are as effortless in practice as local?

Claire Gates (CG), Chief Commercial Officer at PPRO, certainly thinks so. PPRO is one of fintech’s most trusted providers of local payments infrastructure and a determined driver of global development.

Heading up the company’s sales and marketing efforts and pushing forward new commercial initiatives, it is Gates’ responsibility to create partnerships that further PPRO’s own growth. Here, we ask her about the challenges of cross-border payments, the opportunities still available, and how greater financial inclusion can be achieved. fintechmagazine.com

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PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

THE BIG QUESTION: CAN GLOBAL PAYMENTS BECOME MORE LOCAL? Q. Which technologies facilitate PPRO’s local payments infrastructure?

CG: PPRO allows payment services providers, as well as enterprises with payment platforms, to plug into an extensive range of local payment methods preferred by consumers via a simple API. While the API simplifies the integration for our clients, they can tap into a complex infrastructure of regulatory compliance, banking relationships, and local payment methods (LPMs) established by PPRO in over 80 countries worldwide. This allows them to offload complexities and avoid significant investment costs.

Meet Claire Gates…

Joining PPRO in April 2021, Gates’ appointment is the latest in an exciting career that’s included CEO of Paysafe Group, Group Head Key Issuers at Mastercard, MD at Virgin Money, and VP of Global Sales Strategy at American Express.

“Having worked across four continents, I have experience both setting and executing strategies and launching and scaling new and existing businesses,” she states.

She holds a BEng in Chemical and Process Engineering from Newcastle University (1995), an MBA from the University of Warwick (1996), and a Corporate Finance Diploma from London Business School.

Q. What are the most prominent security challenges of cross-border payments?

CG: Cross-border payments are more complex than domestic payments and, because of this, involve more risk and regulation. Prominent security challenges include fraud, money laundering, and other legal and compliance issues. PPRO helps reduce those risks and exposure to security challenges through four main approaches: processing, contracting, collection, and knowledge and data. fintechmagazine.com

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Local Payment Types

“ PPRO helps consumers pay with the local payment method they trust and know, wherever they are” CLAIRE GATES

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER, PPRO

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September 2021

Q. How can the customer experience on both ends of a transaction be optimised?

CG: PPRO’s broad range of payment-related services helps all our partners grow their businesses and provide a seamless customer experience.

Our partners are local payment methods and payment service providers alike, to which we connect through our single payments platform via a single contract and a single integration. This enables merchants to offer their customers the widest and most relevant range of local payment types and services in markets worldwide.

By doing so, PPRO helps consumers pay with the local payment method they trust

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

and know, wherever they are. Combined with our recent findings that 44% of consumers abandon a cart at checkout if their preferred payment method isn’t available, merchants are poised for growth by offering a comprehensive gamut of payment methods.

Setting up an LPM in a new country is a complex and time-consuming process, which multiplies as more LPMs and countries are added - often involving the need to set up a local business entity, registering with authorities, and having local banking relationships. However, PPRO has done

the heavy lifting, thereby eliminating these barriers, lowering go-to-market costs, and speeding up the process exponentially. We also remove the need for custom software integrations with a company’s commerce and accounting platforms.

Our singular focus on local payment methods helps customers significantly increase time-to-market and reduce operational costs. Furthermore, PPRO’s infrastructure helps its customers get the best conversion rates in markets around the world. fintechmagazine.com

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PAYMENT SOLUTIONS

Q. Are cross-border payments inaccessible to those outside of general financial inclusion, or are there active efforts to also reach these people?

CG: In developing countries, there are systems in place such as cash-voucher schemes whereby consumers, who are often unbanked, can buy a voucher with a cash value at a convenience store and then use it to pay for goods and services online.

To succeed in the global marketplace, merchants and the payment service providers servicing them need to offer the local payment methods for any and every market in which they intend to sell.

Besides, there is every reason to want to expand into new markets. The global e-commerce market is worth more than US$4.3tn. By 2019, the cross-border e-commerce market was worth $780bn, and the pandemic took this burgeoning market and turbo-charged it. The volume of cross-border e-commerce surged by 42% in Q2 of 2020.

Q. Does there need to be a ‘levelling’ of payment tech globally to make crossborder payments more viable?

CG: I can tell you it’s incredibly unlikely.

Local payment methods will only proliferate as they address more and more specific demands of consumers. All these payment methods exist because of local preferences, cultural considerations, and infrastructure.

PPRO enables cross-border commerce thanks to years of building technology and relationships with companies situated in every position of the payments ecosystem.

Our clients, which include some of the largest payments companies in the world, have found this is the most effective way to grow.

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“ All these payment methods exist because of local preferences, cultural considerations, and infrastructure” CLAIRE GATES

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER, PPRO

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Home Credit Vietnam: Agile to Win Over the Pandemic WRITTEN BY: ELISE LEISE

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PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD

fintechmagazine.com

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HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

Anastasia Fokina, Chief Operations and Digital Transformation Officer, talks how Home Credit Vietnam adapts and adjusts to drive business during COVID-19

A

nastasia Fokina has had a whirlwind of a year. After working with Home Credit Kazakhstan for eleven years, she decided to reinvigorate her experience by joining Home Credit Vietnam. A few months before, however, she and her family had flown to Bali on vacation... just as the COVID-19 outbreak hit and international borders closed.

After six months of being stuck, she managed to move her entire family to Ho Chi Minh City (without returning to Kazakhstan) and launched into her new role as Chief Operations and Digital Transformation Officer in October of 2021. She laughs, somewhat ruefully. ‘That was how I started my job here—agile to adapt!’

Anastasia Fokina, Chief Operations and Digital Transformation Officer

The Mission Home Credit Vietnam has been a big name in the financial services market for over 12 years, serving nearly 12 million customers across 63 provinces nationwide. The company is the very first consumer finance company in the region, rated the Most Desired Brand in Vietnam.

Since its first day joining the market, Home Credit Vietnam has pursued its mission to better the lives of its Vietnamese customers with innovative products, responsible lending, and tech-driven solutions. The company helps Vietnamese customers access easy financing, safely achieve their daily financial goals, and feel positive about life. fintechmagazine.com

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HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

Agile to Win Over the Pandemic

“ Regardless of who our customers are, we enable them to have the life they want, the way they want. We want them to feel good in life” ANASTASIA FOKINA

CHIEF OPERATIONS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

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September 2021

“Driven by the promise of making customers feel good and the core nature of a market pioneer, we’ve always pushed ourselves to quickly adapt to the fast-paced business environment’, Anastasia says.

‘The current pandemic is a clear example of our agility, and digital innovation is our ultimate goal’.

Digital Innovation In Vietnam, with its various stages of lockdowns, customers turned to the internet for solutions to their sudden challenges. A significant number tried new digital services: 41% of all digital service consumers were new (higher than the SEA average), with 94% of these new consumers intending to continue their behavior post-pandemic.

With the fast-paced market conditions

HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

of COVID, Anastasia’s mission and innovate based on the way was to quickly adapt to the people shop during the pandemic’. changing market.

Following positive feedback, 1997 Seeing an increased number of Home Credit Vietnam accelerated Year founded online transactions and limitations its push for virtual credit cards. of applying for physical cards, her Launched in May, the cards 132,400+ team came up with the idea of a became available the first week Number of Employees virtual card solution. Like an online of August. Now, customers can loan with flexible payments, all have a card in their app and use it €14,7bn customers had to do was apply to shop the same way they would Revenue through an app. Limits appeared with a physical card. In addition, instantly, allowing them to pay as needed. the virtual credit card is entirely online and ‘Home Credit, as the pioneer in the via Mobile App, from registration and usage consumer finance market, has helped to management. Customers only need to change the way people use financial spend 30 minutes applying for the card. You products’, Anastasia explains. ‘Our automation can apply with only a few documents and system allows customers to apply for a loan access immediate offers: 2% cashback for and get a disbursement within 10 minutes. all online transactions, 45% days of interestAs a result, the company can quickly adjust free, 0% interest rate with an equal payment fintechmagazine.com

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FPT.AI - Amplify Business Productivity Disrupt business operational efficiency with a comprehensive AI-based solution "Make in Vietnam"

FPT Smart Cloud drives productivity for Home Credit Vietnam Le Hong Viet, CEO of FPT Smart Cloud, discusses partnering with Home Credit Vietnam to enhance productivity and reduce OpEx with the leading AI solutions.

FPT Smart Cloud is driving new growth for the FPT Corporation through its cornerstone product, FPT.AI. “FPT.AI is used to disrupt businesses by creating a big jump in productivity, which is exactly what we’re doing with Home Credit Vietnam,” says Le Hong Viet, CEO of FPT Smart Cloud.

FPT Smart Cloud was selected by Home Credit Vietnam as key technology partner.

The two companies came together in 2019 with the goal of executing a two-year project to improve Home Credit Vietnam’s customer engagement capabilities, which led to FPT Smart Cloud’s Voicebot technology being selected to provide AI-powered virtual customer support agent solutions.

“We spent six months building up a new platform for this purpose, as well as setting up the virtual agents for Home Credit,” says Viet. “Then, we spent another six months doing a proof-of-concept, calibrating the virtual agents, piloting the project, and pushing

it to completion. In total, we delivered on this partnership exactly a year ahead of schedule.”

This achievement, Viet explains, is due to the “very close collaborative relationship between the two project teams,” which worked together to execute their strategy while avoiding the most common pitfall of AI customer service integrations.

“Sometimes, AI can reduce the human workload and create efficiencies, but also result in a reduction of customer satisfaction,” says Viet. “This project managed to not only boost productivity and reduce costs, but also increase customer satisfaction.”

Today, FPT Smart Cloud’s virtual agents handle more than 5mn calls for Home Credit Vietnam monthly, and are capable of extending to 12mn calls during peak times.

FPT Smart Cloud and Home Credit Vietnam look to continue the collaboration with new AI solutions already in discussion, which are the implementation of Call Quality Enhancement, Knowledge Base and Chatbot, assuring both companies stay ahead of the AI revolution and create impacts on business performance.

Learn more FACEBOOK TWITTER LINKEDIN YOUTUBE

HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

ANASTASIA FOKINA TITLE: CHIEF OPERATIONS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES LOCATION: VIETNAM Senior–level executive with extensive experience in Finance, Operations and HR in diverse industries including banking, investment holdings, non-for-profit organizations, logistics, manufacture, and financial services.

CIMA/CPA qualified with deep expertise in managing Strategic Planning, FP&A, Transfer Pricing, Treasury, Accounting, Business Intelligence, PMO Offices, ERP System Implementations, Back-office Operations, and Call-Centre Management.

Proven ability to improve operations, impact business growth and maximize profit through achievements in finance management, cost reduction, internal controls, productivity/ efficiency improvement, business processes redesign, motivation schemes redesign and quality improvement. Managed €1bn assets company, bringing stable 50%+ Return on Equity results. Managed team up to 400+, successfully implemented cultural, customer focused call-center, and brought incredible deliveries, setting up a new benchmark for the call-centre industry in Kazakhstan.

EXECUTIVE BIO

transformations within

plan conversion. Also, customers can upgrade the Virtual card anytime to a plastic card with more benefits available.

