Notes from AltFi Festival of Finance 2022 in London

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AltFi Festival of Finance 2022
27 - 28 April 2022. In-person. In-depth. In London.
Notes by: Kristi Rohtsalu
AltFi Festival of Finance 2022 was a two-day in-person extravaganza exploring innovation in fintech,
banking, and lending in the UK and across Europe. About 60 speakers and 300 attendees were present at
the prestigious Park Plaza London Riverbank. You are reading my notes and takeaways from the event.
See AltFi website for more information: https://www.altfi.com/events/the-altfi-festival-of-finance-2022
People gathering to the AltFi After Party
P.S.: Registration to the AltFi Festival of Finance 2023 has already begun.

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Contents
FinTech Keywords in 2022 ............................................................................................................................3
Day 1 .............................................................................................................................................................4
Opening Keynote: Trust In The Age Of Digital Acceleration.....................................................................4
Opening Fireside Chat With Dan McCrum, Financial Times .....................................................................4
Banking On The Metaverse?.....................................................................................................................6
How Payments Are Saving The World ......................................................................................................7
The Rise Of High Net-Worth Neobanking.................................................................................................8
AMA With… Richard Davies, CEO, Allica Bank ..........................................................................................9
Fintech x Sustainability ...........................................................................................................................11
Web3: A New Player In The Open Banking Ecosystem?.........................................................................12
Seizing The Open Finance Opportunity ..................................................................................................13
What Are Europe's Top Fintech VCs Looking For?..................................................................................14
Day 2 ...........................................................................................................................................................16
A Primer On… Web3 ...............................................................................................................................16
Fireside Chat With Oplo: Unlocking The Possibilities Of Open Banking Beyond Affordability...............18
Taking On The Challengers: Lessons For Incumbents.............................................................................19
Embedded Finance's Moment To Shine? ...............................................................................................20
Overcoming The Challenges Of Challenger Credit Cards........................................................................21
How Are Lenders Adapting To The Post-Covid Lending Environment?..................................................22
AMA With… Anand Sambasivan, CEO, PrimaryBid.................................................................................23
Hiring, Hybrid Working And HR In 2022..................................................................................................24
Is Buy Now, Pay Later Re-shaping The Financial Ecosystem?.................................................................25
BNPL 2.0: Meet The Next Generation Of Pay Later................................................................................26
Who Won AltFi 2022?.............................................................................................................................27

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FinTech Keywords in 2022
Trust
ESG
Cost of living crisis
Post-COVID
Supporting Ukraine & Ukrainian refugees
30+ banking licenses issued in UK over the last few years
Huge investment rounds in FinTech
Payments
BNLP & BNLP 2.0
Challenger Credit Cards
Embedded Finance
Open Banking
Open Finance
High Net Worth Neobanking
Crypto & Web3
Metaverse
FinTech advice to the incumbent banks
Hybrid working and remote working
HR, international talent and four-day workweek

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Day 1
Opening Keynote: Trust In The Age Of Digital Acceleration
Shail Deep, Chief Product Officer @TransUnion
Using proprietary research on how trust influences consumer decisions, TransUnion’s chief product officer,
Shail Deep, examines the importance of trust in driving post-pandemic growth and takes a wider look at
changing consumer habits; from the growing demand for buy now, pay later to the increased adoption of
Open Banking.
• Trust is foundation for growth. In UK, 43% of consumers say that trust is the main influence in their
choice of financial services providers. Making trust possible:
a. Businesses to know their customers
b. Consumers to be correctly represented
• Digitalization of customer experience. In UK, 26% of consumers say that COVID pandemic has led them
to using digital channels only.
• Fraud. Five most common types of fraud:
a. Phishing
b. Third party seller scams
c. Stolen credit cards
d. Account takeover
e. Identity theft
• Cost of living crisis. Financial stress. Affordability. Food prices. Energy prices. Transport.
• Popularity of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) schemes: 37% of UK consumers have used BNLP. Drivers:
a. Consumers want to spread payments over time
b. Interest-free payments
c. Ease of use
• Open Banking. Acceleration in adoption over the last two years. Easy, convenient and fast. Granularity
of data in real time. Important: present compelling value proposition for consumers.
• Financial health and consumer empowerment. Help customers to proactively manage their credit
scores.
• Growth in the post COVID pandemic context: over half of the consumers believe that their finances
will remain stable & that they can absorb financial chocks if necessary.
Opening Fireside Chat With Dan McCrum, Financial Times
Oliver Smith, Managing Editor @ AltFi
Dan McCrum, Investigative Reporter @ Financial Times
The FT journalist who brought down Wirecard sits down to tell his story of topping a tech unicorn, and
what this multi-billion-dollar fraud means for the future of Europe’s fintech sector.

