Banking on Air

What does the concept ‘Islamic finance’ say to you? Is it solely pegged to a religion from the Arab world? In this episode, we want to shed some light on this fascinating topic, cut through some of the misconceptions, and tell you more about how this well-established, yet very different, banking culture works and what it has to offer. In our third podcast hosted by Helene Panzarino, she talks to Syed Musheer Ahmed, founder of Finstep Asia and co-founder of Fintech Association of Hong Kong. Musheer shares his vast knowledge of Islamic finance, and explains the core foundations and principles that underpin banking for the Islamic community. As Musheer highlights, even though Islam originated in the Middle East, it’s now very much a global religion with close to two billion followers all around the world. What‘s more, even though Islamic banks adhere to the core tenets of Islam, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Islamic finance is just for Muslims. The entire world can adopt and benefit from these practices with their strong ethical base: where ‘money’ is seen as a means to exchange goods, and never as a way to generate ‘interest’, and both profit and risk should be shared. Find out more about Musheer via his LinkedIn profile. ‘Banking on Air’ is the official Vacuumlabs podcast covering the challenges, opportunities, perspectives and opinions that matter to you and to our community. In this podcast, we are looking under the hood of the changing face of tech: the acceleration in all things digital, the impact of regulation (and disruption), the need for genuine collaboration – and the specter of competitors old and new as it plays out in fintech and financial services around the world. This podcast is brought to you by Vacuumlabs – and we’re sharing our experience and expertise in creating solutions for the digital journey for professionals, community banks, and fintechs.  We believe that the future is in communities when it comes to digital transformation in financial services, and we invite you to join us and our guests over the coming weeks and months. And don't forget to subscribe!

Why are neobanks born, and what is the key for success in the banking industry? The answers are twofold: fulfilling specific community needs, and focusing on a relationship with customers. Without those, their position on the market is endangered. Listen to our second podcast installment hosted by Helene Panzarino. With her guest Donald Hawkins, Helene explores the topic of community banks and relationships between banks and clients. Donald, as a founder of the first neobank for black Americans in the US, openly talks about the situation black people are in the US. Facing oppression from a number of angles (educational, financial literacy, employment), Donald wanted to help them. To do so, he discusses how he created Boulevard, a neobank that serves the specific needs of black Americans; and equally, he explains why there cannot be one bank for all minorities. Another topic discussed by Helene and Donald is the changes in the market – in shifting from physical to virtual ways of communication, banks need to keep up with changes and focusing on establishing and maintaining good relationships with their clients. In short, their focus needs to move from transactions to relationships. Features are not the winning turnpoint anymore. In such a saturated market, not being able to address a younger audience is a one-way ticket to bankruptcy. Learn more about Donald Hawkins and his career via his LinkedIn profile. ‘Banking on Air’ is the official Vacuumlabs podcast covering the challenges, opportunities, perspectives and opinions that matter to you and to our community. In this podcast, we are looking under the hood of the changing face of tech: the acceleration in all things digital, the impact of regulation (and disruption), the need for genuine collaboration – and the specter of competitors old and new as it plays out in fintech and financial services around the world. We’re making this series so we can share our experience and expertise in creating solutions for the digital journey for incumbents, community banks, and fintechs. We believe that the future is in communities when it comes to digital transformation in financial services, and we’ll be sharing our thoughts with you, but also getting your together with our guests. And don't forget to subscribe!

Fintech and innovation go hand in hand. But how do big financial institutions respond to the need to innovate? Do they get this right? Frustratingly, the answer is often “no.” Listen to our first podcast installment hosted by Helene Panzarino. Helene is in business conversation with Nektarios Liolios, and he opens up about his thoughts and his wealth of experience of financial innovation in practice based on his time working with the banking sector. Nektarios was there on the ground when fintech first began garnering momentum and its commercial relevance first came to the fore, and he co-founded the first accelerator program for startups. Yet Nektarios tells us that he recently stepped back from this industry. What prompted his decision? He says he found it too frustrating to stand by and watch big institutions take the wrong approach to innovation: with their teams so often knowing what they should be doing, but not following through with the action required to implement an effective program. Innovation needs an effective strategy behind it – and the right approach. Established banks didn’t want to accept this framework needed to be in place for innovation to happen. Learn more about Nektarios Liolios’ journey in fintech via his LinkedIn profile. ---- ‘Banking on Air’ is the official Vacuumlabs podcast covering the challenges, opportunities, perspectives and opinions that matter to you and to our community. In this podcast, we are looking under the hood of the changing face of tech: the acceleration in all things digital, the impact of regulation (and disruption), the need for genuine collaboration – and the specter of competitors old and new as it plays out in fintech and financial services around the world. We’re making this series so we can share our experience and expertise in creating solutions for the digital journey for incumbents, community banks, and fintechs. We believe that the future is in communities when it comes to digital transformation in financial services, and we’ll be sharing our thoughts with you, but also getting your together with our guests. And don't forget to subscribe!