This is one of the very first options like this in the market—and incredibly convenient during the time of COVID. ‘You have a credit card integrated into your smartphone’, Anastasia says. ‘How cool is that?’

Mobile Technology Asked about her opinion on the rising trend of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Anastasia tells

HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

“ Instead of needing plastic, you can pay at any time, with your smartphone” ANASTASIA FOKINA

CHIEF OPERATIONS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

us: ‘It’s nothing strange or new to HomeCredit.

This is the product that the group has been offering for the last 20 years: 0% interest rate and monthly equal installments for customer purchases. We’re now moving it online across the globe for a flawless experience via our app’.

She’s also leading the app project to align with a mobile-first strategy, applying advanced data analytics, artificial intelligence, and other disruptive technologies. Home Credit is the very first Consumer Finance fintechmagazine.com

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HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

Company (CFC) company to launch their loan service via an app, which is now at 12 million downloads.

‘I feel grateful that I’m empowered to bring about change’, she adds. ‘Not everything was easy, but we did it in a very short time’. This is a perfect example of how Home Credit adapts to change. For example, the company is planning to launch a QR code option in the near future, so that even with a virtual card, clients can pay in-person at shops and banks, as well as at e-commerce sites.

DID YOU KNOW...

WHO DOES HOME CREDIT VIETNAM SERVE?

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Since its establishment, Home Credit has provided responsible financial credit and inclusive financial services for those who have difficulty accessing traditional financial services—especially those with little or no credit records. In 2020, one in every four customers served by Home Credit globally were new to credit.

September 2021

Finally, Home Credit includes alternative processes to underwrite customers based on gaming, innovative data, and advanced scoring. These processes adjust financing solutions to the needs of customers—even those who lack credit history and collaterals.

All this adds up to an efficient system.

‘We’re empowered to run business in an agile way’, Anastasia concludes. ‘There are conflicts sometimes, but we all manage to get things done. In the end, we share a common goal—to make the customer feel good’.

Stronger Together Since 2019, Home Credit has cooperated with FPT, which is Vietnam’s largest IT company with operations in over 20 countries throughout APAC, Europe, and the US. In the middle of the pandemic, their project teams implemented AI call centres, including voice bots, live chats, and chatbots. This automated solution helped Home Credit save costs, improve efficiency, and increase customer satisfaction. What’s more, it provided customers with valuable information regarding payments, insurance, and other financial opportunities.

As a result of FTP and Home Credit’s collaboration, the solution processed more than 2,000,000 calls per month, sliced 50% of operating spend, and achieved 4.5 out of 5 points for customer satisfaction. ‘It’s what I call the synergy effect’, Anastasia explains. ‘One plus one equals not two, but three. By connecting Home Credit's scale and innovative risk approach with FPT’s operations and technology, we created one of the best customer experiences on the market’.

She notes that although FPT is a large company, it always finds a tailored solution to customer needs. Home Credit has the

“ We’re helping citizens of all ages. Finally, they can save money for what matters most” ANASTASIA FOKINA

CHIEF OPERATIONS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

same approach. ‘We manage to be both agile and customer-oriented’, Anastasia explains.

‘To do so, we select partners that not only share our business, but also share our values.

That’s the base for a successful partnership— stronger together’.

Agile Yet Responsible How does Home Credit Vietnam look after its customers? First, it offers loans based on a strict, automated evaluation process. The company leverages a credit scorecard, which is built on statistical models and many different factors to assess creditworthiness, helping customers avoid taking on too much debt. As a result, Home Credit has the lowest nonperforming loan (NPL) rate in the Vietnamese consumer finance market. The ratio has been maintained at lower than 3%, which is not compulsory but encouraged by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). fintechmagazine.com

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HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

To help ensure customers make the right borrowing decisions based on their own circumstances, a cooling-off period is offered as standard across all operations: up to 2 weeks after signing a loan contract, the customer can reconsider his or her decision and withdraw from the contract without any charges. This is one of the commitments to ensure that first-time borrowers and repeat customers alike feel safe and confident using the company’s products.

In addition, financial literacy education helps Home Credit champion responsible lending. The organisation promotes an understanding of finance through roadshows, workshops, in-branch open days, in-store events, brochures, publications, competitions, media campaigns, mobile games, and public teach-ins in supermarkets, shopping malls, and communities. Its primary focus is to teach people about credit and promote responsible borrowing practices, help communities with the principles of money management and household budgeting, and educate children and students to help them become responsible adults.

Finally, Home Credit has strict policies to protect customer data security. ‘Home Credit is a responsible company that consistently acts with transparency, compliance, and customer focus’, Anastasia tells me. ‘We ensure long-term benefits for customers, partners, and society’. She adds: ‘We want to build sustainable relationships with partners. In every partnership, we want our customers to win. We want our partners to win. And this focus on community is what makes us unique’.

Prepared for the Future As we wrap up, I ask Anastasia about upcoming challenges. She gives me a 100

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“ We focus on giving Vietnamese workers who have informal jobs access to credit” ANASTASIA FOKINA

CHIEF OPERATIONS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, HOME CREDIT VIETNAM

refreshingly direct reply: ‘We’re dealing not with challenges, but with opportunity. Home Credit Vietnam is more prepared than ever for the future. We have a staple app with all our major operations intact. The Vietnamese government supports the digitalisation of our economy. And our clients have high interest in virtual credit and other digital solutions’.

At heart, the pandemic accelerated digital payments. Even eighty-year-old Vietnamese citizens with their hearts set on cash started using digital payments out

of necessity. ‘In normal circumstances, citizens might have taken years to make the switch’, Anastasia pointed out. ‘But 2021 changed everyone’s habits’. To her, this is one of the best outcomes that Home Credit could have anticipated. ‘We’re helping citizens of all ages’, she tells me.

‘Finally, they can save money for what matters most’.

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BFL CANADA

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BFL CANADA

THE DIGITAL JOURNEY, BUILDING THE BROKERAGE OF THE FUTURE WRITTEN BY: LEILA HAWKINS

PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY

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BFL CANADA

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BFL CANADA

Christopher O'Sullivan, CIO at BFL CANADA, tells us about embarking on a digital journey to better serve their customers now and in the future

S

Christopher O'Sullivan, Chief Information Officer

ince it was founded in 1987, BFL CANADA has grown to become one of Canada's largest privately held risk management, insurance brokerage, and benefits consulting firms.

Operating across the country, it has 22 offices and just over 1,000 employees, serving insurance brokerage, risk management, and employee benefits consulting across a number of industries, particularly real estate, professional services, construction, transportation, and public services.

As a result of the company's growth, BFL is in the midst of a digital transformation, to keep complexity to a minimum, ensure the organisation is future-proof, and continue to deliver outstanding customer outcomes.

It will also benefit BFL's insurance partners.

"Insurers in Canada are on their own digital journeys," O'Sullivan says. "They're looking for seamless end-to-end journeys for customers, so we need to be prepared to be a part of that. And in many cases, we're looking to drive that with our strategic insurance partners." fintechmagazine.com

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BFL CANADA

Corporate Video

BFL's digital strategy has three key parts.

First is building a new cloud-based data platform, which will be rolled out later this year. "We want to ensure that we have something that's scalable, that has modern technology and that's going to allow us to evolve, as data practices also evolve," O'Sullivan says. "It will give us the ability to aggregate and leverage all of our data, which can be challenging today."

Currently, data provides insights into what is happening within the business, but the new platform will enable them to gain insights from outside the business and the broader ecosystem. "It will also allow us to exchange data more efficiently with our partners, and leverage that data more effectively in terms of driving automation and personalising our products and services for our customers. Also, if we give our team 106

September 2021

“ Insurers in Canada are on their own digital journeys, so we need to be prepared to be a part of that” CHRISTOPHER O'SULLIVAN

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, BFL CANADA

easy-to-consume insights and data, it helps them demonstrate expertise, which goes a long way in terms of building relationships and winning for our customers," he adds.

The second part of the digital transformation involves rebuilding the digital stack. "We serve many different industries, with clients from small and medium enterprises to very large, complex

BFL CANADA

CHRISTOPHER O'SULLIVAN TITLE: CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER INDUSTRY: INSURANCE LOCATION: TORONTO

commercial businesses," O'Sullivan explains.

"We've found that, in more transactional segments, there is a lot of customer demand for self service. Customers want to be able to quote and bind policies themselves. From our perspective, we want to ensure that we can meet that need because it is critical to delivering great customer outcomes."

Having used online platforms for these segments for the last five years, they'll be consolidating learnings and best practices into a new single platform. "Our goal is to be able to respond to customer demand much more quickly. The new platform that we're building will allow our business teams to launch new offerings in days, not months.

It gives us agility and efficiencies internally and it also allows us to be responsive to the marketplace, which benefits our customers and our partners."

The third part of their digital journey is transforming the broker management

EXECUTIVE BIO

Barry F. Lorenzetti CEO and Founder, BFL CANADA

As Chief Information Officer, Chris is responsible for BFL CANADA’s information technology and digital strategies, systems, operations, and processes. He plays a critical role in the success of our business and how we deliver new technologies and advancements to our client marketplace, while ensuring that BFL CANADA stays abreast of emerging technologies.

Chris joined BFL CANADA in 2020, bringing significant experience in IT strategy, architecture, engineering, and DevOps. He holds a Master of Mathematics in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, which he completed as a Commonwealth Scholar. Chris has also completed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams.

BFL CANADA info@xrmvision.com

We enable business process optimisation and automation for financial services & insurance professionals.

Since 2008, we have been deploying impactful solutions based on Microsoft cloud technologies. Get in touch with one of our experts.

Modern work starts here Collaboration solutions for people to be flexible, happier, and productive at work. With our team of experts, we helped BFL optimize their Microsoft Teams investment and set them and their people for success.

Learn more

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BFL CANADA

system. "We need to make a shift in how we use our broker management system, to align with best practices of a digital business," he says.

"Today, our broker management system is a monolith, hosting the vast majority of our capabilities and processing. We will be re-architecting so that we can tap into new and emerging best-of-breed solutions.

The broker management system will serve as the core, and we'll start to clean up by moving supporting functions to external systems. This will be enabled by a robust integration architecture that will allow us to scale while reducing complexity."

In addition to these areas, they intend to make efficiencies in the back office, looking at systems supporting finance, HR, facilities, and procurement. "The business has been effective in these areas, so it's a bit of a preemptive strike against complexity," O'Sullivan says. "In many of these areas there's a lot that's done by spreadsheets. This is acceptable today but it will inhibit our ability to scale tomorrow.

“ If we have robust technology that is helping us to win for our customers, it will ultimately helps us attract great talent” CHRISTOPHER O'SULLIVAN

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, BFL CANADA

"We are looking at all of those systems, the information flow and the processes tied to them. As we rearchitect and implement new systems to replace these, we will look to tap into the tribal knowledge that exists."

He adds that BFL is fortunate as the team members that build the spreadsheets still work there, which makes it easier. "That allows us to essentially codify what's in their heads," he says, "but do it more efficiently, through systems that are automated. It's fintechmagazine.com

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going to be a long tail journey to transform what's been there for years, but we're leveraging the knowledge and expertise we still have in house to make it more efficient going forward."