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Backstory
Until 2019, Wirecard was one of Europe’s FinTech darlings (even if a controversial one!) by empowering
card issuing and payments. Processing payments and acquiring payment companies. In 2019, issues
started: police raids and stories about Wirecard inflating profits.
Rolling out the story
• Dan first heard about Wirecard in 2013. A couple of short sellers referring to a bunch of “German
gangsters”. Initially, there were small things.
• In 2014, FT asked Wirecard if they can write about the company. Wirecard said “no”.
• FT started asking/claiming “your company is fraud?” sort of questions. Wirecard replied that
everything was audited – angrily.
• In 2016, there was short selling happening. Wirecard’s Chief Operating Officer wanted to talk (via FT-
s secret information sources). How did the COO of Wirecard know about FT-s sources?
• BaFin banned short selling. Got it so very wrong. You see what you are looking for. Dan was looking
for fraud. Everyone else was looking for FinTech innovation and growth. Wirecard was very effective
in playing the story for regulators.
• SoftBank was big in the news in 2019. They invested about $1 billion into Wirecard that year. This
despite that FT had just published a story of strange things going on in Wirecard. Everyone criticized
SoftBank: “Did you do ANY Due Diligence?” But… Wirecard was always picking up smaller payment
companies which very well suited to SoftBank.
• Wirecard was brought down by FT 2019 stories.
Who failed?
• EY auditors
• Regulators (BaFin)
• Investors
Lessons learned
• At the beginning, there were only small frauds. People should not focus on amounts but on practices.
What did it mean for Dan, to be an investigative reporter?
• Really hard to explain to neighbors (and to the public in general) what you are doing. Why are you
going after Wirecard?
• It became really intimidating / becoming paranoid: small army of private detectives following me etc.
What if Dan had not published? Would the fraud be continuing?
• There is a lot of dirty money moving around. So yes: Wirecard’s fraud might be continuing.
• Yet ultimately, Wirecard would have run out of money. Wirecard’s investors would have that
question: “Why are you asking all that money if your financials are as good as reported?!”

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• Still. Today we could be sitting and talking about Markus Braun as FinTech genius. Markus Braun, the
CEO and CTO of Wirecard, hoped for a (hostile) takeover of Deutsche Bank…
Current state of affairs
• Markus Braun and two other executives waiting for the verdict.
Lessons learned from the case
• For investors: Do NOT invest into the businesses that you do not understand! Hint: Crypto and DeFi
(Decentralized Finance) – there are lots of fraudulent / Ponzy business models.
• People see what they are looking for. In Wirecard’s case, investors looked for growth – and they saw
it. FT’s investigative reporter Dan looked for fraud – and he found it. People have a tendency to see
what they are looking for; an investor can easily get false idea that he/she understands the business.
• Investigative reporting takes a toll on the reporter’s personal life.
Banking On The Metaverse?
Maria Phillips, Founder @ Bridge RegTech
Emily Nicolle, Crypto Blogger @ Bloomberg
Elliot Goykham, CEO and Founder @ Zelf, the first bank in messengers (Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram,
We Chat etc.)
David M. Brear, CEO and Co-Founder at 11:FS
Facebook's rebranding to Meta has triggered a fresh wave of curiosity, excitement and investment in the
Metaverse. But what do the combination of VR, AR and online persistence mean for finance?
What is metaverse?
Google search answer:
“In the broadest terms, the metaverse is understood as a graphically rich virtual space, with some degree
of verisimilitude, where people can work, play, shop, socialize — in short, do the things humans like to do
together in real life (or, perhaps more to the point, on the internet).”1
Metaverse has a lot of different definitions. For FinTech, it is confluence of the following:
• Real money
• NFT2
• Games
We are talking about the virtual context. Virtual currency, virtual assets, virtual environments.
Potential use cases (are there?) and opportunity (is it?)
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Source: https://www.polygon.com/22959860/metaverse-explained-video-games
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NFT, non-fungible token, is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that
can be sold and traded.

