Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:00:01 · S0, S1, Kate Moody, S3
[00:00:01] S0: This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup required, compatibility, and availability varies 18 plus. [00:00:25] S1: Hey. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's premium wireless is $15 a [00:00:31] S2: month. But [00:00:32] S1: I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores. That means no small talk. Crazy weather we're having. No. It's not. It's just weather. It is an introvert's dream. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. [00:00:49] S3: Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com.
00:00:49 · S3, Sarah Kocianski, Ross Gallagher
[00:00:49] S3: Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com. [00:01:10] S4: Welcome to a very special edition of Fintech Insider Insights. I'm Sarah Kocianski, scaling and growth specialist at the FCA. But today, I'm stepping into a slightly different role, your fintech fairy godmother. Why? Well, we've reached episode one one one one, or that's 11:11, I believe. If you've ever made a wish when the clock strikes 11:11, you'll know exactly where you're going with this. To celebrate, we're turning the tables on our usual Fintech Insider hosts. They're normally the ones asking the questions, but today they're in the hot seat, and I'm here to find out what they'd wish for if they could change anything about financial services. We're not asking them to predict what might happen next year. We're giving them a chance to imagine what they'd actually like to see happen. But there's a catch. Even fairy godmothers can't fix financial services with a wave of a wand. So for every wish, we'll also be asking what it would actually take to make it happen. And joining me with their Fintech wish lists are three very familiar voices. First up, Ross Gallagher, head of consulting at 11:FS. Ross, how does it feel to be back that side of the microphone? [00:02:13] S5: It feels great. I feel very comfortable, Sarah, in your very capable hosting hands, and I'm I'm really enjoying the nostalgia, must say.
00:02:13 · Ross Gallagher, Sarah Kocianski, Kate Moody, Benjamin Ensor
[00:02:13] S5: It feels great. I feel very comfortable, Sarah, in your very capable hosting hands, and I'm I'm really enjoying the nostalgia, must say. [00:02:21] S4: Yeah. It's it's been a while. Let's let's see how we go. Let's hope I hope I can I can keep up with appearances? Also joining us is Kate Moody, customer strategy director at 11:FS. Kate, I hear you've got quite a few wishes on your list. Are you gonna make my job difficult today? [00:02:35] S2: I'm like a bottomless pit of wishes. Like I could, I could keep us here all day, but I suspect the producers won't let us. So yeah, I've tried to try to shorten it slightly, but we'll see how [00:02:44] S4: we go. Perfect. I look forward to hearing them. And last, certainly not least, Ensor, Director of Research and Strategy at 11:FS. So Benjamin, you've also hosted plenty of these conversations yourself. How confident are you at being on the other end? [00:02:58] S6: I'm fairly confident I'll say something fairly stupid that I subsequently regret, but I'm looking forward to it. [00:03:03] S4: I'm sure that would be the case. Never the case. Right. Before we get into the big industry changing wishes, let's start with something a little more personal. Kate, I understand that one of your wishes was that your husband spent less money on online shopping. What sort of online shopping? Like groceries or just generally? [00:03:21] S2: Everything, it's not limited to [00:03:23] S4: a singular category. Yeah. That doesn't sound like something a Fintech fairy godmother could fix.
00:03:23 · Sarah Kocianski, Kate Moody
[00:03:23] S4: a singular category. Yeah. That doesn't sound like something a Fintech fairy godmother could fix. [00:03:30] S2: I don't know, I mean again, we've got our wishes to run through, But I do personally hold for certain flex product of a certain digital challenger bank responsible for enabling and perhaps even encouraging quite a lot of this shopping. Definitely I think Fintech overlaps with shopping for good and for bad purposes. [00:03:49] S4: Okay. I look forward to hearing more about that later on. Right. Let's see what we can wish for. Wish number one, Ross. What if banks were rewarded for helping customers build better financial futures? If I could grant that wish tomorrow, what would actually change?
00:04:06 · Ross Gallagher, Sarah Kocianski
[00:04:06] S5: It's such a good question. And look, know, I'm conscious that I'm starting us off with quite like a lofty position. You know, I think so much has changed over the last sort of decade, decade and a half of innovation and disruption in Fintech. Right? I wanna be clear, I'm not coming in and saying, oh, well, you know, how much has really changed? We've kinda got this nice new shiny front end and everything else is the same, right? I mean, that's not the case at all. I think things have improved materially for customers. You know, I think we've lowered barriers to entry. I think we've given customers much more effective, much more intuitive tools for managing their finances. I think culturally, pretty much across the board, I think we're all talking now about customers and customer outcomes rather than products. I think that's become quite pervasive. But I think where I'm sort of coming at this one from is I think in most cases, you know, the underlying business models have been much slower to evolve. Right? And I think in certain instances, those are quite inherently, I would say, misaligned with good customer outcomes. And I think that's the thinking. Can we be a little bit more ambitious? Can we challenge ourselves a little bit more to align what we're doing as an industry and industry players to aligning what we would consider good outcomes or good outcomes for customers. [00:05:27] S4: And what do you think is the biggest thing standing in the way of that at the moment?
00:05:30 · Ross Gallagher
[00:05:30] S5: Oh, it's such an interesting one because I think it kind of like comes from lots of different directions, right? So I think if you think about the incentives for a financial institution that come from customers, say building up and revolving expensive credit versus, you know, maybe building up savings parts and emergency funds and all of those sorts of things. You know, I think when you think about the zero risk approach that as an industry, I think we've taken to certain regulations. So for example, the advice guidance boundary, I think we've taken quite a zero risk approach to that. I think what it's meant is we're not then in a position to be to play a meaningful role in helping customers sort of build the futures that they want. You know, I think likewise when it comes to helping customers understand and how to engage with some more complex financial products, so investments, pensions, for example, again, I don't think we've been hands on enough in the role that those types of products can play in building better financial futures. Think really as an industry over a great many years, think we've quite lazily allowed investments, for example, to sort of build up this kind of negative perception or sort of brand. I think when it's come to things like pensions, I think we've we've kinda just operated on this, again, lazy assumption that, oh, well, customers just don't understand pensions. So what's the point? Right? But I think, again, you know, until we we need to take a much more hands on holistic view around how do we help customers get those outcomes that that they're looking for? How do we how how do we become a much more a much more hands on partner? How do we help them co create those outcomes? I think it's things like taking a much longer term view around customer value. I think it's things like pushing decisions around, you know, how we're engaging with those customers to teams that are much closer to the customer on a day to day basis. I think it's a lot of stuff that we're already doing. I mentioned that I think culturally we're much more we're sort of operating much more in that sphere already, but I suppose it's just pushing the envelope on our ambition and what we're really willing to do there.