In terms of the technology they've deployed, XRM Vision are is a key partner in terms of building the online platforms and digital stack. "We ran an RFP and XRM Vision came out head and shoulders above everyone else. They have deep insurance knowledge and they're a Microsoft Gold Partner. They bring a lot to the table and they challenge our thinking."

Another partner is Softchoice, who they called on to help them roll out Microsoft Teams across the company.

"A lot of people think of Teams as a video conference tool, but we see it as a true collaboration platform. Softchoice brought a lot of expertise to enable change management across 1,000 employees. For us, it wasn't a matter of just turning on the technology. It's about a change in the way people work, and they had a lot of expertise around how to do that on the scale of BFL's size."

They use Microsoft extensively, for workplace technology, collaboration tools, and the cloud through Azure. "So much of our roadmap has Microsoft stamped on it.

We invest a lot of time in building a really strong relationship with them, and they really help us with expertise, with products and access to their partners, which really helps move the needle for us."

Once their digital journey is complete they hope to achieve great customer outcomes, better relationships with partners, and great experiences for employees. "Talent is really important.

Our view is that if we can have robust technology that is helping us to win for 110

September 2021

our customers, it will ultimately help us attract great talent. Talent plus great technology, I think, is a formula for success."

O'Sullivan is enthusiastic about his colleagues. "I've met so many amazing people since I've been here. The President, CEO and Founder, Barry F. Lorenzetti, who is still the driving force behind the business, has built an amazing culture that's rooted in entrepreneurial spirit.

Although we're privately held, the

BFL CANADA

“ We want to ensure that we have something scalable, that has modern technology and that's going to allow us to evolve”

company is managed and owned by its employees, which helps drive us."

"We've also built great relationships in the industry and with our customers — it's one of those virtuous cycles where the more we win for our customers, the stronger our relationships become, and that leads to more wins and stronger relationships, leading to more growth."

CHRISTOPHER O'SULLIVAN

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, BFL CANADA fintechmagazine.com

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EVENT PREVIEW

The Ultimate FINTECH & InsurTech

LIVE EVENT FinTech & InsurTech Live, the industry’s ultimate event, launches this month alongside our celebration of the Top 100 Leaders in the FinTech and InsurTech industry WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

T

his October, BizClik Media Group launches a new platform to connect our digital communities, combining the strengths of in-person and virtual discussion, networking and access to the industry’s leading voices.

FinTech & InsurTech Live, a brand-new event, takes place 12-14 October 2021, giving you the opportunity to network with C-level executives, gain insight from industry pioneers and walk away with actionable insights to accelerate your career. Taking place and streaming live from Tobacco Dock in central London, it is a unique opportunity to reconnect with the fintech and insurtech community after such a prolonged period of disruption.

This event is the next step in placing our digital community at the heart of the

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“ Our aim is to provide professionals with the tools, techniques and innovations they need to be at the forefront in our everevolving industries” JAMES CALLEN

MANAGING DIRECTOR, BMG CONNECT

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fintech and insurtech industries. Organised

by BizClik Media Group, FinTech & InsurTech Live is shaped and influenced by the thousands of professionals who interact with our magazines, websites, live streams, podcasts and exclusive industry reports every day.

“With over 120 speakers confirmed, our agenda for October is shaping up to be spectacular, with three days of insightful content from some of the best in industry,” says James Callen, Managing Director, at BMG Connect. “Our aim is to provide professionals with the tools, techniques and innovations they need to be at the forefront in our ever-evolving industries.

“We are partnering with online platform Brella to deliver the event however you choose to participate,” Callen adds. “Whether attendees decide to attend virtually or in person, they will still be able to interact with industry pioneers and participate in discussions on topics that are affecting their

business, allowing them to walk away with an actionable framework to implement into their strategy.

“FinTech & InsurTech Live is ultimately about delivering value and insights to elevate your career and further your organisation’s objectives. Whether that’s navigating global disruption, achieving vital ESG commitments, or strengthening the partner ecosystem that makes your value chain unique, we look forward to welcoming you later this month.”

World Leading Speaker Line-up FinTech & InsurTech Live will bring together global industry leaders to discuss the challenges, opportunities and issues facing fintech and insurtech across a variety of formats, including keynote addresses, panels, and fireside chats. Confirmed speakers for FinTech & InsurTech Live include: • Tevi Legge, VP and Head of Digital Products at ATB Financial • Colin Payne, VP and NextGen FS Global Lead at Capgemini • Luke Manning, Head of Sustainability at the London Stock Exchange Group • Elona Ruka-Wright, CRO at Finastra • Johnathan Holman, Head of Digital: Corporate & Commercial Banking at Santander • Alistair Fraser-Hawkins, CEO, UK Corporate, at Marsh McLennan • Diana Dinis, Product Director of Daily Banking at Mambu • Parul Kaul-Green, Board Member of UK InsurTech board, Tech Nation, at AXA • Scott Abrahams, Senior VP of Business Development & FinTech at Mastercard • Bryan Carroll, CEO at TNEX • Nino Ulsamer, Co-founder and CTO at StashAway

Join us at LIVE In a COVID-disrupted era, we understand that travel is not always possible. As such, BizClik Media Group has decided that FinTech & InsurTech LIVE will offer the best of both worlds through hybrid accessibility.

In Person For attendees who wish to join the event in person, the venue is working to governmentendorsed AEV All Secure Framework, alongside mia’s AIM Secure and ‘Good to Go’ accreditation, to ensure a COVIDsecure environment to facilitate all of your networking needs.

Virtually Our physical Tobacco Dock venue is both historic and stunning, but it has no bearing on the information that you and your peers can gain from the event. Absorb it all, interact with other attendees, and enjoy the conference experience on our virtual platform, powered

by Brella, featuring live feeds from all of the stages, as well as virtual networking areas.

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In Association With:

THE ULTIMATE FINTECH & INSURTECH EVENT OCTOBER

12th - 14th STREAMED LIVE FROM TOBACCO DOCK LONDON A BizClik Media Group Brand

Confirmed Speakers Include: Jonathan Holman

Head of Digital Transformation: Corporate & Commercial Banking Santander UK

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SVP Business Development and Fintech Mastercard

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Rafa Plantier

Head of UK & Ireland Tink

Lee Sarkin

Head: Data Analytics Munich Re

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“ The Top 100 Leaders are individuals championing everything that we love about technology and embracing best practice that’s good for business”

Top 100 Leaders in FinTech and InsurTech The definitive list of leading executives and influencers will be announced at the event and shared across social media channels, our websites, and presented in a special supplement that honours all of those named in our annual list.

“The Top 100 Women, which we shared to coincide with International Women’s Day 2021, recognised the incredible and influential women driving our industry,” says Scott Birch, Editorial Director, BizClik Media Group. “The success of that initiative encouraged us to recognise the Top 100 Leaders – individuals championing everything that we love about fintech and insurtech and embracing a best practice that’s good for business.”

Tickets are still available for FinTech & InsurTech Live, just click on the button below.

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, BIZCLIK MEDIA GROUP

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TECHNOLOGY

A snapshot of data analytics in modern finance COMMENTATORS FROM NASDAQ, SENSIBILL, AND AURIGA PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF HOW FAR FINANCIAL DATA ANALYTICS HAS COME AND WHERE IT MIGHT BE HEADING WRITTEN BY: WILL GIRLING

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ata analytics has often proved to be the silent hero of finance’s digital transformation story, yet its positive effects can be felt everywhere. Concepts that are currently gaining momentum, such as Open Finance, would be impossible to execute without it; subsequently, customers are gaining access to a greater variety of highly relevant product options, while companies are unlocking new revenue streams and simultaneously optimising old ones.

We asked three experts in the field to provide us with an up-to-date snapshot of what data analytics can, will, and could do as part of finance’s transition from a pre- to post-pandemic industry. They are:

VENTURE CAPITAL

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LEVERAGING INSIGHTS IN DIGITAL BANKING RETAIL BANKING

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SME BANKING

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OPEN BANKING

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Visit strands.com/request-demo

TECHNOLOGY

What’s the most exciting prospect for data analytics in finance?

The potential for analytics to transform a heavily data-centric sector like finance is far from exhausted. Stock market insights, financial modelling, and risk management are just a handful of fertile areas for exploration. However, our three commentators were unanimous in citing the enhancement of the customer experience (CX) as data analytics’ most promising area.

GZ: “CX is the field where data analytics can deliver huge value for banks in how their omnichannel strategies are realised and how services can be personalised for individual customers.”

BD: “Nasdaq and Quandl provide alphagenerating insights for both quantitative and fundamental investors. We believe that all portfolio management teams should be able to maximise the insights they receive from data. That only happens when data is easily discovered, implemented, and acted upon.

“In a way, everyone’s already sold on data, especially in finance. The industry needs no further convincing that data is valuable, so the natural next step is making the experience around that data even better.”

“ ONE OF THE COMMON DATA CHALLENGES THAT WE FACE WITH OUR CLIENTS, ESPECIALLY BANKS AND CREDIT UNIONS, IS NOT HAVING ACCESS TO THESE DEEPER INSIGHTS” DANNY PIANGERELLI

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, SENSIBILL

Bill Dague Head of Alternative Data, Nasdaq Working specifically on Nasdaq’s data platform Quandl, Dague is focused on finding valuable data and building products that deliver actionable investment insights. He and his team apply leading-edge technologies to create new solutions for traditional and alternative asset managers and quant trading groups.

Danny Piangerelli Chief Technology Officer, Sensibill Responsible for the strategy, direction, and development of Sensibill’s technology, Piangerelli drives innovation and engagement across its digital channels and delivers value to clients and end-users. Previously the Co-Founder and CTO of Malauzai Software (acquired by Finastra in 2018), he is an expert in the fintech space and has 22 years of experience, including software engineering, architecture, and leadership.

Gaetano Ziri Software Engineer, Auriga Ziri holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Software Engineering from Università degli Studi di Bari, as well as an MS in Data Science from Politecnico di Bari. He first joined prominent Italian banking software solutions company Auriga in 2015 as an intern before becoming a Software Engineer just six months later that same year. fintechmagazine.com

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Examples of how to deliver superior CX using data DP: “Sensibill is helping financial institutions and technology companies harness the power of SKU-level data to enhance CX. Our Customer Data Platform surfaces deep insights derived from data found on financial documents, such as receipts, invoices, and bills, helping financial institutions and technology companies better understand customers’ spending habits, behaviours, lifestyles, brand preferences and timely financial needs. Our platform also can drive those insights directly back to an institution’s customers, thereby creating a flywheel effect of value that drives engagement.

“These insights enable institutions and businesses to proactively help customers make their hard-earned money go further by tracking transactions, increasing visibility into warranties and returns, categorising purchases based on spend, and much more. We believe that financial health and wellness can be attainable 124

September 2021

for all, and it starts with leveraging relevant, contextual data to create more personalised customer experiences.”

BD: “Nasdaq’s Quandl was created to fulfil the need for a clean, reliable source of data and information for the financial community. We develop valuable, insightgenerating datasets through careful analysis and emerging technologies like machine learning.

“We also take our commitment to a bestin-class data consumption experience a step further by ensuring that our users have access to an easy-to-use interface, straightforward APIs, multiple integrations, simplified search and browse capability, and high-quality documentation.”

