After three days of lively discussion and debate on the future of finance, the sun has set on this year’s Money 20/20 Europe. Here’s the lowdown on the final day of Europe’s biggest FinTech event.
Digital identities in an increasingly online world
This morning, the Commercial Galvanisation stage held a morning of talks centred around the theme of digital identity. Robert Prigge, President ofJumio, rightly pointed out that, actually, it should probably just be referred to as “identity”, given that so much of our lives are now digital. In financial services particularly, Natasha Vernier, Head of Financial Crime at Monzo, commented that it’s particularly hard in the space because customerswant a password, simply because that’s what they are used to, whether or not that’s the safest method of protecting your digital identity. There’s a real mindset shift needed when it comes to online security, and a “challenge” that we haven’t properly stepped up to as an industry yet.
Buzzword bingo
We can all agree that the FinTech industry is rife with buzzwords. So this morning,Ghela Boskovich, Founder & Head of FinTech / RegTech at FemTechGlobal & Rainmaking Innovation, set to dispel some of the most used industry clichés. In a Room 101 style setup, Prajit Nanu ofInstaRem set to banish the term ‘Innovation Lab’ stating that it is an oxymoron. Liz Oakes ofMastercard wanted rid of ‘blitz scaling’, whereby businesses prioritise speed before questioning things like whether there is a need for the product, or if it’s profitable. Melissa Guzy ofArbor Ventures attempted to ban buzzwords in general (!) saying that we need to stop talking about terms like AI, blockchain and the cloud, but instead focusing on what the business actually does. And lastly, industry influencer Andrew Vorster, made his case for dispelling of vacuous job titles, like “data ninjas”. The winner? Buzzwords in their entirety!
Rate my Pitch
Joining FleishmanHillard’s Claudia Bate in “The Lab”, three Fintech leaders took the stage to pitch their wears and tell their business story to a panel of journalists and FinTech experts, including Callum Burroughs from Business Insider, John Detrixte of Quartz and Lucia Gallardo, CEO of Emerge.
After passionate pitches from Delber Lage, CEO of SalaryFits, Ambuj Agrawal, CEO of ZappyAI and Arash Asady, CEO of Bits of Stock the audience gathered in the Lab casted their votes, with a unanimous decision crowning Arash Asady the winner of this year’s Rate my Pitch. With a public launch due in July, Bit of Stock is sure to be one to watch closely!
And that brings the third and final day of Money20/20 Europe to a close! While it may be an industry shrouded in buzzwords, there’s no denying that there are some fascinating innovations and developments being made in the market and we already can’t wait for next year!
