Today, we have a compilation episode with my favorite question. I always ask this question at the end of the episode, which is, Hey, if you were to change one thing in fintech that could have the most impact to customers, colleagues, and investors, what would that be?

The immediate response from almost everyone is. That's a tough question, Monica. So today let's hear what our guest had to say in 2023.

Here you go! The top 11 from 2023 💥

👉Put customers at the Heart of what you do, not the centre, by Gregor Mowat at Loqbox

👉 Get rid of acronyms to be more inclusive and help people understand. Why would you want your team to be confused?... by Fliss Berridge at Ordo

👉 Change onboarding -- help people understand why this information is being collected and then accept all official IDs available, by David Wachira, PhD at Waya

👉 Acknowledge that FinTechs and Banks are different and with different strengths... then find ways to work better together. 2024 is ready for partnerships! by Ara Abrahamyan at Cognaize

👉Making a positive impact always needs to be at the center and remember we are in business, ask yourself... is this a solution that people want to pay for? by Marijke Koninckx at BankiFi

👉Use open banking, open finance, open data to have a effect on society and economy --> Create the right foundations to remove the big cost barriers of the banking industry of today, by Huw Davies at Ozone API

👉 Really think about customer experience. Deep be care about it, that really makes a difference, by Ken Hart at Snowdrop Solutions

👉 Build products thinking of solving everyday customer problems, by Iliana de Silva at techreo

👉 When selecting partners, create efficient due diligence procedures to evaluate the best fit, key word, efficient, by Svitlanka Sergiichuk Romaniuk at Neofin solutions

👉Think sustainability. Do I really have to push to squeeze the last droplet out of the lemon? Or is it also sufficient if I only get three droplets out of that lemon and leave the rest to us?... this applies to business travel too, by Christian Lehringer at COPECTO GmbH

👉 Have fintech companies and financial institutions partner with governments to promote financial lives and financial education within schools since, from the beginning, when people are kids, by Eduardo Moore at Clara

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Questions:

1. How to put customers at heart of FinTech?
2. What is the impact of acronyms on team inclusion?
3. How to improve onboarding for financial inclusion?
4. What are differences between FinTechs and banks?
5. How to create viable business with positive impact?
6. What is role of open banking in society transformation?
7. How to think deeply about customer experience?
8. How to build products solving everyday problems?
9. What is efficient due diligence for partner selection?
10. How to think about sustainability in FinTech?
11. What is role of financial education in schools?
12. How to make onboarding more inclusive?
13. What are best practices for customer-centric FinTech?
14. How to eliminate barriers to financial services?
15. What is democratization of financial services?
16. How to balance profit and positive impact?
17. What are cost barriers in banking industry?
18. How to improve consumer experience in FinTech?
19. What is long-term customer value thinking?
20. How to create partnerships between FinTechs and banks?

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Production and marketing by Monica Millares. For inquiries about coaching, collabs, sponsoring the podcast or creating or editing your podcast email Monica at fintechwithmoni@gmail.com

Disclaimer: This episode does not constitute professional nor financial advice and does not represent the opinion nor views of my current, past or future employers. The guest has agreed to record and release our conversation for the use of this podcast and promotion in social media.

Ep 28. The one thing you can change to have most impact

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Introduction and Onboarding Requirements

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That's a very good question. For me, I would change the onboarding requirements. I would make them more plausible or at least helping people understand why this information is being collected and then too, I would.

I would make it as widely available as possible. As long as it's a legal. issued document, I would accept it. I wouldn't limit it to just the U. S. issued IDs and the U. S. issued passports. I would take Mexican passports, Argentinian passports, Canadian passports out.

And then you would give a lot more people that inclusion that we're talking.

Host Introduction and Favorite Question

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Hello, and welcome back to Purpose Driven Fintech. I am your host, Moni Millares. Today, we have a compilation episode with my favorite question. I always ask this question at the end of the episode, which is, Hey, if you were to change one thing in fintech that could have the most impact to customers, colleagues, and investors, what would that be?

Customer-Centric Business Models

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If there was one thing, just one thing that you can change in the industry in FinTech, such that members of staff, customers, and shareholders have a better life. What could that be? I, it's one thing, I can think of many things, but I'll try and bring it to one for you. One thing, it should already be there, but it's not for everyone.

If the consumer is not right at the heart of all of your thinking. I agree. And you use the key word, many people could say at the center of what you do, but you use at the heart of everything you do. And that makes a massive difference. But see, it's like massive difference. Center of what we do, heart of what we do.

Yes. The customer should be at the heart.

If there was one thing that you would change in FinTech that would have the most impact for customers, staff, and shareholders, what could that be?

Eliminating Acronyms for Inclusivity

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I would abandon acronyms. I'd abandon acronyms, which is such a simple thing to do because A, it's annoying, but B. All they do is say, this is exclusive, you can't come in, you're not clever enough.

Absolutely, text messages. In competition law, I can't even remember, what does it mean? Can't find my very tiny notes. Strategic, market, something beginning with S. It means your company has an impact in a market and so you need to be directly regulated by the competition authority. It's stupid because not only does it say this is an exclusive club, that if you can't remember the name of this acronym in this meeting, you're not in.

And give opportunities for people's talent and capability, not just those that we expect. Yes. And the summary of the acronyms is language. Language matters. The how we communicate matters a lot.