TECHNOLOGY

“ IN A WAY, EVERYONE’S ALREADY SOLD ON DATA, ESPECIALLY IN FINANCE” BILL DAGUE

HEAD OF ALTERNATIVE DATA, NASDAQ

GZ: “Auriga is focussed on how banks can use smarter data analytics to improve omnichannel customer experiences within next-gen branch banking and digital self-service deployments.

Auriga’s strategy focuses on investing in AI and enabling banks to maximise the value of their existing data to create enhanced CX. “All interactions generate valuable data for potential and existing customers. This information can be collected to discover more about their level of satisfaction, behaviour, or the risk of losing them, allowing the bank to then design an even more customised journey.”

The challenges of applying data analytics BD: “Regulations, data privacy, and data silos are challenges present in every industry, and

the financial sector has been leading the charge in helping to overcome them.

“A key strategy in addressing the issues is a willingness to outsource the elements of data analytics that are already commoditised and are effectively ‘solved problems.’

Companies in every sector should be looking to capitalise on trusted solutions that already exist so they can focus on their core differentiated business functions.”

GZ: “Until a few years ago, the most difficult challenge was to implement new AI models capable of guaranteeing adequate performance. Today, thanks to technological evolution, this problem can be considered solved, and the focus has shifted to the effectiveness of the ‘bias and fairness’ models. This is a complex mathematical challenge, particularly when determining what it means to be ‘fair’ in decision-making.

However, if you can clean your training fintechmagazine.com

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dataset from conscious and unconscious assumptions, labels and ideological concepts, you are able to build an AI system that makes unbiased data-driven decisions.

“A second point of attention is the security aspect of processing data. Fortunately, there are clear regulations on the processes to be adopted, and there are several support tools that allow you to anonymise and encrypt data when it is not in use.”

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DP: “One of the common data challenges that we face with our clients, especially banks and credit unions, is not having access to these deeper insights; they struggle to make data actionable.

“With traditional personal financial management (PFM), financial institutions have only had access to transaction-level data, such as the total purchase amount, date purchase, and merchant. But this

TECHNOLOGY

“ FIRMS MAY DECIDE TO REDUCE INVESTMENT IN NEW INITIATIVES, INCLUDING AI, AND THIS MAY REMAIN THE CASE UNTIL SOCIETY AND BALANCE SHEETS RETURN TO NORMAL” GAETANO ZIRI

SOFTWARE ENGINEER, AURIGA

information reveals very little information about their customer or member.

When financial institutions combine the transaction-level data they do have with SKU-level insights; they gain a much more detailed view of a customer and their individual needs. This depth of information helps drive personalisation, improve loyalty, strengthen top-of-wallet strategies, boost customer engagement, create targeted marketing campaigns, and more.

“Partnering with a SKU-level data expert is how institutions can better understand their customers, humanising and personalising today’s banking experiences, while competing against the likes of Amazon, Google, Amex, and others. With existing data sources closing off, there’s never been a greater need to have first-hand, ethically sourced data to make these experiences that much more of a reality.”

What could the future hold?

With analytics fuelling FSIs’ desire to create more intuitive CX at a time when digital finance is seeing rapid customer adoption, there is no question that data will hold a

central role in global operations moving forwards.

Fundamentally, unlocking the value of information will be critical to understanding how customers have changed during the pandemic and which trends could hold significant importance for the future.

However, Ziri concludes, there is also a danger that market uncertainty as the pandemic gradually deescalates could stymie innovation, “Firms may decide to reduce investment in new initiatives, including AI, and this may remain the case until society and balance sheets return to normal.” Therefore, FSIs must balance between two negative outcomes: unfruitful investment at a fiscally precarious time or potentially falling behind the competition.

It seems like the question is now ‘where’ investment is best placed and ‘to what extent’; data analytics’ importance is beyond doubt. fintechmagazine.com

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CSOB ČSOB

CUSTOMER SERVICE POWERED

BY DATA MEETS ČSOB WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

PRODUCED BY: JOE PALLISER

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ČSOB is revolutionising its services through the latest, cutting-edge technology. We caught up with its tech leaders to find out how they are doing it

A

ČSOB Campus

s one of the largest banks in the Czech Republic, ČSOB offers a full range of banking services to individuals and companies.

The bank is owned by Belgium-based KBC Bank and the whole group has taken enormous steps in the digital transformation of its business in recent years.

Now it is shifting up a gear by introducing the personal and fully digital assistant, Kate, which is powered by data, Artificial Intelligence technology and straight-through processing.

The technology enables clients to be served in a personal way, taking into account their situation and needs.

Ludek Slegr, ČSOB’s IT Executive Director (CIO), joined the bank eight years ago following several years in the German business industry, working for companies such as Deutsche Post DHL. His return to the Czech Republic was an intentional one, yet he was mindful that he still wanted to work in an international environment. ČSOB has given him that opportunity, as well as the chance to innovate through technology.

He explains, "My whole career has been spent working for international companies, starting with a German digital document management company, then working in the transportation sector for Deutsche Post DHL. But at some point, I felt like going home and I wanted to experience how Czech-based companies work. fintechmagazine.com

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"At the same time, I didn't want to completely lose touch with my international background, therefore I chose ČSOB. It's not just a Czech company, with KBC as its mother, it's a Belgium-owned bank insurance group. This presented for me the opportunity to check out the financial services industry."

Developments in financial services The past decade has been one of immense change for ČSOB impacting equally business and IT, driving them much closer together than ever before. The business needs have driven the technology side of things but 132

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also the transformation of the organisation in terms of business IT fusion for sake of efficiency and flexibility. ČSOB is now an entity that operates with agility, from its internal processes to its delivery of services to customers. “It cannot be overstressed how many changes we've gone through including those under the surface,” Slegr says, but swiftly focuses on future changes that are still pending for the bank as it is clear he feels as though there is still much to be done.

From a people perspective, the transition has been a great success, and has been achieved through nurturing an agile mindset,

ČSOB

LUDEK SLEGR TITLE: IT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (CIO) COMPANY: ČSOB After graduating at the Czech Technical University, Ludek went all the way from software development and service delivery to management in international environment. He started his career and learned IT business in German document management company. Then he entered deeply international corporation when he moved to Deutsche Post DHL. There he further developed his management, service delivery and project skills.

For 8 years now Ludek is working for ČSOB CZ and more than 3 years as CIO. The essence of his role is to make technology work best for the business.

He has been newly appointed ČSOB SK CIO to support bank´s migration to Temenos core system and integration of OTP bank and to develop IT function according to new needs.

" Technology is developing as we speak, and we need to focus on maximising the benefits of using cloud technologies, data, and AI” LUDEK SLEGR

says Roman Masek, Director, IT Digital Services for ČSOB. He explains, “We achieved our primary goal. Once the people adopted an agile mindset, they discovered its power and beauty and the more technical aspects clicked in place much easier. But the initial phase is far from easy and it is not for everybody. We are using the SAFE methodology framework with success, but the agility in minds of agile teams is the key ingredient to deliver business value faster.

We have proven that project and agile principles work very well together.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

IT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (CIO)

CSOB

“ It's not just about going digital. We are now carefully selecting the companies we provide finance to”

JIRI HALOUZKA TITLE: DIRECTOR, IT CORE SERVICES COMPANY: ČSOB After graduating at the Czech Technical University, Jiri spent most of his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In various roles in audit and consulting Jiri was advising clients in the areas of risk, finance, process optimisation and regulation, among others. For 9 years now Jiri is working in ČSOB. The essence of his role is to provide core services to DevOps units in IT and business with responsibility for over 140 FTEs. Key areas of his responsibility are IT service level management, help desk, testing, release and change management, IT operational risk management, IT finance, IT integration and IT strategy, among others.

JIRI HALOUZKA

EXECUTIVE BIO

DIRECTOR, IT CORE SERVICES

CSOB

Customer service powered by data meets CSOB

Technology enabled solutions The digital transformation has been as much about streamlining processes as it has been about reorganising teams and their interactions. Slegr is aware of the pace of technological innovation, and he wants ČSOB to be ahead of the game.

"Technology is developing as we speak," he says, "and we need to focus on leveraging the power of data combined with AI techniques. These are elements that are strongly in our portfolio and we are working intensely to teach us how to use it for the client's benefit."

The pandemic has also been a driving force behind the digital changes of the past 18 months, although many of these developments were already planned and, in the pipeline,, but were “moved up the calendar” when COVID-19 hit.

He says that taking the bank’s staff away from the centralised offices and having them working from home was a surprisingly fintechmagazine.com

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CSOB

“ We achieved our primary goal. Once the people adopted an agile mindset, they discovered its power and beauty and the more technical aspects clicked in place much easier”

ROMAN MASEK TITLE: DIRECTOR, IT DIGITAL SERVICES COMPANY: ČSOB After graduating at the Czech Technological University, Roman started his career in T-Mobile as developer, continuing as IT manager responsible for development of internal IT systems and IT architect for whole group T-Mobile in Europe.

After joining in ČSOB 8 years ago, Roman took responsibility for Development and testing department, lately formed in DevOps unit with responsibility over 100 FTEs. Key areas of responsibility are full end-toend support for digital channels and automation deployment. Nowadays, Roman is also responsible for the IT agile transformation within ČSOB.

ROMAN MASEK

EXECUTIVE BIO

DIRECTOR OF IT AND DIGITAL SERVICES

CSOB

successful endeavour, but at the same time, the sense of isolation has created difficulties in terms of building new teams. The answer has been a roadmap set out by ČSOB which has prioritised certain techniques and technologies that have helped create a more seamless experience for staff as well as customers.

“Our journey has been very much about using whatever technology we can to make

“ Allocating money to projects contributing to sustainability has a huge impact for the good of all of us. It’s future-proofing through finance” LUDEK SLEGR

IT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (CIO)

the experiences of our clients as smooth and simple as possible,” says Slegr.

"We employ many more technologies from the AI realm, which have allowed us to replace a lot of routine tasks carried out by our business colleagues in the past.

They range from image recognition to text understanding. This saves a lot of time.

Not just to us, but also our clients. And our colleagues can use the capacity for more creative work."

Straight through processing ČSOB focuses on Straight Through Processing (“STP”), which is essentially about avoiding any human interaction in sales and service transactions. It improves customer experience in terms of speed, quality and reduces costs at the same time.

Jiří Halouzka, Director, IT Core Services at ČSOB, says the systemic approach to this is of paramount importance for the bank and its employees. In the long run, we will be able to concentrate on better serving customers with more complex 138

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requirements, than managing the day to day routine transactions.

Halouzka explains, “Straight-through processing is where the transaction from the start to finish is done without human interaction. It is extremely important for ČSOB. Clients expect it. They want simple products and services.”

He says that if underlying processes are complicated and there is often a lot of human interaction in the back office, then a client won't be prepared to wait one week until the product is finally introduced. So, this is the external driver. "We want our staff focused on automation, instead of doing some let's say low-value manual work. This also makes our business more efficient and less costly."

Two key trends in corporate IT We experience two at first glance opposite tendencies, says Slegr. One is the business IT fusion which means that related IT and business teams collaborate and ultimately become one virtually or even in respect to line organisation. "We believe fusion is much more efficient than trying to align two separate," he explains.