Solving environmental issues with Doconomy financial service tools? Yes! Listen to this episode where Mathias Wikstrom (CEO) and Johan Pihl (Founder and Head of Innovation) at Doconomy discuss how they brought to market a credit card that enables its users to behave more sustainably. Finding an intersection between banking services and decreasing CO2 emissions might seem impossible at the first sight; But Mathias and Johan decided to pull these threads together and in turn, create a new market. Doconomy not only puts a limit on customers’ credit cards using CO2 emissions to make their purchases more conscious – but they also created the 2030 Calculator, a resource that allows anyone to assess the environmental impact of their purchases. It’s an incredible journey – and one that involved some unexpected steps to help them to reach their long-term goal: a more sustainable planet for everyone. Find out more about Doconomy at https://doconomy.com or get in touch with Mathias and Johan through LinkedIn. ----- ‘Banking on Air’ is the official Vacuumlabs podcast covering the challenges, opportunities, perspectives and opinions that matter to you and to our community. In this podcast, we are looking under the hood of the changing face of tech: the acceleration in all things digital, the impact of regulation (and disruption), the need for genuine collaboration – and the specter of competitors old and new as it plays out in fintech and financial services around the world. We’re making this series so we can share our experience and expertise in creating solutions for the digital journey for incumbents, community banks, and fintechs. We believe that the future is in communities when it comes to digital transformation in financial services, and we’ll be sharing our thoughts with you, but also getting your together with our guests. This episode was hosted by Marcel Klimo from Vacuumlabs. Listen to the original podcast episode on Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Spotify, or here: And don't forget to subscribe!

On this  episode of Banking in Air, we talk with Peter Murray from W2 about changing needs of identity verification and anti-money laundering across the world, so that you can understand who your customers are across the world. Here is a quick rundown of the episode: 0:19 What is KYC, AML and ID&V 1:50 How and why you might need W2 3:40 Changing business models in the industry 4:30 Recent payment companies using W2 tech 6:17 Global reach of KYC, AML and ID&V 7:19 Impact of COVID on the market 8:08 Key takeaways from Pay 360 conference 9:18 Contact information Important links: Website: https://www.w2globaldata.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/w2globaldata Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/w2globaldata/ - - - Peter Murray is currently Group Head of Sales at W2 Global Data. He has expertise in emerging data and evolving Tech solutions and how they best align to increase engagement, drive business growth, enable regulatory adoption and ensure a safe and secure environment for all. You can reach him on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idpetermurray/ - - - Banking in Air podcast explores the lives and journeys of founders and technology leaders as they work to overcome challenges while building products in an ever-changing world. Hosted by Marcel Klimo of Vacuumlabs.