Simplifying Onboarding Processes

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Make it as a battle that we're fighting. I would make it as widely available as possible. As long as it's a legal. issued document, I would accept it. I wouldn't limit it to just the U. S. issued IDs and the U. S. issued passports. I would take Mexican passports, Argentinian passports, Canadian passports out.

And then you would give a lot more people that inclusion that we're talking. Yes. I think that sounds sensible because then you give accessibility to everyone, regardless of their nationality. You can open the account anyway. So now make it easy, frictionless.

If you were to change one thing in FinTech that can improve the lives of customers, staff, and shareholders, what could you change?

Understanding FinTech Differences

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FinTech is not a bank. Or an insurance company and bank is not a fintech and an insurance company. And by understanding, like with humans, by accepting who you are, you've actually achieved everything. I think we as stakeholders have many, many different roles of what financials work, what fintechs we do.

We need to understand that they're different and treat them as such. And I think that is the key tool. Mutually beneficial relationship, partnership, success, understanding that

And I also think that there are less solutions out there looking for a problem, which was, uh, I think a bit of an issue a couple of years ago. Again, going back to the start, making that positive impact always needs to be at the center. And then at the same time, let's be honest, we're also. Running a business, so is it a viable business, as in, is this a solution that people want to pay for?

Open Banking and Financial Inclusion

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So what could be the one thing that you're like, Hey, we as an industry, or I as also an API, if we were to do this, the industry could be better. Yeah. And it's almost kind of full circle back to the whole purpose question. So I genuinely believe this shift towards open banking, open finance, open data can have a dramatically positive effects on society and economies.

It's a driver of economic growth, it's a driver of wealth creation. It's something that can remove barriers and unlock challenges around financial inclusion. So. At the, what we want to do, we want to accelerate and enable that and see all of those good things happening. We're kind of at the foundational infrastructure layer.

It's about laying the foundations for a genuinely better society where customers have much more control. Over how they engage with their data, their money, that kind of aspects of their life. But it's laid the foundations to tackle real issues in society. So that's sort of the lofty sort of vision we want to, we want to see happen.

Regardless of how much income you have, but it's because we have used finance and technology in a way that enables people to have that better quality of life. Yeah, exactly. I think like as a, as a fintech community, we're all kind of like going towards that, which is awesome. That's why I love, that's why I love the fintech space.

It has impact. Yeah, absolutely. No, agree more.

If you were to change one thing in FinTech that could make the lives of customers, employees, and shareholders better, what could you change? Ooh, just one thing. That's a hard one, Monica.

Consumer Experience in FinTech

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Or we're going to build it ourselves. They really often don't. Ear, or think, or consider the user experience. There's a lot of lip service, but it's not really thought through. And I would argue the beauty of some of these challenger banks, when they started, really do care about the consumer experience.

Deep be care about it. And that really makes a difference. If there's one thing I would suggest is because there's so much inertia in what we do, people don't change their backstop frequently. That maybe you don't need to think about the consumer experience that much, but that would be something that I would really advocate that people think about.

Think about the long term value. Of a customer that you captured 18 and getting them all the way through to their 88, right? Think about their different stages in life and thinking about making sure they have a great experience with you because inking great experience, often they don't go together, right?

But I think that I'll go back to the first question. If you build the products of any kind of segment or any kind of industry or vertical, if you build the products thinking on the customer from the cart, as you said, if you build the products thinking of making them the everyday problem, then you can make a difference one because then the market gets into your, gets into your product and then you have a win.

Definitely.

Um, to do the fintechs and be able to integrate the fintechs in their lives easier. Interesting. I like that. So it's more of the, how can we collaborate better between fintechs and, and large institutions or not, not, not necessarily fintechs and large institutions, but it's like within the B2B fintech ecosystem with the other fintechs or financial institutions.

That would probably be the change I would be looking at. Yeah, I like that. It's beyond efficient collaboration. It is proper. How can we work together better? Where I

If there was one thing that you could change in the FinTech industry, such that it would make the lives of customers, members of staff, and shareholders better, what could it be?

Balancing Profit and Sustainability

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That of course I'm driving, or we are all driving commercial business, which are aiming at, I would say maximization of profit. This, uh, let's say capitalistic system we are all working in. I'm thinking about my own activities and the responsibilities I have. Of course, I have to provide some, yeah, gain and turnover and some, some benefits out of it.

Or is it also sufficient if I only get three droplets out of that lemon and leave the rest to us? Let's say finding the right balance between, of course, a profit driven business, but in the end, try to be a bit more, um, cautious about the resources we all only have. This also means. Maybe I don't have to fly to a meeting, but I can take the train, even it takes two hours or three hours longer, but by this I can reduce my personal carbon footprint, for example.

I like that. This is my momentum. Because you know what, there's some founders, some founding team, some management team that it's, yeah, we need to drive to make this like the next multi billion dollar company and exactly exploit, exploit to get there. Yes. I understand that motivation. We are working in a money business, of course, money is really creating some kind of desire to get even more.

If you were to change one thing in fintech, just one thing to make fintech better for customers, staff, and shareholders, what would that be?

Financial Education and Partnerships

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Wow. It's a tough one. I think the one thing I would change is having fintech companies and financial institutions partner with governments to promote financial lives and financial education within schools since, from the beginning, when people are kids.

And they should be also be responsible and accountable and pushing for that change, right? I think as product managers, we always complain that one of the big pain points is that people don't understand products, people don't know how to use a credit card, so do something about it, right? Education. I have an education blog on my website.

And I think that could really change customer's lives, right? Yeah. And I'm like, that can change the future of humanity as such. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.