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• A huge opportunity – different levels of communication (is it?)
• The next shiny thing that is distracting people (is it?)
• There are much more burning issues to solve before metaverse: social debt, technological debt…
• Compliance issues.
• Long term perspective: virtual is becoming big part of our lives.
What about incumbent banks entering metaverse?
a) Rather no. It is amazing how many incumbents haven’t even embraced basic brokerage (a la: buying
and selling fractions of shares)! Banks are really not there. There is a lack of skills / talent shortage.
b) Metaverse is not the top priority in people’s minds. It is a priority for the gaming communities, though.
People are creating wealth in these virtual worlds, investing into virtual goods etc.
c) Some children are preferring to get their pocket money in Robux3
rather than in pounds; that’s what
they are valuing!
d) Banks do not know about all the people’s pockets of money.
e) Risks that banks need to consider:
a. Security risks and technology risks
b. Reputational risks (e.g.: consider risks related to NFTs)
Problems to be solved before metaverse can happen
• Collective understanding of the potential.
• Regulators have a very difficult task ahead of them... Metaverse is outside the regulatory scope.
• How can one possibly overcome the issue of identity verification in metaverse? In metaverse, there
are multiple universes that are even not connected.
o Current (temporary) solution for companies operating in metaverse: limit the monthly
transaction amount (e.g.: allow 150 EUR per month, max).
o Crypto companies are pushing back the regulation: anonymity is part of their narrative.
Advice to banks who are considering getting into metaverse
• Understand if it has a value. Don’t build yet another virtual branch; virtual branches did not take off.
Instead, look how people are using the money, respond to their needs.
How Payments Are Saving The World
Hayley Viner, Head of Product @ ClearBank
Ben Knight, Head of Environmental Sustainability @ GoCardless
Arun Tharmarajah, Head of European @ Wise
From remittances in Ukraine to VRPs and the cost of living crisis, modern payments have been thrust into
the limelight. In this session we’ll explore how payments are helping people in both big and small ways.
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Robux are Roblox's in-game currency and can be used to purchase in-game upgrades or avatar accessories.

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Historically, payments have been slow, expensive and painful. For banks, payments have been a side
business besides lending etc. Now, new companies are making payments their main business.
Ukraine – for people there, payments solve the issues. There is no playbook on what to do, but people
need current accounts; it is quite unique use case. Too risky for the traditional players.
Payments should be fair and transparent to everyone:
• How much does it cost?
• How fast the payment is / how long it takes?
• Allow customers to make informed decisions.
Environmental friendliness of payments. What is the impact of the physical cards? Production of plastic
cards means burning fossil fuels. Plastics are not easy to recycle. Solutions:
• Use sustainable materials (recyclable plastic and alternative materials), or
• Avoid cards all together.
Digital processes take energy, too; reduce the number of steps in the process.
Changing behavior of the consumers is really the key.
Working from home reduces energy expenditures.
Choosing cloud services provider: Google Cloud uses 100% renewable energy which is not true for every
cloud provider.
Wise: How we do wise in the office?
Cash? Should we go cashless? Besides environment, it is important to consider social implications. Old
people. People who do not have access. There is a huge issue with inclusion. E.g.: refugees from Ukraine
cannot get a bank account within 3 days, they need cash for transactions.
Crypto? Mining takes a lot of energy. Find sustainable energy sources, make mining more energy-efficient.
Cost of living crisis. Anything that helps customers to manage their money better is helpful. Open Finance
in general.
Banks leaving rural areas. What should be done about that? Everything that people can do digitally, they
now do digitally. Ensure that people can do digitally as much as possible.
The Rise Of High Net-Worth Neobanking
Rivo Uibo, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer @ Tuum
Philip Meschke, Investment Manager @ Moonfare
Jeremy Tackle, CEO and Co-Founder @ Pennyworth
Ian Rand, Designate Chief Executive Officer @ Monument
Daniel Lanyon, Editorial Director @ AltFi
A new battleground is emerging as banking challengers vie to capture market share among mass affluent
and high net-worth savers. What makes this market so unique, and how are fintechs looking to serve it?

