Fintech
Fintech fringe: The UK is uniquely positioned to drive the growth and scale of the sector in Europe
One year after its world debut, Fintech Fringe returned to London during London Tech Week 2024, turning his attention to the growth and scalability of the sector.
This year, the event highlights why the UK is one of the best places to grow and scale a business. From exploring strategies to grow and acquire new customers, to fundraising and complying with evolving regulations, Fintech Fringe serves as a breeding ground for new ideas and partnerships as it provides pragmatic and practical support to grow fintechs.
The four-day event will take place in a variety of locations, featuring Barclays rise hosting the first day and Level39 The second one. The third day took visitors back to the heart of London, where guests enjoyed enlightening discussions at the Thinking machine headquarters. Ahead of the last day at FoxWilliamswe reflect on some of the highlights and highlights of the event so far.
Empowering fintechs for scale and success
One of the best ways new organizations can learn to succeed is by reviewing what established companies have done and adopting and integrating these designs into their own companies.
Nick DrewettCCO, Transfer Motor provided insights into the neobank’s commercial strategies, business growth and technological advancements. Meanwhile, he also explored how Starling Engine is enabling businesses around the world to advance their infrastructure.
Drewett highlighted the importance of a good customer experience in addition to the role engineers play in decision making: “At Starling, the way we do things is reversed. The engineers? They innovate and write code. They have the ability to adjust the platform and turn features on and off as needed.
“The infrastructure is designed to assume that things will break, but when they do, consumers will never notice.”
He also discussed the importance of call centers in playing an important role in strong customer relationships. Traditionally, “they are managed as ‘cost centers,’ not as an opportunity to build trust and relationships.”
How to orient products to boost sales
One of many in-depth panels included, David McHenryresponsible for product consultancy and implementation, HSBC Innovation Bank, Alexandra Rivas-Gale, product manager, ClearBank AND Adam MoulsonCCO, Griffin. Hosted by opaque WilliamsonSenior Vice President and Industry Executive, Endavathe panel explored how companies need to keep customers in mind and pivot products to align with their evolving needs.
He also highlighted the importance of recognizing and resolving underlying problems quickly and reliably. Moulson addressed this further by saying, “Why are we solving problems? What value will your customer get from solving the problem, and how significant is that value? Before designing anything, demonstrate that there is a viable business opportunity of sufficient size and scale that is worth investing in. If it exists, test it incrementally with customers.
Growth vs Profitability: How to Scale Safely
Another enlightening conversation focused on the challenges and opportunities of business growth and innovation.
The panel, moderated by David Wallaceco-host of David and Dham Demystifying and with, Susanna Ponce Fremontglobal head of financial and credit risk, Tide; Valentina Kristensencorporate affairs director, OakNorth; AND Michael TreacyHead of Marketing Section, OpenPaydhighlighted the importance of understanding where a company is in its business model in balancing growth and profitability.
They also highlighted the need for effective cost management, agility and compliance. Treacy said: “One of your unique roles as a leader within a company is setting priorities.
“This prioritization comes from evaluating what is happening around you within the company and external parts of your industry. If you try to tackle too many things at once, you’re not doing well with the core proposition of the business.”
Ecosystems and markets: B2B scalability strategies
Himal MakwanaSenior Vice President at FIS; Maeve HeneghanEMEA fintech business development at Amazon Web Services; AND Tom Bentleygrowth manager at NatWest in the box have identified that partners play a critical role in scaling a company. Therefore, choosing the right one is of paramount importance.
Danny Keatingsenior director of business development at JD Consulting, also led the conversation by exploring potential sourcing challenges and solutions organizations may face.
When discussing potential partnerships, the impact embedded finance is having on potential collaborations has been mentioned. Makwana said: “The best is yet to come for integrated finance. We are still very early in this innings. I will measure success the day we no longer talk about integrated finance as a term, but only talk about what it has enabled: that to me is success.
Technical tips and tricks
Day three of the Fintech Fringe focused on breaking down confusing tech jargon to help fintechs understand how to select the right systems and platforms to support growth and scale.
With the day’s event at Thought Machine headquarters, the company’s founder and CMO, Travers Clarke-Walkertook the stage first to share his vision for scaling a fintech company and revealed important considerations that companies should remember.
“When it comes to expansion, early negotiations are a key aspect of the whole journey – it’s about finding your target customers because they are as much sponsors as customers. As we move forward, it is critical that we recognize their importance in terms of their voice in the market.”
Clarke-Walker also discussed the importance of building a strong organization around your technology or product to ensure success.
“It’s one thing to build a product, it’s another thing to then direct it towards marketing to companies and customers. The most important thing to consider is that it is also one thing to have a great technology, but you need to build a great organization around it, to serve that technology successfully in the industry. It’s as much about building the organization around the technology as it is about the technology itself.”
Sitting with Bank of America
Next, Elizabeth Lumleydeputy director at The bankerhe sat with Andrew McKibbenHead of Technology and International Operations at Bank of America. McKibben broke down the bank’s collaborative and mentoring relationships with fintechs and revealed the importance of not losing sight of key fundamentals.
“We have to remember that banking is built on trust,” he explained. “When I talk to customers, they want new features and more innovation, but they also want reliability, resilience and secure technology. When companies remember this, critical points do not emerge. These pain points emerge when those things are forgotten and you focus on what’s new and shiny.
McKibben also spoke about the collaboration between banks and fintechs: “I think the partnerships are really good. The reality is that the landscape is much more collaborative than it was 20 years ago. Today there is a deep appreciation that collaboration, rather than just direct competition, is better for customers and the industry as a whole.
“Fintech and banks can learn from each other. Banks can bring resources, scale and knowledge from all the countries in which we operate. Fintechs are, by definition, leaner. In many cases they offer faster time to market. This way we can learn from each other to offer the best possible results to customers.”
Remember the fundamentals
Another panel focused on the stability and resilience of technology, where several speakers also agreed on the importance of remembering to always prioritize the so-called “fundamentals.”
Lee ProvostFlagstone’s CTO, told a story from his early career: “For my first job as a Java developer, I was working on a database, made my changes, and signed out, very pleased with myself for a job well done. ..until the panicked phone calls came.
“Apparently, I didn’t click ‘log out,’ I clicked ‘shut down.’ Thankfully, they said “Don’t worry, we probably never should have given you permission to shut down the production database anyway.” It was a very expensive lesson for the bank, but very useful for me.
“Usually, when horror stories happen, it’s because the company, processes, people and culture allow mistakes to happen. Whether it’s a UX issue that wasn’t prioritized or manual processes, more often than not it becomes a problem when we were too focused on prioritizing the next big shiny thing.
Tamsin PowellCRO a Creditspring, discussed risk management: “When technology fails, whether it’s ours internally or a third party, it represents an operational risk, a regulatory risk, and a financial risk. Years ago, you would have a technical team sitting in a different office. Now these are cross-functional teams that come together for any product development, incident or change, to ensure we’ve thought of everything.
Jake Fighead of product at MMOB, added: “To achieve harmonious outcomes across teams, there’s the idea of psychological safety – where people aren’t afraid to challenge something the company has said.
“It’s about creating an atmosphere where people aren’t afraid to make mistakes. Only then do you get some kind of contribution without blinkers and that considers the whole thing. A collaborative atmosphere is how we get the most out of a cross-functional team.”
