From the VAT implications of buying a rabbit to ways of keeping calm while skywalking in space – two topics we didn’t expect to hear at Money 20/20 this week. But with more than 175 pieces of content being served up over three days, there was also going to be something for everyone.
The Fintech Times brings you a roundup of day one of Money 20/20 Europe 2022.
Money20/20, Europe’s largest fintech show, got underway at the RAI Amsterdam on Tuesday with organisers Scarlett Sieber and Tracey Davies taking to the Big Picture Stage to the oompah sounds of Beyonce’s Crazy in Love played by live bass band, Das Brass.
The pair officially welcomed delegates – hailing from 90 countries – to what they described as ‘home to some of the biggest announcements the industry has ever seen’.
Sieber said: “We’ve got a whole ecosystem here from global leaders to new challengers from tech giants to up and coming start-ups.” While Davies added: “We know that solutions and opportunities will probably be found at the show this week.”
Morning action
Next up on the Big Picture Stage – Charlotte Hogg, CEO of Visa Europe, and Daniel Kjellen, CEO & co-founder of Tink, who discussed the Visa acquisition of the European open banking platform earlier this year. Hogg explained why Visa made such a large open banking acquisition.
“I’m honestly ecstatic about the deal. The journey towards open banking in Europe has been happening for a while, but it’s really now and we believe that financial services can be better, more digital and consumers for the first time can be at the heart of their financial data, and this is what Tink does. So I couldn’t be happier than working with Daniel.”
Tuesday morning also saw OnlyFans CFO Lee Taylor and chief strategy and operations officer Keily Blair discuss the online content subscription platform’s success. They highlighted how OnlyFans has built up an impressive payments business and recently processed $18million in payouts to creators in just one day.
Midday
Over on the Planetarium Stage, we saw an insightful discussion on rebuilding financial products to be climate positive on the Planetarium Stage. Inas Nureldein of Tomorrow Bank called for ‘new role models’ amid concerns that too many financial players are ‘greenwashing around the term ESG’. Monika Liikamaa, co-CEO of Enfuce, was more succinct on why the time for talk is over – “Commit, decide and let’s just f**king do it,” she said.
While, the ‘Faster, Higher and Into Orbit’ session on the Big Picture Stage featured astronaut Tim Peake, racing driver Susie Wolff and free climber Alain Robert. They discussed risks taken in their careers and how lessons they’ve learned can be applied in the context of financial management.
Peake said: “I would never worry about emergency situations. We had a problem during our spacewalk during docking. But we always had options. We have done so much training we had so much knowledge about what we were doing and it helps you stay cool and helps you stay focused.”
Afternoon
Is your digital bank profitable? This one is! So said Anne Boden, founder and CEO of Starling Bank, as she shared the reason why although Starling’s valuation is slightly lower than some of their peers.
“Invest in profitable client relationships instead of just buying customers. If you just go out and give people £10 or $10 to open a bank account you will have a customer base that’s not profitable. That is a degrade of resources …. We have decided to pursue customers who would bank with us and it would be a profitable relationship. Then we would be able to prove our own model, then we’ll be able to replicate that model with different entities.”
“Starling has never really gone down this route of premium products or charging subscriptions – we’ve never really had to. We believe it’s all about providing reliable service, premium banking and to be able to justify that to customers”
We then heard from John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe, who discussed how the company partners with other fintechs behind the scenes to make the authentication experience much smoother for its customers. “That’s an example where, we think [open banking] has raised product innovation, so let’s push that across more banks and more parts of the ecosystem.”
He also explained how Stripe helps businesses manage the complexities of payments.
“I think if you buy a rabbit it is taxed at 19 per cent VAT but if you buy a guinea pig it is taxed at seven per cent VAT and that is because the rabbit is food and the guinea pig isn’t. These are the kinds of things if you’re running your pet store you have to think about and so Stripe can take all that complexity off people’s plates.”
On that note, we’ll ‘hop’ to it, and see you again tomorrow for day two of Money 20/20 Europe!