In this  episode of Banking in Air, we talk with Jaijit Bhattacharya from Zerone Microsystem about the Indian payment card market and how his mobile POS is empowering millions of merchants to now accepts payments in a country, which nearly doubled the total number of cards in just a few months. Here is a quick rundown of the episode: 1:36 ZUP POS introduction 2:11 How merchants use the POS 2:42 POS penetration in India 3:27 Is this just for low income mechants? 4:05 Changes after government helped introduce millions of cards into the market 5:50 Why they are not supporting iPhone as a design decision 6:45 Whitelabel SDK for software developers 7:34 How to get started with ZUP SoftPOS Useful links from episode: ZUP website - - - Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya is a noted expert in Societal Transformation leveraging technology. He is CEO of the cutting edge Fintech startup, Zerone Microsystems Pvt. Ltd and also Honarary President of Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research. He is former Head, Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution in India, World Economic Forum and the former Head and Partner, Economics and Policy Practice, KPMG. He is recipient of the prestigious APJ Abdul Kalam Award for innovation in governance. Dr. Bhattacharya is in the of Board of IIM Calcutta Innovation Park and is member of Governing Senate of IIIT Raipur, Member of Expert Committee for Ease of Doing Business legislation of Government of India, co-chair of Expert Committee on Skill Development for Deity, Government of India and Convener for Economic Standards for Smart Cities, BIS, Government of India. He also led KPMG’s contribution to the report on Ranking of States on Ease of Doing Business by DIPP. Dr. Bhattacharya also worked on the restructuring of the Indian Airforce as part of the Shekatkar Committee report. He has earlier worked in senior roles in Accenture, IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and HP. He has been responsible for the creation of the next generation of solutions for governments, based on open standards. Dr. Bhattacharya advises governments on policy and e-governance strategies. He has conducted trainings for ADB institute in Tokyo and has helped World Bank develop curriculum for their e-Leadership program. He is deeply involved in Technology Policy making for the Indian Army and has coined the term “Technological Sovereignty”, based on which he runs a National Conclave on Technological Sovereignty for the Indian Army and Centre for Land Warfare Studies. He also delivers invited lectures at INSEAD Singapore campus, IIT Roorkee and at IIM Calcutta. Dr. Bhattacharya has developed business models and strategies for leading companies in the IT, media and computer hardware industries. He has numerous research papers to his credit in leading journals and conferences. He has authored five books on e-Governance, including being the co-author of the first book on e-Governance in India, ‘Government On-line – Opportunities and Challenges’. Email: jbh@zup.cash Google Play (India Only): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zup.merchant - - - Banking in Air podcast explores the lives and journeys of founders and technology leaders as they work to overcome challenges while building products in an ever-changing world. Hosted by Marcel Klimo of Vacuumlabs.

In this  episode of Banking in Air, we talk with Angela Davies from Thames Technology about issuing cards and how biometric cards are the next generation of secure payment perfectly suited for the current world Here is a quick rundown of the episode: 1:21 Introduction of Thames Tech 1:05 How does Thames Technology work and how did it get started? 3:16 Personalization of payment cards 4:42 Issue cards as a fintech or through a third-party issuer? 9:05 Payment via phone vs biometric card 10:19 Biometric payment cards are perfect for the COVID world. Useful links from episode: Angela Davies on LinkedIn Thames Technology website - - - Angela Davies is Head of Sales, Finance and ID at Thames Technology. If you want to find out more about Thames Technology and their products, you can find their website here: https://www.thamestechnology.co.uk - - - Banking in Air podcast explores the lives and journeys of founders and technology leaders as they work to overcome challenges while building products in an ever-changing world. Hosted by Marcel Klimo of Vacuumlabs.

In this episode, we interview Dom Pym, co-founder of Up Bank about the open banking landscape in Australia, the launch of their banking API and how their focus on being a contrarian technology company has helped them bring features to market in record speed to become Australia’s first next-gen digital bank. Here is just a small taste of how different Dom’s thinking is in the fintech product design industry and how they have managed to build something very unique: “We actually take a contrary view: How does it feel when you sign up for Up? Does it feel easy or does it feel hard? If you got 20 clicks or a hundred clicks, it doesn't matter. I can reduce the clicks from 20 to 10 or five or one by putting all the fields on one screen, but it's a horrible experience and it makes you feel awful. So we take the opposite approach, this contrary approach, where we have an atomic design method, where we only ever asked the customer for one thing on a screen.” Here is a rundown of the episode, if you want to jump ahead: 02:45 Partnering with Bendigo Bank to start Up 08:51 Open Banking in Australia 11:54 Over a 1000 people used Up API in first week 14:57 How they managed to launch Open Banking API so quickly by being a technology company first 24:20 Integrating with Transferwise to prevent complexity with SWIFT 25:51 What they would have done differently 27:49 Will Up turn into a superapp? 36:51 What’s the secret sauce? How are you so fast to market with great features? 45:42 Why they chose such a bold brand design 55:56 Find out how you can get your hands on a Up account and card Useful links: Up Bank Dom Pym on Linkedin Tree of Up – – – Dom Pym has been involved in numerous start-ups and large scale Information Technology projects since the 90's, in Australia and overseas. Currently he is working on Up, Australia’s first next-gen digital bank, built from the ground up to help you spend wisely and save effortlessly. Dominic is also a co-founder of Ferocia, an extraordinary technology team re-imagining Internet banking (launched in 2014 with Bendigo Bank), Pin Payments (Australia’s first all-in-one online payments platform) and Clear Interactive (acquired in 2009 by NZX, operators of the New Zealand Stock Exchange and electricity markets). – – – War stories episodes in Banking in Air podcast explores the lives and journeys of founders and technology leaders as they work to overcome challenges while building products in an ever-changing world. Hosted by Marcel Klimo of Vacuumlabs.