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Neobanking
Neobanking has been one of the biggest trends in last five years. Still, people do not hold large balances
in there, do not use the accounts as their main accounts. Accounts are not salary accounts. You do not
see direct debits etc.
Definition of mass affluent?
5-10 million people in the UK that have meaningful assets sitting idle but who are not affluent enough for
being considered as high net worth by the banks. Retirees, young professionals.
Gap in value proposition
The value proposition of neobanks like Revolut, Monzo and Starling is for the mass customers, not
designed for the needs of mass affluent. They have not gone after mass affluent; they do not want to run
relationship management.
There is a huge gap in value proposition for mass affluent and emerging affluent. Their needs are more
complex; one cannot digitalize all of this. Digitalize what you can. Then use technology to support
relationship management. It is important to have intelligent conversation with the customer.
Challenges of addressing this market?
Use fintech to give customers back a bit of their time. People do not like queues – they do not like virtual
queues either.
We do not need to digitalize past expectations. We have to look at the trends. For one thing, we see great
wealth transfer happening. There is a lot of trend identification to be done.
Find underserved segment – and serve it well.
“Mass affluent” consists of wide array of different customers. Find digital value proposition that serves
broad demographics.
Core banking is not enough. Put some really smart technology on top of it. People are looking for guidance:
what sort of financial decisions should they be making?
Bringing in crypto component?
Crypto has become a big asset class for younger investors. But… Actually, those customers need really
basic advice: what to do with their money that is sitting idle?
Trust issue?
What matters is the fact that you are a bank. E.g.: Monument, while having had banking license for just
six months, was able to raise a lot of money very quickly.
What about Open Banking?
Open Banking is good – Open Finance is the true game changer. Mass affluent, they have assets
everywhere.
AMA With… Richard Davies, CEO, Allica Bank
Richard Davies, CEO @ Allice Bank
A 30-minute no-limits ‘Ask Me Anything’ sit down with one of the leading minds of financial technology.

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Richard is a leader in SME banking and fintech, having spent the last two decades working both with major
banks and three UK fintech unicorns (Revolut, OakNorth and WorldRemit).
He joined Allica Bank as CEO in August 2020, and since February 2021 has also been a Non-Executive
Director on the Board of WorldRemit. Prior to this, he was group COO/CEO Banking at Revolut as the group
scaled from 5 to 15 million customers and entered a number of new markets including the US, Singapore
and Australia. At OakNorth, he developed the business model, technology, and regulatory licence
application as the inaugural CEO. In large banks, he has been TSB’s Commercial Banking Director, and COO
for HSBC’s UK Commercial Bank.4
Switch from HSBC to FinTech/Revolut?
“I figured I will be better off in a scale-up rather than in a big beast.”
Allica Bank.
Signed a £110m Series B funding round.5
Allica has seen a huge cap between micro and large customers, is answering questions like:
“How to get complexity work in digital form?” and “How do you rapidly establish product-market fit?”
What are neobanks getting right? What are they getting wrong? (Revolut’s example.)
Getting right: Outstanding ability to ship products.
Getting wrong: (In earlier days) Relationships with the regulators.
What makes a successful FinTech company?
People + Data, there is nothing more. Massive lack of caring and skills around the data.
Biggest mistakes that you have made in your career? Biggest lessons?
Valuation mistake.
Realizing the staff thing.
Taking out positives from what is negative.
Not just fixing stuff but launching new stuff at the same time.
What are goals for Allica in next five years?
Five years is always a long time, anything can happen.
10% market share.
Going international.
Getting banking license in other countries.
Credit environment: How are raising interest rates impacting neobanks?
It actually helps banks unless customers start defaulting a lot. The question is: what really happens with
the defaults? It takes long time until defaults will start rising notably.
What frustrates you about the FinTech industry?
Hype. Hype around AI. The data thing is not getting anywhere.
Lack of growth in digital identity. Tracking down bad crowds properly.
4
https://www.altfi.com/people/richard-davies
5
https://www.allica.bank/press-releases/allica-bank-signs-110m-series-b-funding-round

