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EVENTS This is the greatest show…
Likened to hit movie The Greatest Showman, the “greatest fintech show on earth” hit Amsterdam with a sense of optimism. IBS Journal snuck into the big top to see what acts this cabaret had to offer
Senior Fintech Reporter Alex Hamilton
T
housands of delegates, speakers and media arrived at the RAI conference centre in Amsterdam this month, and were promised “the greatest fintech show on earth”, worthy
perhaps of Hugh Jackman’s latest big screen cabaret. This was Money 20/20’s third year in Europe, and 7th overall. Some hefty stats were thrown out by organisers: LATAM attendees have doubled, while 25% of those attending are of C-level.
There was a feeling of optimism amongst the audience in this, the tenth year since the great financial crises. There were some mutterings on social media wondering about the potential ironies of hosting a circus-themed event on the anniversary of such a famously monumental mistake from the banking industry.
These were swiftly drowned out by the charismatic appearance of Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group, which calls Amsterdam its home. The city, he said, is becoming a hub for all things fintech. “If there is ever a place central to all collaboration and Europe, it’s Amsterdam,” he added. There is perhaps some truth to this, with the famously expansive and well-connected Schiphol airport just down the road.
Hamers quickly shifted into digital-mode, telling those watching that things have “got to be digital, and more than digital – it’s got to be mobile”. ING conducts more than three billion contacts with customers annually, and Hamers claimed that 99% of those are digitally-based. Some 20% of the banking group’s 38 million customers have never interacted with an ING member of staff, only through mobile.
Clients, he added, want experiences that are personal, instant, relevant and seamless all at the same time. It’s an experience that needs to apply across countries. At this, he pointed to his mobile phone. “Your customer is here,” he said. Branches are no longer a necessity when it comes to connecting people. Focusing on the branch means that you’ll never play a role in the lives of your
customers, Hamer declared. ING has eight million customers in Germany, and is the third-largest private bank in the country, yet has zero branches.
Group COO of HSBC, Andy Maguire, arriving after Hamer, decided to pour some cold water on the fires of innovation lit by Hamer’s opening talk. Proof-of-concept ideas and mobile wallets fell into the HSBC exec’s crosshairs. He stated that he had no time for POCs: “If it’s not going straight into production it’s a waste of time.” Maguire also said that he saw “no problem” which mobile wallets can solve. If you’re not focused on customer impact, he added, “you’re in all sorts of trouble”. HSBC is “not in the business of inventing technology”.
When it comes to AI, arguably the industry’s biggest buzzword at the moment, Maguire wished that the technology was delivering on the promises that it has made for so many years.
“Purely internally,” he said, “robotic process automation and machine learning work alright with data like financial crime and KYC, where the bank can really control the data.”
www.ibsintelligence.com | © IBS Intelligence 2018
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