Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:50:30 · Ross Gallagher, Pranav Sood, Sarah Kocianski
[00:50:30] S0: Yeah. And that that human impact, think, is is is is where we should sort of move us on. So our and finally story this week comes from Sky News and concerns Starling becoming the official bank sponsor to Team GB for the the Tokyo Olympics. So the challenger will serve as the British Olympic Association's official banking partner. Starling already employs a former Team GB archer as an executive, which is just kinda cool, and plans to provide each competitor with an account and a £100 credit. So Bowdoin said we feel extremely privileged to be the official bank of Team GB and we'll be sharing our excitement with our customers in a number of creative ways over the next few months. So what do you guys think? Is this something that's sort of mutually beneficial? Does this make sense? [00:51:21] S2: Are we still having an Olympics? [00:51:22] S1: Exactly my question was that, well, I I have no aversion to it, but my biggest question is [00:51:26] S0: really hoping we weren't gonna have to talk about coronavirus again. I thought we could just take this story at So face
00:51:26 · Ross Gallagher, Valentina Kristensen
[00:51:26] S0: really hoping we weren't gonna have to talk about coronavirus again. I thought we could just take this story at So face [00:51:31] S3: I think, you know, look, this is... If if it does go ahead, this will be, I think, the first time that we'll have more women on Team GB than men. So... And that's quite exciting. So I think it's gonna be 54% of the team will be women. So, you know, probably quite fitting that a bank like... That's like Starling, which is, obviously very much been at the forefront of this, and it's obviously run by, a female founder. So there's a kind of good synergy and alignment there. And, I mean, look. They they... How much money did they get from the RBS and release package? A 100,000,000, was it? So they have to use that money to incentivize switching and improve their products and services. So I don't know about what they're doing about, you know, improvements on products and services. I'm sure there's lots going on on the back end. But in terms of what we can see, tube ads, TV ads, this, you know, incentivized switching. We're putting a £100 credit in everyone's everyone's account. So, that's clearly a way that they can deploy some of this capital. I mean, we said, at Oak North, you know, if we were fortunate to win any of the any of the the grants, you know, what would we even do with, like, £10,000,000? I mean, we've we've never had a budget that's even, you know, 10% of that. So to suddenly, you know, to suddenly have 10,000,000 to play with, you know, you can you can do quite a lot.
00:52:43 · Ross Gallagher, Pranav Sood, Sarah Kocianski
[00:52:43] S0: And I I I think it's fair probably to suggest that the the banks and the financial institutions that did win are kind of scratching their heads and asking themselves the same question. [00:52:52] S2: Yeah. I mean, look. Seriously, go back to your question. The Olympics is a marquee property. Anyone would be pleased to be associated with it. It's one of the rare things that we do as a country where everybody gets behind it. And I think there are very few people who don't have a positive overall view of lots of British people going out and achieving great things on a global stage. So clearly, it's a fantastic opportunity for Starling to get themselves into that space. Still, I think awareness of what challenger banks can do is not that high outside of some parts of the population. We're probably not yet in the stage where the HSBC Global Airport when you arrive in the plane type level of awareness. So I think it makes a ton of sense. Not 100% sure why the British Olympic Association would choose them versus anyone else. Maybe they also want to disrupt the financial system in addition to winning loads of medals and cycling but I don't know. [00:53:48] S0: We didn't do too well on the cycling in the world championships. Was one of our worst. I say our, one of your worst. [00:53:55] S1: Mean, me.
00:53:55 · Sarah Kocianski, Ross Gallagher, Valentina Kristensen
[00:53:55] S1: Mean, me. [00:53:56] S0: No. No. Honestly, really. So we think this is really an awareness play from Starling. So how far do we think this is gonna go, or is it really gonna move the needle in terms of, like, I guess, normalizing, fintechs and and sort of challenges to the sort of gen pop? [00:54:12] S1: I'm I'm just sitting here, and I'm trying to think of the sports teams that I follow and trying to think who their sponsors are and trying to think through, like, the brands on the shirts. And I'm struggling a bit, [00:54:22] S3: to be honest with They don't really sponsor necessarily. I mean, you've got Standard Chartered, which I think support... Is it Liverpool? [00:54:27] S1: Liverpool. Yeah. [00:54:28] S0: You can. [00:54:28] S3: And then you've got the Barclays Premier League or... Is that still the Barclays Premier League? [00:54:31] S0: It is, I think. [00:54:32] S3: Yeah. So they can't... Know, Barclays has enough money to sponsor the entire league, not just a team. [00:54:37] S0: And you used to be able in... I I don't know if they still do, but in the lobby in Canary Wharf, they had the, the Premier League trophy, which for a bit of a football nerd like [00:54:44] S3: me Oh, really? [00:54:45] S0: And a fintech nerd like me was quite a nice marriage.
00:54:45 · Ross Gallagher, Sarah Kocianski
[00:54:45] S0: And a fintech nerd like me was quite a nice marriage. [00:54:48] S1: So Visa and Mastercard do a lot. They they do a huge amount, actually. Mastercard does an awful lot with the rugby. Visa does an awful lot with football, particularly women's football. Admiral used to sponsor the Welsh National Rugby team. But outside of financial brands that I would spot and I would know because I work in this industry, I I generally don't... I don't think it's a bad thing at all, but I'm just wondering I'm wondering how much impact it would have because when you're looking at a shirt... Do you know I mean? [00:55:14] S0: So one one, I suppose, trend that you can point to over the last couple of years, and this has been sort of mandated, but at least we're moving towards a starling where it's about, like, feel good about money and we'll help you manage your finances in terms of a message to the public and away from, for example, Wonga sponsoring Newcastle United or, you know, I mean, it's it's that sort of thing. At least we're moving towards a more [00:55:36] S1: positive message. [00:55:37] S0: Know, if that's fair. Right?
00:55:37 · Ross Gallagher, Valentina Kristensen, Sarah Kocianski
[00:55:37] S0: Know, if that's fair. Right? [00:55:38] S3: The You feel like there's a degree of credibility and stability to a brand that can can put its its brand towards something as big as, you know, the Olympics in the same way that you'd have with the association with Barclays and Premier League. Actually, funnily enough, so Now Pensions, which was a a Danish, auto enrollment pension provider launched in The UK several years ago and just have come in with when auto enrolment came into effect and they sponsored the women's GB hockey team and then they went on to actually win at the the last Olympics, in in 2016. So I think it was last last Olympics that they won. So, and what that did, mean, I, you know, I don't know how much that did in terms of bringing new customers to Now Pensions, but it certainly then was great for sort of the just general brand awareness and demonstrating to the market that you're a credible and stable business, because in order to sponsor something as big as that, you'd probably need quite a bit of cash in the bank. [00:56:33] S1: Yeah. So I was gonna say, sorry. You can cut this out if I'm wrong, but doesn't Oak North sponsor a hockey team? [00:56:38] S3: No. We sponsor youth hockey team. So we sponsor a lot we we actually sponsor a lot of youth sports teams, so in in different communities around The UK, and that's everything we've done. Hockey, rugby, cricket, football teams. So, yeah, that's kind of part of our work with trying to, yeah, get get out into different local communities.