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Building in-house vs partnering?
There is whole bunch of principles you must think about. If the capability is critical for what you do, build
it inhouse.
Is there more room for new neobanks or are we going to see consolidation?
During the last few years, 30+ new banks have been authorized in the UK. Don’t think there is more room.
We would do more acquisitions (in addition to the AIB portfolio).
What is the culture in Allica Bank? How is it different from the culture in incumbent banks?
• Straightforward and honest.
• Transparent.
• Collaborative.
• Integrity: do the right thing.
• Delivery.
Everyone has got the values.
Main difference from incumbents is the pace with which things get done.
Fintech x Sustainability
Tim Coates, Co-founder and Chief Customer & Regulatory Officer @ Oxbury, the UK’s only specialist
agricultural bank
Stuart Doignie, Head of Fintech Strategy and Commercialisation @ Shawbrook Bank
Clare Reilly, Chief Engagement Officer @ PensionBee,
Bruce Davis, Co-founder and Managing Director @ Abundance
Can fintech be a force for environmental good? Our panelists discuss how financial technology is helping
people manage their money in a more sustainable way, as well as the risks and challenges to the nascent
‘green’ fintech industry.
Sustainability is going to be with us for decades. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance.
Currently, the focus is mostly on “E”.
At the same time, one of the barriers to move “E” is that people are feeling socially insecure (afraid of
losing the job etc.) Thus, “E” and “S” should go together; something should be done to reduce inequality.
As for “G” …BigTechs do not want to disclose certain data such as what terms they are forcing to their
contractors.
How are FinTechs in the panel helping in ESG?
• Direct investing into the companies that are making the change.
• Focus on helping the customers to do the change.
• Trying to get information on customer expectations. Get customers to tell their expectations. Invest
customers’ assets in the way that reflects customers’ expectations.
Oxbury is farming focused and food focused bank. There are different ways of producing food. Oxbury
helps producers to transit into sustainable ways of food production, among others by collecting relevant
data. It’s how creditors lend money from underwriting point of view.

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Is green FinTech a trend? Net Zero Strategy in the UK6
etc.
• Energy is huge concern. Money is not neutral in these situations; money determines what happens; it
has more to do with the politics than we want to acknowledge.
• Customers are starting to wake up. Currently, there is still a massive disconnect between asset
managers and end customers, but people start seeing that their pension money is a living instrument
that makes a difference. Pot of money is not enough, if there is no environment; people do realize
this.
Cost of fertilizers? Food inflation. We haven’t seen anything yet.
Should crypto be banned? In the opinion of at least one of the panelists, getting money by literally making
it is a bad way… Speculating on crypto… Wasted human resource.
Web37
: A New Player In The Open Banking Ecosystem?
Rolands Mesters, CEO and co-founder @ Nordigen
Jordan Lawrence, Co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer @ Volt
Ana-Maria Yanakieva, Investment Manager @ Outlier Ventures
Alan Chang, Chief Revenue Officer @ Revolut
As we approach what many believe will be the next evolution of the web—NFTs, crypto and the
blockchain—some predict that open banking will emerge as the “bridge” to enable widespread adoption
of Web3 technologies.
What does Web3 mean for you?
• Decentralized ownership
• Opportunity for payments and FX
• At this stage, it is very much an idea.
How/why can Web3 become interesting for Open Banking?
• Playground for innovation. Web3 is more than crypto currency, it is inspiration. It is crystallizing
something.
• Web3 is all about control and ownership. Data, KYC.
• Open Banking payments into crypto.
Forecast: UK would become the crypto hub. How that will impact the industry? What’s the timeline?
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Net Zero Strategy sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet our net
zero target by 2050. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy) Net zero refers to
the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. We
reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away.
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Web3 (also known as Web 3.0 and sometimes stylized as web3) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide
Web based on blockchain technology, which incorporates concepts such as decentralization and token-based
economics. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web3)

