315. News: Tech for Tech’s Sake

This week we have some great stories for you as Sarah and Simon are joined by a couple of great guests:

• Freddy Kelly, CEO and co-founder at Credit Kudos
• Ben Gleisner, CEO and Co-founder at CoGo
• Simon Vans-Colina, Engineer at Monzo

We kick off the episode by taking a look at US lenders preparing for a recession. U.S. online lenders such as LendingClub Corp, Kabbage Inc and Avant LLC are scrutinizing loan quality, securing long-term financing and cutting costs, as executives prepare for what they fear could be the sector’s first economic downturn. We hear from our Americas MD, Sam Maule for a US perspective (:).

Next up, we talk about RBS challenging the challengers with Bo. Despite buying NatWest almost 20 years ago RBS still uses different IT systems at the two banks. Bó, their new digital-only consumer bank in contrast, has been built in a little over a year on a completely new cloud-based system. It will launch to the public later this year. Sarah and Simon VC remark that if Bo are happy to be a companion bank account, the data can't be fully representatives of their customers' finances. Simon T thinks that profitability is at least a five year journey - is the importance of profit early on misguided? (:).

Other stories include:

• N26 in trouble with German regulators over hypergrowth
• 86400 sign a partnership to offer home loans
• Halifax rebrand gets slammed for copying Monzo and Starling
• Ant Financial take on the Chinese healthcare market
• Derek White waves goodbye to BBVA
• Facebook calls time on P2P payments
• And finally, Joe Lycett Impersonates RBS Boss to Get £8,000 Back to Scammed Customer

All this and so much more on today's show.

Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email [email protected]

This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse.

Special Guests: Ben Gleisner, Freddy Kelly, and Simon Vans-Colina.

Links:

• Worried a recession is coming, U.S. online lenders reduce risk - Reuters
• RBS steps on to the digital challengers’ turf - Optimal Money
• After Revolut, German startup bank N26 faces questions from regulators
• Aussie challenger 86 400 scores home loan distribution deal
• Halifax rebrand slammed for copying Monzo and Starling
• Millions Rush to Join a Wild New Health Plan From Jack Ma's Ant - Bloomberg
• US Bank names BBVA's Derek White chief digital officer
• Facebook shuts down Messenger P2P payments in the UK and France
• YouTube