Integration is the second trend, where common IT agendas are centralised, which increases efficiency, security and speed while having cost reduction potential.

“These two trends work well together and make the role of central core IT much more important,” says Slegr. “We still need and want to maintain some common standards.

It is advisable to have certain platforms, processes, policies, managed centrally.”

Halouzka points out that in addition to the obvious benefits of integration (like better efficiency), it's become much more difficult for smaller companies with their own small IT departments to maintain the very high-security standards which the bank fintechmagazine.com

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and the group demands. Therefore, ČSOB has created a lot of synergies by managing outside security teams as part of the bank's internal security department.

Strategic partnerships As part of the collaborations, ČSOB has entered into many partnerships. The one with GuideVision for ServiceNow stands out as service management is the backbone of every IT organisation. Slegr says that this partnership has been instrumental in assisting the bank in getting ahead with all its key processes.

"One of the huge benefits of using ServiceNow is that we have been able to standardise many of our processes and get rid of a multitude of tools, which are difficult to manage, and are also quite expensive to run," Slegr says.

The future of banking ČSOB is keen to differentiate itself from the crowd, and it is using innovative technology to provide its customers with 140

September 2021

a unique offering. Called Kate – the transformational solution is an AI-driven service bot that can handle virtually unlimited sets of tasks and has huge potential to expand into a centralised role in terms of providing personalised service to bank-insurance clients.

Slegr explains, "It's based around the idea that our clients will be served by the digital assistant. It resembles Siri or Alexa, but with financial expertise. We start with more basic use cases, but continuously add more elaborate ones.

They include both product sales and customer service. While our clients will interact mostly with Kate, the whole strategy and ecosystem goes much deeper. It starts with data, AI technology as well as straightthrough processing capability.

"The channels for Kate are different too.

The service may be delivered via the chatbot or voice bot, but the underlying information can be used as traditional lead, which is provided to the branch that way, to somebody

ČSOB

1964

Year Founded

5000+ Employees

1.4bn

Revenue (EUR)

who takes care of the client. So it nicely links all aspects together."

Distribution networks The digitisation of the bank has also changed the distribution network for ČSOB. The physical role of staff in branches is no longer the same as the online banking app handles much of the bank's day-to-day transactions.

Instead, Slegr says, those branch workers will gradually adopt a consulting role.

“Basic transactions were carried out manually in the past. But that’s not the case anymore, although there are and will be exceptions in more complicated cases.

But in the future, these colleagues will be taking much more of the role of financial consultants.”

Mixed offerings and sustainability As well as the technological side of things, the team believes banks also need to offer more products to customers, partnering with other industry companies to do so.

Along with this is a commitment to sustainability, with ČSOB deciding only to partner with organisations that support the Paris Climate Agreement and the zeroemissions agenda.

Halouzka says, "Our bank now has a strong focus on corporate social responsibility and sustainability. It's not just about going digital. We are now carefully selecting the companies we provide finance to. For example, we don't provide financing to companies from the military industry or coal mining. So this is an area which very strongly is becoming part of our culture."

Slegr agrees. He adds, “Before joining the banking and financial service industry, I didn’t realise how much power and related responsibility the banks have in this regard.

Allocating money to projects contributing to sustainability has huge impact for the good of all of us. It’s future-proofing through finance.”

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ENABLING FINANCIAL INCLUSION WITH FINTECH INNOVATION WRITTEN BY: ELISE LEISE PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD fintechmagazine.com

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Lito Villanueva, Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer at RCBC, discusses how digital innovation drove financial inclusion during COVID-19

Lito Villanueva, Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer

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here's a conundrum in the Philippines that often halts the flow of progress: ‘We want digital transformation, but we don’t have 100% internet penetration or data access especially in the countryside’, says Lito Villanueva, RCBC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation & Inclusion Officer.

Pre-pandemic, 71% or 51 million adult Filipinos were unbanked, and only 10% used digital banking, according to the 2019 Financial Inclusion Survey published by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank.

‘Many Filipinos already have little or no access to brick-and-mortar banking’, Lito says. ‘It takes so much effort that banking is the least of a low-wage worker’s concerns.

They’re worrying about surviving day-to-day, instead of opening a bank account’.

This is partly due to the geography of the Philippines. As an archipelago with more than 7,100 islands, many geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) are hard to reach.

‘Even being known globally as the most social media-savvy users, most of our islands are still not digitally connected’, says Lito. ‘But while the pandemic highlighted the importance of digital banking, it also underscored that we don’t need to have 100% of the resources at hand before driving transformation. We learned that it is a process, a journey which we can improve as we go along’.

Pandemic-Era Banking With enforced physical distancing, due to the pandemic, Filipinos found that in-person transactions were nearly impossible.

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RCBC Sustainable Financing | CNN Philipiness Business Matters with Pinky Web Episode Replay

“ When banking services are able to present how they are relevant to these families, it becomes easy to onboard the unbanked and the underserved into the formal financial system” LITO VILLANUEVA

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INNOVATION & INCLUSION OFFICER, RCBC

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‘Physical banking, as we know it, mattered very little in the face of a disruption as huge as the COVID-19 pandemic’, Lito says.

But this situation further marginalised the underbanked and underserved.

‘Though digital transformation was therefore inevitable, it did not simply mean moving our services to a digital platform. It also required fostering and strengthening strategic collaboration so we could continue to reach and serve our customers’.

Right at the start of the pandemic, RCBC led the first massive private initiative in order to disburse government aid to Filipinos nationwide. As of June 2021, the Bank has distributed in excess of US$319.9m (PHP16.13bn) in governmental financial aid to more than 4.5 million low-income families. That’s 22.83 million individuals in 73 out of 81 Philippine provinces.

RCBC

‘The fact is, digital transformation and financial inclusion go hand-in-hand’, Lito explains. ‘Pushing for digital transformation requires financial access for all, through innovative solutions powered by digital’.

Going Digital So far, the results have been impressive. In June 2021, RCBC’s InstaPay and PESONet transactions increased by a respective 118% and 579% from last year. Cardless ATM withdrawals through its mobile app grew by 360%. In fact, during the pandemic, the bank onboarded more than 1.4 million customers onto its digital finance platforms.

Starting with one per cent digital in 2015, the Filipino banking industry had aimed to reach 20% digital by 2020. Now, BSP predicts that by 2023, it will digitalise 50% of its transactions. That brings the country closer to its goal of including 70% of adult Filipinos in the formal financial system within the next two years.

‘We revved up our online and mobile platforms,’ Lito says. ‘With health protocols in place, we created contactless transaction options in both the RCBC Online for our techsavvy customer and DiskarTech app for the tech newbies. No need for physical banking’.

6,003

Number of employees.

US$339mn Revenue (Php 17.117 bn)

TITLE: E XECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INNOVATION AND INCLUSION OFFICER INDUSTRY: BANKING LOCATION: PHILIPPINES Lito Villanueva is the Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer for RCBC. Mr. Villanueva also serves as the Chief Digital Transformation Advisor for the Yuchengco Group of Companies.

Concurrently, he is also the founding chairman of Fintech Alliance.ph.

Mr. Villanueva is the Philippines’ leading and award- winning thought leader on digital transformation and inclusive digital finance. Recently, he was named at the Innovation in Digital Banking Awards 2021 as the Chief Innovation Officer of the Year by the "The Banker," the prestigious, Financial Timesowned international monthly publication on financial affairs.

He has over 20 years of experience in banking, telecommunications, payments, development finance, advisory, and financial technology. He is merited with over 60 global and regional awards, including being named one of the Top 100 FinTech Leaders in Asia and "Mr. Fintech of the Philippines" by BizNewsAsia.

EXECUTIVE BIO

1960

Year founded

LITO VILLANUEVA

RCBC

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“ All segments of clients—from the mass affluent to the mass low-income market, the urban and the rural, the boomers to the millennials and the Gen Zs— are willing, even enthusiastic, to try new technologies” LITO VILLANUEVA

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INNOVATION & INCLUSION OFFICER, RCBC

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the digital tech RCBC utilizes to push for financial inclusion: • Cloud: This is the cornerstone of digital.

It allows RCBC to launch banking apps and services with speed and scale

‘The most effective technologies are those that make onboarding easier and attend to the needs of customers 24/7’, says Lito. ‘As personalised banking spikes, we need to make transactions frictionless, ready at warp speed, and available all day, every day’.

Driving Financial Inclusion A major barrier to banking, especially digital banking, is language.

‘Traditional banks tend to intimidate lowincome customers with the way they present banking and the language—especially the banking jargon—that they use’, Lito explains.

This leads to a divide. ‘Most traditional banks that pivot to digital still maintain the intimidating brand they project in their brickand-mortar branches. But on the other hand, digital-first banks tend to target the digitallysavvy, young Filipinos that know the ins and outs of technology’.

These tactics push away unbanked customers and make it more difficult for them to join the formal financial system.

RCBC’s approach, through Lito’s team, was to streamline its digital platforms and make everything as intuitive as possible to ensure that all clients are served, across all segments.

• AI/ML: This bridges communications with customers and helps RCBC develop more responsive and hyper-personalized banking solutions • Facial Recognition Software: It onboards banking clients quickly and securely.

• eKYC (Know Your Customer): This further strengthens data privacy • Chatbots: These enable digital banks to answer customer questions and process them much more quickly, 24/7 fintechmagazine.com

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DISKARTECH IN NUMBERS

4.2mn+ Downloads

3.01mn+ Registered users

1.3mn

DiskarTech Basic Deposit Accounts (BDAs)

8/10

Highly active users live in remote areas

DISKARTECH’S GROWTH IN QUARTER 2 – 2021 Average monthly BDA growth increased by

23%

Average monthly Deposit Size growth increased by

21%

Usage Volume on Q2 grew by

163%

Usage Value on q2 grew by

388%

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‘We have RCBC Online and Mobile for the digital-savvy Filipinos, the ATM Go for those in remote areas, and DiskarTech for the unbanked and underserved, who are willing to try digital but are typically shut out of traditional banking’, Lito says.

ATM Go RCBC’s solution for remote areas, its ATM Go option, is a handheld mobile neighborhood ATM. They rely on mobile point-ofsale (mPOS) devices that are deployed in partner retail stores, cooperatives, microfinance institutions, rural banks and other community establishments that rural community members can access to make cardless transactions within their area. To bring banking closer to them.

“The most effective technologies are those that make onboarding easier and attend to the needs of customers 24/7” LITO VILLANUEVA

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INNOVATION & INCLUSION OFFICER, RCBC

DiskarTech DiskarTech is RCBC’s primary financial inclusion super app. In addition to eliminating jargon, it reduced the language barrier: the app’s user interface uses Taglish or the Filipino-English vernacular to explain its features, and now also in another major dialect, Cebuano. This allows the app to be more relatable and accessible to the mass market. It also offers one-stop financial solutions in a ‘sachet-type’ or trial package, such as, microfinancing, micro-insurance and even livelihood opportunities. fintechmagazine.com

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“ While the pandemic highlighted the importance of digital banking, it underscored that we don’t need to have 100% of the resources at hand before driving transformation” LITO VILLANUEVA

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INNOVATION & INCLUSION OFFICER, RCBC

DID YOU KNOW...