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Web3 is still an idea – anything can happen. The problem is lack of infrastructure for making it simple. The
concept is very hard to explain to general public. Regulation would bring clarity. In short:
• Talent is there.
• Capital is there
• Regulation… There is no clear regulation.
There is a movement into Web3 space both from banks and from FinTech. What makes it exiting?
• Lots of stuff needs to be built. Many people want to build. Web3 is very attractive from innovation
point of view.
• Problem solving, solving bigger problems than just doing optimization tasks.
• Growth. Smart people like growth.
How seriously is Web3 taken in Revolut?
• Dedicated department, about 100 people working with it.
Advice for banks who consider moving into Web3?
Panelist X (skeptical on crypto): Read as much as you can from both sides, from proponents and
opponents. Find the right answer for yourself.
Panelist Y: Get on board, Web3 is happening! But be careful in putting money into some random coin!
Panelist Z: React or die!
It is very diverse among regulated banks. Some of the banks do not like crypto at all. Many banks offer
possibilities to invest/trade crypto. The others do not really care. An ECB banker called crypto a Ponzy
scheme.8
It is taking a while to adopt a technology that is not regulated.
Security of DeFi platforms as early version of Web3?
What is needed, is combination of talent and good regulation. Right now, controls are not existing in DeFi.
Seizing The Open Finance Opportunity
Sam Hinton-Smith, Head of Public Policy, UK & Ireland @ Stripe
Kat Cloud, UK Policy Lead @ Plaid
Helene Oger-Zaher, Payments Policy Manager @ FCA
Helen Child, CEO and Founder @ Open Banking Excellence (OBE)
Alan Ainsworth, Head of Policy @ Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE)
With the pathway to open finance set and a new generation of APIs being developed, already founders
are working hard to take advantage of this wealth of new financial data. But what is being enabled and
built by this next generation?
Where are we now?
• In Brazil, Open Banking is now called Open Finance.
8
Read the full 25 April 2022 speech by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at Columbia
University on the ECB’s website:
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2022/html/ecb.sp220425~6436006db0.en.html

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• In UK, Open Banking now has over 5 million individual users. There are 125+ licensed companies to
provide Open Banking services. ‘Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’ (JROC) for UK’s Open Banking
regime.
• Open Banking payments is clearly one of the priorities for the FCA.
• We are looking into the next phase of Open Banking, into the Open Finance.
Where are we heading to?
• Open Finance is about extending the basic principles of Open Banking to other verticals: insurance,
investments, pensions… So that you could see all of your financial life from one app.
• Consumers can get much better service from their financial providers. E.g.: re-mortgaging. Better
rates. Facilitating account switching… Sweeping on bank statement.
• We do not have to solve everything in one go. We can re-use experiences from Open Banking.
FinTech opportunity:
• Now it is the time to be building. Massive opportunity, the new wave of innovation.
• Two ways to contribute:
a) Build the infrastructure, or
b) Build on top of the infrastructure.
• Massively active Open Banking ecosystem. They can tell to regulators what is NOT working. Learn
from others – and learn from your own experience. Do it FOR the customer – get functionality right.
What Are Europe's Top Fintech VCs Looking For?
Malcolm Ferguson, Partner @ Octopus Ventures
Lily Shaw, Investor @ OMERS Ventures
Josh Bell, Co-founder and General Partner @ Dawn Capital
The ability to scale? A pathway to profitability? Use of blockchain? In this session we ask three of Europe’s
top fintech VCs what traits they are looking for from founders in 2022.
What are you looking for?
• Ability to do repeat sales.
• People and businesses that are capable of changing the reality as we know it.
• Category defining teams and companies.
• UI/UX: User experience is a fundamental part.
• Profits and profitability? If focusing on those, you miss the bigger picture. Still, looking for positive
gross margins.
Talking about specific companies / deals…
• Octopus Ventures – By Miles. Just pay for the miles you drive each month. Incumbents always have
unfair advantage: the brand, existing customers. But… How many of you can say that you love your
insurance?
• Dawn Capital – Billie. Billie’s platform automates “buy now, pay later” for the B2B market supporting
instant credit approval, invoice generation and payment to make the business checkout experience

