In today’s profile we are featuring Steve Round, the Co-Founder of SaaScada. Who are you and what’s your background? Steve Round, Co-Founder of SaaScada I’m Steve Round – Co-Founder of SaaScada and in a nut shell: 7 years as Chair, Ecology Building Society – building a greener society. 10 years as Chair, The Big Issue […]
Claus Nielsen, CEO & Co-Founder of CXFacts
Today’s profile features Claus Nielsen, CEO & Co-Founder of CXFacts. CXFacts provides a SaaS platform for unparalleled bank insights on their quality of service for corporate treasuries and as well unparalleled corporate customer insights for banks. One solution, globally, for both the sell-side and the buy-side. Who are you and what’s your background? I spent […]
It’s time to get that banking chatbot deployed
Does your bank still have legions of customer service agents bashing keyboards and phones? Most banks do.The leading financial players are way, way ahead of you.We deployed a chatbot at my bank a few years ago.Customers responded really, really well to it.The first-time resolution rates were utterly astonishing – and this was 5 years ago.I […]
UniCredit buying Vodeno would bring some excitement to the European Banking market
An ‘artist’s impression’ of the engine room of a bank (thanks to the imagination of ChatGPT) Here’s an opinion piece from Ewan published earlier today on LinkedIn: UniCredit is rumoured to be interested in buying Banking-as-a-Service player, Vodeno. So says a Bloomberg report this morning. Just what would that do to the European banking landscape? […]
Stockholm FinTech Week: Are you going?
It’s almost time for Stockholm FinTech Week and our editor Ewan is very much looking forward to attending. There is still time to purchase your tickets and flights. Will we see you there? Our editor Ewan is heading out tomorrow evening and will be on the hunt for interesting FinTech and financial services technology firms […]
Digital Bahrain: My GCC Contactless challenge completes with just one tiny exception
I tell you what, I really enjoyed visiting Bahrain. Really enjoyed it. I liked everything. I liked the small but very modern airport. I really enjoyed meeting local Bahrainis who were all incredibly positive and friendly. And I really appreciated how I was able to use contactless – Apple Pay in my case – everywhere. […]
GCC Contactless Challenge: Digital Qatar was mobile only for me, no plastic, no paper!
Hello from Doha, Qatar. I have had a great time with my on-going GCC Contactless Challenge here in Doha. Everything – and I do mean everything – has been utterly seamless from a contactless/Apple Pay standpoint. I haven’t had to use cash, or even credit card at any point. Now, again, it’s worth pointing out […]
GCC Contactless Challenge, Kuwait: Schoolboy errors and then Apple Pay all the way
I made a series of schoolboy errors when I arrived here in Kuwait, meaning that I failed spectacularly in my GCC Contactless Challenge for the country, on the first day! Arrgh! But, it’s got a lot better. First, here’s a reminder about the ‘Contactless Challenge’ I set myself as I began my FinTech Tour around […]
My favourite photo illustrating the progress of Saudi Arabia’s digital payments ecosystem
This is my favourite photo of my trip to Saudi Arabia. I know from closely browsing the Visit Saudi website that there are some much better-looking vistas across the Kingdom (like, for example Al Hada Road). But that hasn’t been my focus for this trip. I was aiming to see just how things have been […]
Digital Saudi: My super contactless journey in Riyadh
So following on from my fantastic contactless Dubai experiment, I flew to Saudi Arabia yesterday. I would normally use a local taxi from the airport – but this time I decided to check out Careem (Uber) and used that to summon a Lexus 350 with a local driver. “Kif Halik?” (How are you?) He asked […]