Lito explains that, in the Philippines, most customers have financial goals that revolve around their families. So his team concentrates on showing people how banking can help provide a better life for them and those they love. Once individuals find this what—a better home, security, and opportunities for their families—relevant to their values, they’re eager to understand the how or specific ways banking can improve their lives. And if one family member starts to value banking and digital banking, others usually follow suit.

‘This is especially true in remote areas’, Lito says, ‘where families rely on each other to help uplift their lives’.

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THE RIZAL BRAND OF LEADERSHIP 1.

2.

3.

4.

Resilient Management Inspired Empowerment Zhooshing the Workplace Amplified Listening and Communication 5. Levelled up Teamwork

September 2021

At present, DiskarTech has more than 4.2 million downloads and over 3.01 million registered users—and eight out of 10 of its most active users are from more remote provinces. ‘Yes, they had to shift to mobile banking because of the pandemic’, Lito says.

‘But if we remove the barriers that make traditional banking intimidating, they’ll continue to use it’.

Since his team launched DiskarTech, it’s successfully reached the most customers out of any Filipino bank through a digital platform and served customers from all 81 provinces.

Giving Access to the Unbanked While there’s no data yet for the past year, the

number of banked adult Filipinos is steadily rising. The region’s most recent financial inclusion survey in Q1 of 2020 showed that from 2017 to 2019, the number of Filipino adults with formal financial accounts increased 6%—which translates to five million new customers.

‘The banked population of the Philippines continues to grow in number’, Lito says. ‘The BSP’s digital acceleration initiatives and our efforts have paid off’.

• Digital banking continues to grow: Total deposits grew by US$24.2 billion in a single year—from US$270.7 billion (PHP 13.648 trillion) to US$294.9 billion (PHP 14.869 trillion).

• More Filipino customers are saving money: In September of 2020, deposits increased by 3.86%.

Lito looks up. ‘What we’ve learned across all segments of clients—from the mass affluent to the mass low-income market, the urban and the rural, the boomers to the millennials and the Gen Zs, is this: they are willing, even enthusiastic, to try new technologies - as long as we make it simple, easy, and accessible for them’.

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NARANJA X

A FINTECH TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

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PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY

NARANJA X

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Naranja X CISO Santiago Fernández tells us about the fintech transformation of one of Argentina’s best-known financial services companies

A

Santi Fernández, CISO

lthough fintech is a relatively new industry, it is also a sector that is transforming established companies globally. Naranja X is one of the latest ‘fintech transformations’ to emerge from South America’s financial sector.

From humble beginnings as a sports shop store card launched in 1985, Naranja X has now become one of the most dynamic fintechs in Argentina. Headquartered in Buenos Aires and Córdoba, the distinctive orange card, which gained its name Naranja X because it translates as ‘orange’ in Spanish, is already a household name.

The company re-modelled itself and relaunched as a fintech in 2019, just prior to the start of the pandemic. Since then, Naranja X has moved from strength to strength and provides its customers with a range of services and products that assist them with daily financial management.

Santiago Fernández, Chief Information Security Officer at Naranja X, explains, “It’s a 35-year-old company that has developed into a fintech company in order to support customers in their daily money management.”

So far, Naranja X has established two corporate buildings in the cities of Córdoba and Buenos Aires, and there are 180 branches throughout the country that operate with a workforce of more than 3,000 employees.

As an established and trusted brand, Naranja X boasts a user base of more than five million fintechmagazine.com

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Naranja X: a fintech transformation

customers, who, according to Fernández, “access their pesos accounts, transfer money, pay bills, use their credit cards, obtain loans, take out insurance, deal with e-commerce, buy trips, enjoy promotions, and more.”

Bringing a multitude of skills to the role of CISO, Fernández is also a Professor of Cybersecurity at the University of Palermo. The position, he says, gives him valuable insights into the space, which is becoming increasingly important in fintech, where protection of data and financial information is paramount.

“The university environment gives me the opportunity to share a space of constant challenge, not only with my colleagues but also with the students. Many of my colleagues work for the most important Argentine companies and, in many cases, international companies.

They tell me their strategies, how they plan to approach them, what objective they pursue.

That is nourishing for both parties, particularly for me.”

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Fernández says the opportunity to view new perspectives and become familiar with the latest technologies being used in the market benefits the Naranja X Information Security team.

Indeed, the company’s security strategy is multi-pronged and relies on the latest technologies to secure data and customer information against cyber attacks.

“Our mission in the area of Information Security is to protect user and company data, ensuring data availability, confidentiality, and integrity,” he says.

“We work proactively and synergistically with all the areas so that we can have a comprehensive vision of all the processes, thus reducing exposure levels, mitigating vulnerabilities and improving data protection.

To achieve these objectives, we have designed a strategy built on three main pillars: “The first involves security awareness campaigns for employees, users, and the

NARANJA X

“ For us, people come first, and they are at the centre of our decisions.

We strive to offer them products, benefits, and services that make their daily life easier” SANTIAGO FERNÁNDEZ CISO, NARANJA X

general public. We know security education is essential.

“The second pillar implies reducing threat exposure levels by using a proactive approach.

Process automation and attack area reduction are key.

“The third and last is about the adequate protection of sensitive corporate data by adding further protective layers around our most critical asset: information.”

Secure and agile teams Naranga X also employs specific tactics in terms of its business modelling. Currently, the fintech utilises an element called ‘Security Champions’ and a work style it describes as ‘Tribal Squad’. These systems are employed to improve efficiency as well as security within the company.

In May 2020, Naranja X announced its evolution into a fintech company.

Interdisciplinary work has been crucial to this success, as has the creation of “Squads” or teams, with different specialists from areas such as IT, analytics, customer experience, and business.

Fernández explains, “At Naranja X, products and business opportunities are created and developed with different technologies by interdisciplinary teams called Squads or Tribes.

We believe in empowering teams to achieve the aims we have set. Creating an agile mindset erases physical barriers and allows us to work virtually, building true teams and focusing on results.

“To accompany the time to market each product, it is necessary to perform a ”Shift to the left” in terms of security. That is, Information Security must work from the very beginning at each of the stages in the product life cycle. So, we are part of each of our pipelines (CI/CD) of development and infrastructure (IaaC) as their security support,” explains.

He says that as resources are finite, to achieve scalability, the role of Security Champion was created in each Squad.

The Security Champion is a member of the interdisciplinary team (Product Squad) who is in charge of overseeing security stories in the team’s backlog. The Security Champion is also well trained in cyber security and liaises with Cyber Security CoE. fintechmagazine.com

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“ Our indicators show an 800% increase in scams, phishing, and vishing – a trend also seen in many other financial companies in Argentina” SANTIAGO FERNÁNDEZ CISO, NARANJA X

“Our aim is to ensure that Security tasks advance at the same pace as the Product or Business tasks. In the past, it was common to hear comments such as “ this risk is not relevant”, “we do not want so much formal

See how Naranja

work”, “it is only an MVP, a pilot”. The Security Champion role helps us to participate from the beginning of the product life cycle, thus enhancing efficiency.”

A Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence “The Information Security CoE counts on specialists in different fields to deliver services to the whole company,” Fernández tells us.

“There are three main teams within the CoE at present: Information Security, Cyber Security and Digital Information Security. The first is the most traditional one where we deal with GRC, IAM, and Brand Protection.”

He points out that Naranja X’s cyber security focuses on monitoring, end-point and I&R as well as Digital Information Security (DIS). “In this team, we have DevSecOps and NetSecOps

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NARANJA X

Santiago Fernández TITLE: CISO INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: ARGENTINA Santiago Fernández has a degree in Information Technology from the University of Palermo. It has certifications like CISSP | CISM | CDPSE | CCSK | CSX | MCSA | SMAC ™ ️ | DSOE | DEPC | CSFPC | 5 times certified by AWS. He currently serves as Chief Information Security Officer at Naranja X. Together with his IT Security team, they focus on the creation and implementation of strategies for the deployment of information security technologies.

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specialists, Cloud Security Engineers and red and blue Team members. In the near future, we are going to create a Product Security team to support and further reach customers with the solutions we develop.”

A customer-centric approach But perhaps one of the most defining features about Naranja X is its customer-centric approach. The company places customers - and its people, squarely at the centre of its philosophy - both in terms of management and service experience.

It was this aspect that drew Fernández to the role - and stokes his enthusiasm for the job.

He explains, “What attracted me to Naranja X? Many things! First and foremost, the focus we have: "People are key", not only the customers, but also the employees.”

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Technological innovation is a driving force behind this, and he describes the working environment as one of ‘learning and satisfaction. “Naranja X provides an environment that has a multi-cloud and on-premise infrastructure, where you can find an offline business and an online business, cutting-edge technologies that we use, and a focus on employee development.”

Market differentiators But in a sector as competitive as the fintech market, staying competitive is key to survival. Latin America is one of the globe’s fastest emerging markets when it comes to technology and finance - so how difficult is it to maintain an edge over other growing services?

Fernández says it comes down, once again, to looking after people.

NARANJA X

FINTECH IN LATIN AMERICA According to reports, in 2020, fintech represented 40% of all regional venture capital invested in Latin American fintech startups.

The study was conducted by LAVCA, an organisation that tracks private investment in Latin America. Crunchbase data also indicates fintech momentum has continued in 2021, led by big rounds for Brazil-based payment tech provider EBANX and digital bank Neon, as well as Nubank.

“ Naranja X provides an environment that has a multi-cloud and on-premise infrastructure” SANTIAGO FERNÁNDEZ CISO, NARANJA X

“For us, people come first, and they are at the centre of our decisions. We strive to offer them products, benefits, and services that make their daily life easier. To achieve that, we implement technologies that make their interaction with our app or in-person service in any of our 180 branches a fully efficient, personalised, and positive experience.”

In-house DevSecOps In a world where connectivity and being part of an ecosystem is often central to scalability, Naranja X is playing things slightly differently by using an in-house DevSecOps. But is this something that works better specifically in the Argentine market?

Fernández believes so. He says, “To have a good product and a good business case is as important as outsmarting our competitors.

However, security has often been perceived as a hand brake that slows down the product development process. Instead, we aim to become a safety belt, an airbag cushion that can safeguard the business health, not hinder its development and pace.”

Fernández explains that the DevSecOps specialist enables the pace by automating security in each of the pipelines Naranja X uses to make its products available. The developer, then, is well aware that the product has complied with the security steps before its deployment.

He says, “Launching a product before the competition is not the only factor that gives us a market advantage. We need to provide reliable default security characteristics because customers and users have become more demanding.

“To pick up from the analogy we used earlier, in the 80’s, nobody paid attention to safety belts and other security features when buying a car. Today, it would be inconceivable. The same is happening in the world of technology.

That is why we have stopped being security auditors to become product co-creators.”

Strategic partnerships Although developing in-house systems has its advantages, forming connections that can drive innovation forward is also critical to Naranja X. Currently, IntSights is one of the company’s key partners that played an essential role in fintechmagazine.com

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managing the digital processes required to service customers during Covid-related restrictions.

