5 things I learned at the first day of Money20/20 Europe
After a great first day listening to talks, show cases, and meeting people from all over the world, one thing that really stood out is the pretty cool branding at Money20/20 this year, which is pretty unlike any other finance conference we’ve ever been to — very 70’s cartoons and superheroes — seriously, check it out!
And now for a few quick takeaway’s — here goes:
1. Customers don’t care about banks — and they don’t care about banking either! The customer experience has been the focal point at finance and banking conferences for some time, while the bank and its products took a back seat. We don’t often come across bankers who realise that customers don’t care about banking — customers don’t get up in the morning and think, ‘Today I can purchase that car.’ As Marko Wenthin from solarisBank AG put it — no, they wake up and think ‘Today I can get that car’. And this is a big difference: customers have desires, goals, and dreams. And conducting transactions isn’t one of them — if this perception really catches on, I think it could profoundly change the face of the banking industry as we know it.
2. How post-truth fits in banking. Anne Boden from Starling, who’s presentation, “I am Nasty Fintech,” made a strong point. Just like the movements against Trump’s overuse of the ’N’ word, she sees fintech as a rebellious movement that’s fighting back against the poor reputation that the banking industry has earned over the years. That’s an interesting approach!
Philip Clarke from Hunch also took a swing at the world of information, future predictions, and how it’s very difficult to dig out the correct ones. After going through statistics on the market development for Internet of Things from the major research and consultancy firms, he concluded that ‘the market for IoT and commerce will be worth between 1 and 25 trillion dollars at, eh, some point in time’ — which is why we should proceed with caution when using statistics for decision making today.
3. How a simple, crystal clear purpose can lead the way to success. Hands down one of the speakers I was most looking forward to, was the ever-chilled Jack Dorsey, founder and CEO of Square and Twitter. His understated persona fitted well with this year’s playful branding, and despite a topic that might not be too exciting for non-bankers (Point of Sale solutions for one), he delivered some good insights. In short, he unfolded the purpose of Square, which is, “Make sure the seller can always sell,” and how keeping it as simple as this creates focus for you and your customers. Something I think many businesses, incumbents or newcomers could learn from.
4. Dumb plastic cards made smart(er). The company with the idiomatic name, Oberthur Technologies, presented some interesting developments in the world of credit cards, which we for sure will keep our eyes on. For starters, credit cards with fingerprint scanners or ones that can change the CVS code over and over again is something that I suspect we will see more of soon. Also, they showcased a watch with payment technology, so you can pay just by swiping your watch — the interesting thing is that the watch has a heartbeat sensor and as we all have a unique heartbeat, it’s used as identity verification. Pretty smart! Whether this wearable is a killer product, I don’t know, but when a large corporation like this gets on the playing field, I hope what follows is a wave of new product innovations that support the bubbling activity we’re already seeing in this space.
5. Societal impact at the core. The benefits of giving back to communities and societies at large has resonated through a multitude of initiatives, but yesterday Barclays UK and BBVA pulled the effort closer to the core of their business. In his keynote speech, Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK reiterated that for any corporation to prosper and thrive, it needs to have a societal purpose. At Barclays, their societal purpose is to take all customer segments forward, by increasing the level of connectivity — #letsgoforward through #trulyconnectedfiance. Similarly, when CEO Carlos Torres Vila from BBVA took the stage, the purpose that (supposedly) steers them forward is bringing the age of opportunity to everyone.
That’s it from our first day at Money20/20 in Copenhagen. We’re excited to see what Tuesday and Wednesday brings! Stay tuned.