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as seamless as its B2C counterpart. Billie got the attention of Klarna; Klarna directed its business
customers to Billie.
Crypto & Web3, how did you vote on the poll: “Is Web3 over-hyped or under-hyped as a disruptive
force n finance”?9
• VC X: 100% “in”. More of decentralized society. This is a priority. We do have a few investments there.
• VC Y: Big fan. Made our first crypto investing years ago. Building face of the infrastructure.
• VC Z: Sure. Super long. Bunch of strategic investments there. Crypto is a vertical we are looking into.
Metaverse. Have you seen any metaverse pitches?
• “Strangely, I saw one just this morning!”
• Timing the market is one of the risks and challenges with metaverse.
The biggest FinTech successes in the coming decade?
Lily: Embedded finance.
Malcolm: The climate stuff. Ambitious founders changing something dramatically.
Josh: Digital assets / crypto.
Oliver: Will Elon Musk pivot Twitter materially into digital assets / crypto [Thinking Face]?10
9
Votes from the audience came quite even: 53% said that Web3 is under-hyped and 47% responded that it is over-
hyped.
10
In the news at that time: “Elon Musk strikes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn.” See e.g.:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61222470

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Day 2
A Primer On… Web3
Simon Taylor, Chief Product Officer @ 11:FS
In this pre-event breakfast session, Simon Taylor of 11:FS kicks off the day with an exploration of Web3
and its convergence with fintech.
What is Web3? World’s greatest Ponzi or the next big thing? It can be anything in these early days. It
depends on who you believe. The cynics hate whatever the new thing is.
• Chris Dixon, #1 VC investor in 2021, says: “The next big thing starts out looking like a toy.”
• Jack Dorsey believes that Web3 is mostly hype and marketing.
The Glow Up: Crypto to Web3. Web3 is more than tokens. It is a new business model for the internet.
Web 1 is about protocols: SMS, http://, FTP... Web2 has been about subscriptions and advertising: Gmail,
Dropbox, Slack... Web3 monetizes the development and use of internet infrastructure that exists as a
public good.
“Imagine, HTTP had a business model – or AWS11
was a public good…”
Simon Taylor of 11:FS explaining WWW: Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0
In reality, it is a spectrum, new ways of building businesses:
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AWS refers to Amazon Web Services.

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Web3 is enabled by three primitives:
a) Wallets
b) Tokens
c) Networks
Wallets
(“Wallet” is a misleading term, by the way!)
Web 1.0 wallet: username + password.
Web 2.0 wallet: authentication as a service, e.g.: use your Google credentials to sign in to third-party apps.
Web 3.0: you are the account.
In Web 3, a “wallet” is how you access and control your assets.
For example, if you upload a photo to Facebook and want to delete it later on, you have to ask Facebook
to delete it; you do not have the control. In Web3, you have the control of the photo / the asset.
Or take YouTube… The video that you upload to YouTube, is the asset. Access is your password. YouTube
owns the content.
Understanding ownership. Let’s consider your house. Your key is your access to the house. The deed is
your control over the house. In Web3, the deed and the key are the same thing.
In Web3, you can upload anything you want – and get royalties every time the asset is sold. NFT, non-
fungible token, is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that
can be sold and traded.
Tokens
Tokens are a little bit like keys to your house. Ability to trade things. New way to represent value.
Networks
Decentralized networks. Platforms that are controlled by many people; there is no single owner.
Decentralization has three bases:
a) Technical
b) Economic => Different initiatives for builders, for users etc.