Fernández explains, “During the lockdown, digitalisation of processes and tasks increased considerably – not only in the case of our company but in the business world in general. This increase attracted cybercriminals. Therefore, we decided to monitor Naranja X's brand health in the Dark Web or Deep Web, and we chose IntSights as our strategic partner in Brand Protection.”

He continues, “Our indicators show an 800% increase in scams, phishing, and vishing – a trend also seen in many other financial companies in Argentina.

IntSights offers visibility of BIN data, email addresses or domains, user lists, and passwords in a proactive way so that we can detect and remedy wrongful activities by site takedowns and other contention and preparation actions.”

Naranja X also partners with IntSights to manage their external threat intelligence, which has resulted in the fintech company having a 360° view that exceeds its current, in-house possibilities. Fernández says, “The platform operates on different webs and can identify potential threats, collect and analyse content from different open sources such as social networks, blogs, chat boards, etc… IntSight's early threat detection makes it possible for us to answer effectively.”

IntSights also carries out early identification of potential phishing activity and classifies these threats, which in turn leads to screening any “false positive” cases. The platform’s open integration API, with its easy access and sound documentation, assists

Naranja X to mitigate damaging events early and assist in automation.

“IntSights is used not only by Information Security but also by Fraud Prevention. This type of tool has become a commodity for other teams in the company as well,” says Fernández.

A people-centric future In an industry that increasingly places technology and customers at the heart of its operations, Naranja X is ahead of the game and emphasises its employees’ welfare and development.

Fernández surmises, “On the other hand, we are committed to our staff’s constant development. In 2020, over 13,300 training hours were delivered by our Data and Analytics Academy to focus our employees’ attention on data-driven culture. We also have a framework and collaborative tools for data search which democratises practices.”

In terms of the next 18 months, money management as well as technology-based products, services, and functionality will be a main focus for the company, as well as a number of new product launches.

“Soon, the Naranja X account will render interest on funds deposited, a new dollar account will be offered to our customers, and the prepaid card will become a debit card. These new products will provide solutions to our customers’ personal and business financial needs.”

He adds, “To meet these challenges and the planned business growth, we will continue recruiting talented professionals in the field of technology for our engineering, architecture and data and analytics teams.”

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AMERISURE

ENHANCING

CULTURE THROUGH

TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN BY: WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY

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AMERISURE

Laura Pierman and Kevin Clary explain how technology is enhancing the customer experience and improving the service of both claims and risk management

F

ounded in 1912, Amerisure’s longevity is a testament to the value of building strong business relationships and a justification of its enduring focus on this aspect of insurance. Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, the company has been on a century-long quest to make America’s workplaces safer, solve real world problems, and deliver a superior level of service across the board. Specifically targeting the construction, manufacturing, and healthcare markets, Amerisure is a true industry-leading specialist that’s ushering in a new insurance standard.

The company offers a comprehensive line of Property & Casualty insurance products to protect both businesses and their employees.

Currently ranked as one of the US’ top 100 providers, Amerisure is guided by six values: • Passion • Relationships • Collaboration • Community • Agility • Integrity Speaking with Laura Pierman and Kevin Clary, VP of Claim Operations and VP of Risk Management respectively, makes

1912

Year founded

US$755mn Revenue

671

Number of employees

Property & Casualty Insurance Industry

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AMERISURE

Enhancing culture through technology

it abundantly clear that Amerisure is just as concerned with fostering its internal relationships as external. Both long-term employees (Pierman has 32 years of service and Clary has 23), they paint a compelling picture of a company whose commitment hasn’t wavered, and which still feels excited about insurance’s place in modern life. “Amerisure has a really focused organisational strategy,” states Clary, “one that’s all about delivering superior service.” Pierman agrees, “What's kept me here is the consistent focus on providing exceptional service and building relationships cross-functionally across and outside the organisation.”

Interestingly, although the world has undoubtedly changed since its establishment, Clary says that the challenges and opportunities of insurance have broadly remained the same. In the modern era, for example, the integration of digital technology is front and centre 170

September 2021

“ TEXTING HAS ALLOWED OUR ADJUSTERS TO HAVE THOSE CONVERSATIONS, EVEN WHEN THE CLAIMANT IS WORKING, AND EXCHANGE INFORMATION MUCH FASTER AND MORE SEAMLESSLY” LAURA PIERMAN

VP OF CLAIM OPERATIONS, AMERISURE

AMERISURE

LAURA PIERMAN TITLE: VP OF CLAIM OPERATIONS INDUSTRY: INSURANCE LOCATION: MICHIGAN

EXECUTIVE BIO

of the industry’s mind, but Amerisure is cognizant that its use in the enhancement of partnerships will be the ultimate decider of value. “How do you enhance partnerships and relationships through digital interaction while still maintaining a personal touch?” he asks.

Amerisure’s first step in answering that question was understanding contemporary customers. “Our customers are becoming larger and more sophisticated, which in turn demands greater digital interaction regarding the delivery of data insights,” Clary continues. However, the age of technology being an end unto itself is over. Now, technology has become so ingrained that customers expect a high standard of digital experience ubiquitously and it cannot serve as a differentiator by itself. Instead, gaining a competitive edge rests on a company’s ability to deliver a superior experience and Pierman suggests that this is where Amerisure’s targeted focus on specific industries pays off. “We're able to focus on

Laurie Pierman is the Vice President of Claim Operations for Amerisure.

In this role, she is responsible for Claims Analytics, the Special Investigation Unit, Subrogation, Auto Physical Damage, Claim Intake, and Claims Vendor Management.

She also leads all technology initiatives for the Claims department, including Amerisure’s claims system replacement project in 2015. Current technology initiatives include Digital First Notice of Loss, Digital Claim Payments, and Claims Analytics.

Since joining Amerisure over 30 years ago as a Workers’ Compensation Claims Adjuster, Pierman has held roles of increasing responsibility within the company, both in the corporate office and in several field offices. Most recently, she served as the Assistant Vice President of Claims Operations & System Management at Amerisure.

AMERISURE

Your insureds want to hear from you.

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“ I TRULY BELIEVE THAT IN THIS DAY AND AGE THE MORE THAT YOU CAN UTILISE TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS THAT SPAN ACROSS MULTIPLE AREAS OF THE ORGANISATION, THE BETTER” LAURA PIERMAN

VP OF CLAIM OPERATIONS, AMERISURE

a small group of agency customers with whom we have very strong relationships.

We can then respond to what they need and get feedback to aid our decisionmaking and ensure we're providing the right solutions.”

Finding the perfect solution, of course, is difficult without the help of a partner ecosystem, and Amerisure employs a highly methodical approach to ensure it maximises interaction. “We learned early on not to search for a technology and then look for a problem it could solve. By identifying our core opportunities first, we can instead work with the startup ecosystem to find companies that have the perfect solution,” says Clary. Amerisure’s own innovation department, launched in 2018, adds further definition to the company’s resource planning.

Perhaps one the company’s most notable tech innovations has been the utilisation of texting in its claims process.

Pierman explains further, “When it comes to telephone calls, we found it was difficult to contact workers in order to get more information about their claims. What we found was that a lot of people were not picking up the phone because they didn't recognise the Amerisure number - many of us don't answer our phone when we don't recognise a number; you just let it go to voicemail. Texting has allowed our adjusters to have those conversations, even when the claimant is working, and exchange information much faster and more seamlessly.” This is a perfect example of Amerisure getting to know its policyholders and innovating accordingly: texting has become a way of life for many, particularly among younger generations, and the added comfort provided by the company instantly led to an improved relationship. fintechmagazine.com

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KEVIN CLARY TITLE: VP OF RISK MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY: INSURANCE LOCATION: MICHIGAN Kevin Clary is the Vice President of Risk Management for Amerisure. In this role, he is responsible for Risk Management and Premium Audit operations in all of Amerisure’s licensed states. In addition, he leads Agency Services Group; a wholly owned subsidiary of Amerisure Mutual Holdings, Inc. Since joining Amerisure in 1998 as a Loss Control Consultant, Clary has held various positions of increasing responsibility. Throughout his tenure, he has served as Loss Control Manager of Amerisure’s Midwest region, Assistant Vice President of the Midwest Region, and Assistant Vice President of the Southeast Region, before assuming his current role.

Texting isn’t the only example of tech-based innovation at Amerisure both the claims and risk management departments (engaged in “a friendly competition” according to Pierman) are constantly examining other areas for digital optimisation.

EXECUTIVE BIO

These include: Risk Management • Telematics • Usage-based insurance • Wearables • Virtual reality • Artificial intelligence (AI)

AMERISURE

“BY IDENTIFYING OUR CORE OPPORTUNITIES FIRST, WE CAN INSTEAD WORK WITH THE STARTUP ECOSYSTEM TO FIND COMPANIES THAT HAVE THE PERFECT SOLUTION” KEVIN CLARY

VP OF RISK MANAGEMENT, AMERISURE

Claims • Digitised ‘moments of truth’ • AI and machine learning • Automation “Our interest is in technology that helps our agency customers and policyholders and drives better results,” emphasises Clary.

“In these areas, we're starting to already see some added value.”

With so much transformative potential at hand, it could be easy to become overwhelmed or careless about implementation. However, Amerisure is taking a meticulous approach and will be doing a lot of “heavy lifting” over the

next 24 months to ensure its core systems are ready for delivering truly next-gen insurance solutions. “Updating our policy and billing system and our core claim system is where our time and energy will be focused,” states Pierman. Furthermore, the company will be closely adhering to “cross-functionality” as its watchword: “In this day and age, with such limited resources, whether dollars or people, the more that you can utilise technological solutions that span across multiple areas of the organisation, the better.” In this way, Amerisure will be able to reduce its overall technology investment while still benefiting its customers and more effectively utilising key resources. fintechmagazine.com

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ZIPWHIP: SUPPORTING AMERISURE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY Implementing texting into Amerisure’s operations was always going to take dedicated expertise to execute, and the company found it in Zipwhip.

Based in Seattle, Washington, Zipwhip was the first mobile phone operator to enable texting on existing business phone numbers. It continues to maintain this leadership by developing application programming interfaces (APIs) and software for enterprise customers, of which it has over 30,000.

When asked why Amerisure ultimately chose Zipwhip, Pierman summarises, “A lot of it came down to culture. With vendor relationships, you really need to evaluate how well the two companies could work together and whether you have similar goals. Zipwhip was very transparent: it delivered on everything it promised, worked with us on a proof of concept to demonstrate the technology’s value, and hit all our targets.”

Best of all, the relationship is far from over - a new text translation feature is set to be a game changer for Amerisure.

“The ability to communicate with injured workers for whom English isn't a first language is huge for us. Zipwhip is right there with Amerisure every single step of the way and continues to be.”

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AMERISURE

“AMERISURE HAS A REALLY FOCUSED ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY, ONE THAT’S ALL ABOUT DELIVERING SUPERIOR SERVICE” KEVIN CLARY

VP OF RISK MANAGEMENT, AMERISURE

When Pierman says “it's a fun time to be in the industry,” it’s hard not to believe her. Amerisure might have a long past, but its sights are set firmly on the future, and its strategy is both bold and conscientious of the role that people play in maximising technology’s potential. “Every company has a culture for which it’s known, and tech should enhance that,” she adds. For Amerisure, being ‘people-centric’ is at the heart of its ethos, a goal it’s determined to achieve in the best way possible. This might mean experimenting and iterating quickly, but the company is unafraid of the challenge, “Sometimes things don't go as planned, but it's important to keep looking for those quick wins to gain momentum and support within the organisation and with customers. You can always build from there.”

Finally, Clary states that Amerisure’s corporate buy-in, from top to bottom, is what will ultimately enable it to succeed within insurance’s exciting new paradigm.

“Change can't be achieved in a silo,” he concludes. “The whole company is focusing on digital and its place in an ever-changing world. We're helping our policyholders improve their loss ratio while also optimising their operations. You have to have an organisational support strategy in place to move forward in an effective way.”

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FILLING IN THE GAPS WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

OPER8 GLOBAL

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Mike Andrea, CEO of Oper8 Global, talks data centre management, IoT, security, and edge, delivered as-a-service through collaborative win-win partnerships

T

he global data centre and IT infrastructure landscape has changed radically over the past 10 years, and Oper8 Global has changed with it. Oper8 Global is the result of shifting customer demand in the face of an evolving data centre market, and since its foundation in 2012, has developed a unique value proposition, range of capabilities, and attitude towards its partner ecosystem that are driving its rapid global expansion.

“Oper8 Global's core go-to-market model centres on helping organisations operate their IT assets,” explains Mike Andrea, co-founder and CEO of Oper8 Global. “We don't mind if those assets are fully online in the public cloud, in a hybrid cloud model, a private cloud model, or fully on-prem; it's about helping the customer right-size their needs, rather than have them be dictated to by whatever trend is hottest in the market at that moment.”

I sat down with Andrea to explore the genesis of Oper8 Global and dig down into the unique value proposition and core competencies propelling the Brisbanefounded data centre services firm towards a truly globalised platform with cutting edge offerings. “We're looking at 200% growth in revenue over the next 12 months. We're looking at hiring substantially over that time, and we see ourselves bringing some great new products into the market as well,” adds fintechmagazine.com

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Oper8 Global: Filling in the Gaps

Andrea. In order to trace that stellar growth trajectory, it’s important to take a better look at the company’s roots, and the series of events that led to its inception.

Unpacking the Pedigree In 2004, Andrea and his business partner Chris Goldstone founded Strategic Directions, a business management consulting firm with a focus on IT. Then, around 2010, Andrea recalls that the demands of Strategic Directions’ customers changed. “Strategic Directions would help with our customers' IT strategy, vendor management model, telecommunications strategy, as well as what was becoming at that time an industry-wide shift towards cloud and various as-a-service models,” he recalls. Within the space of a single week, Andrea continues, he was approached by two completely independent customers asking for Strategic Directions to manage their IT infrastructure. “We really weren't 182

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set up to be an IT management firm, so originally we told those customers 'no' and that IT management wasn't something we were interested in doing, and said we'd help them find someone who could do that,” says Andrea. “Those customers - again, independently of one another - told us that 'no, you don't understand; if you can't do it then we'll find someone else who can do both'."

Initially, Andrea and Goldstone tried to incorporate an element of IT managementas-a-service into Strategic Directions’ capabilities. However, Andrea explains, “we found that it really began to confuse our market and existing customers about what Strategic Directions was doing.” As a result, Goldstone and Andrea made the decision in 2012 to spin out the management-asa-service arm of Strategic Directions into Oper8, an independent firm focused on operational management of IT. “You've also got to keep in mind that Strategic Directions

OPER8 GLOBAL

MIKE ANDREA TITLE: CEO INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRE/ IT MANAGEMENT LOCATION: AUSTRALIA

EXECUTIVE BIO

already had a pretty good pedigree when it came to data centre management, project management, and IT operational strategy,” says Andrea, who adds that “We brought a lot of those capabilities across to Oper8, and the business ended up focusing on data centre management, security, IoT, and the edge.”

Today, those initial competencies developed within Strategic Directions form the backbone of Oper8 Global’s offerings. However, expertise in data centre management, security, IoT, and edge infrastructure aren’t the only thing carried over into Oper8’s operating model. Andrea explains that the company’s consultancy heritage also plays a key role in Oper8 Global’s unique approach to partnerships and service mixing. As a result, “Oper8 Global takes a very direct and meaningful approach to working with our partners,” he explains, adding that “We don't hide from our customers that we're actively working with our key partners to facilitate the right

Over 34 years’ experience in the ICT industry, covering strategy, solution design, architecture, and management across commercial, government and multinational sectors. Holds a Diploma of Applied Science – Computing, is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), and is a Certified CEO (CCEO #350). An 11 year member of the Board of Directors, AFCOM Data Centre Institute, USA, and is the only board member appointed from outside North America.

Co-author of data centre industry white papers with the DCI Board, and is a regular speaker at Data Centre World and similar global conferences.

OPER8 GLOBAL

solution for them. Part of that process is that we act as the coordinator to help the customer get the right blend of services from each of our key partners to make the overall outcome much more valuable than if they were to just pick and choose different pieces on an ad hoc basis.”

Think of it like eating tapas as opposed to a steak and a pile of sides; there’s an emphasis on egalitarianism, collaboration, and facilitation within Oper8 Global’s ecosystem that feels refreshingly customer-focused.

“We don't get precious about who's leading any one discussion with a customer,” says Andrea. “True partnership is win-win, and we don't mind who leads those partnerships.”

And it sounds like Oper8’s customers and partners appreciate the approach.

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“When we find a partner that wants to really work with us towards a win-win outcome for our customers, it's fantastic” MIKE ANDREA

CEO, OPER8 GLOBAL

OPER8 GLOBAL

An Inverted Approach to Two Markets Oper8 was born out of Australia, which is where the firm still does a significant portion of its business. However, in addition to growing into new markets throughout APAC, Oper8 really went global in 2019, when the company expanded into the UK in order to better target EMEA. Andrea explains that “The APAC market right now is very focused on cybersecurity and helping organisations pick the right mix of operational platforms such as hardware security modules.”

That cybersecurity focus, he notes, is the driving force behind Oper8 Global’s new wave of products, including PayG8, NetG8, DataM8, and SafeG8 that it’s currently bringing to market.

The EMEA market, on the other hand, is a very different beast, where Andrea is seeing “a huge focus in Europe in modular and micro data centres and high performance computing” (HPC). It’s an interesting inversion between the two

regions, with APAC focusing “firmly on the security and cybersecurity market” (although Andrea notes that data centre and micro modular facilities are more of a secondary consideration, as opposed to ignored entirely), and EMEA “very much focused on data centre projects with security as a supporting element with respect to how to help our customers right-size and facilitate their product mix.”

However, even though Oper8’s two main markets have their priorities reversed, Andrea stresses that “it's the blended coordination between data centres and security that's really the driving factor for our operations in both of those markets for us at this stage.”

Filling in the Gaps Oper8 Global also maintains a heavy focus on R&D, and the products it designs aim to support the seamless cooperation of its partners’ products and services. “The approach we take to R&D very much centres on filling gaps. We don't have to be the best fintechmagazine.com

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PAYG8: KEEPING IT SIMPLE AND SECURE Oper8 Global’s core competencies, data centres, IoT, and edge, are all underpinned by a wealth of security expertise. This dedication to keeping customers safer with simplified, turnkey security solutions is reflected in Oper8 Global’s turnkey HSM solution PayG8, which it developed and delivers in collaboration with Thales and Equinix.

Oper8 Global delivers the Thales payShield Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) through the payG8 Service across the Equinix global data centre environment.

“The heart of this product is picking the right partners that let us go to market with the right blend of capabilities and services. Our PayG8 service incorporates the capabilities of three companies, Oper8 Global, Thales, and Equinix, but we also have a monitoring capability in there that's fairly unique. We're using RF Code's technology to do real-time asset tracking and rack monitoring within the Pay8G service model,” explains Andrea. “So, we're taking advantage of an existing key partner's technology as part of our service mix to create PayG8, which is really focused around payment hardware security modules as-a-service.

The heart of what we do is blending different complementary technologies and services from within our four key competencies in order to complement a business model that makes sense for a customer.”

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at a whole thing, just at filling in the gaps for a customer,” says Andrea.

That ethos was the driving force behind the creation of Oper8’s SafeG8 solution, a rack-mounted safe aimed at improving the protections surrounding physical encryption keys and smart cards required to operate and manage hardware security modules. “We looked around the market and couldn't see anything that fits our needs when it comes to this kind of solution, so we're developing it ourselves,” Andrea explains.

He continues: “It's a similar story with DataM8. We've seen an issue with cloud

OPER8 GLOBAL

“We're looking at 200% growth in revenue over the next 12 months.

We're looking at hiring substantially over the time, and we see ourselves bringing some great new products into the market” MIKE ANDREA

CEO, OPER8 GLOBAL

backup, and we're working very closely with Dell and Equinix in terms of how we can bring that product to market as a cloud-adjacent backup strategy that allows organisations to be more cyber secure in terms of how they can recover after a disruption.” DataM8, like the rest of Oper8’s product line, has been designed from the ground up to be delivered as a service. Andrea explains that the R&D team has taken great pains to adhere to this mandate, as an as-a-service model “allows an organisation to stay within the monthly subscription based model they're already using, but augment their backup

and security without having to switch to a new, high-capex commercial model.”

The Future is Collaborative, Innovative, and Delivered As-A-Service Reflecting on the past, as well as Oper8’s plans for the future, Andrea stresses the fact that “A lot of what we do couldn't be done without our key partners. When we find a partner who wants to really work with us towards a win-win outcome for our customers, it's fantastic, and we've been really lucky to build several of those relationships with key partners like Equinix, Thales, RF Code, enLogic, and Chatsworth. Those organisations work fintechmagazine.com

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“The heart of what we do is blending different complementary technologies and services from within our four key competencies in order to complement a business model that makes sense for a customer” MIKE ANDREA

CEO, OPER8 GLOBAL

alongside Oper8, they communicate clearly and listen to what we need with respect to our product design and deployment in a very global sense, which means that we can replicate the same model, the same product set, and the same experience for our customers wherever they are.”

The future of Oper8’s business model, Andrea continues, is firmly rooted in HPC and security. Over the coming year, he explains that Oper8 will continue to focus on the rollouts of its PayG8, NetG8, DataM8, and SafeG8 solutions, continuing to work with its key partners to design, build, and deploy these as-a-service solutions.

“We've got new partners that we're starting discussions with right now surrounding new products that help us branch into new areas with respect to the healthcare marketspace,” he adds. “We see ourselves bringing some great new products into the market as well - particularly with regard to DataM8 and solving some of the technical challenges that arise with cloud to offcloud backup and retrieval, as well as backup and restoration.”

Lastly, Andrea explains that Oper8 Global is also looking at a number of acquisitions in order to further advance the company’s growth trajectory between now and the end of 2022. He adds that the process “is very much aligned to picking organisations that can enhance our capabilities across our four key areas of focus, and any acquisitions that we're looking at are going to be complementary to existing areas of the business. We've got a few things earmarked already and we very much see strategic acquisitions as part of our growth strategy over the next 12 to 18 months.”

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