18
c) Legal => Distributing governance ownership; no one single control or ownership can influence the
network.
Web3 (crypto) tokens: the ability to do transactions in networks.
In Web3, tokens are registered on crypto networks and take two primary forms:
a) Native network tokens, and
b) Contract-defined tokens.
Composability in Web3, the idea of combining the ideas. E.g.: in the Ethereum world, people create new
experiences on the ETH.
What if we did not need telcos? Or users could play to earn?
The negative of Web3:
It is a Wild West / the frontier. The frontier is not for everybody. Scams etc. On the other hand, every
transaction is logged, every hack is recorded. You cannot delete it.
Fireside Chat With Oplo: Unlocking The Possibilities Of Open Banking Beyond Affordability
Richard Sharp, Managing Director – Consumer Division @ Oplo, a Tandem Bank’s company
Emma Steeley, CEO @ AccountScore Limited, an Equifax company
The core of Open Banking has been affordability:
• Unsecured lending
• Onboarding saving customers
Moving behind affordability means creating utilities for customers, keeping customers’ engagement,
understanding their lifecycle. We see significant increase in numbers of people engaging with the
aggregators. On the other hand, people really do not understand what Open Banking means for them.
What is the value exchange?
Tandem… Greener, fairer bank. What does it mean?
• Who are the customers shopping with?
• Working out how green you are.
• Creating marketplace for green.
• Financing home improvements to reduce carbon footprint.
• Marking good/bad places for shopping. Information from Open Banking is key.
How do you engage customers and keep them engaged?
• Financial education to youngsters. Show them their financial lifecycles. Help them to understand how
financial system works.
Why adoption of Open Banking is taking time?
• Experience wasn’t there.
• Integration of Open Banking was difficult.
• We did not wholly understand what value can be added to the customers.
COVID has definitely helped speeding up the adoption.

19
How long does it take to gather enough data to learn how to use it?
If you start collecting data yourself… It takes about three years to develop categorizations etc. Another
faster option is synthetic data.
Can Open Banking data replace credit bureau data?
Open Banking data is not a silver bullet. It does not replace credit bureau data. You have to have those
two together.
Eligibility of the loan to the customer is now more important than pricing the loan.
Taking On The Challengers: Lessons For Incumbents
Tom Phillips, Senior Vice President of Business Development @ 10x Banking
Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer @ Starling
Charles Delingpole, Founder and CEO @ ComplyAdvantage
Andy Mielczarek, CEO and Founder @ Chetwood Financial
What can incumbent financial institutions learn from the strategies, growth and success of their fintech
rivals over the last 24 months? And what lessons do banks and mainstream lenders continue to ignore? In
this session we invite four top fintech leaders to share their advice.
Are incumbents really learning from challenger banks?
They haven’t been able to take huge lessons. Incumbents are focused on service level product. They really
do not appreciate what is behind it: the technology, lower cost base, agility… Thereby, technology is the
easy part: get the new tech platform. The challenge is working out the operating model, the cultural piece.
Incumbents are slow to change. One major obstacle is that people in the banks don’t really understand
the technology.
But are incumbents waking up?
Incumbents are waking up to the need to copy more, to improve the customer experience. The way
customers are living their lives is changing; this trend is only to accelerate. Challenger banks such as
Starling get considerably better ratings from the customers.
What about Chase, the new challenger in the UK? Chase entering digital banking.
Interesting model. Large banks developing distinct tech companies…
For neobanks, competition is not the enemy. The enemy is complacency. It is an interesting challenge,
raises the bar.
For incumbents, Chase is a great example of what is possible.
Starling is moving beyond neobanking.
Allowing others to take advantage of Starling’s technology:
• Challengers
• Incumbents
• Non-financial companies

20
Banking-as-a-Service. Software-as-a-Service. Helping others in bringing their value propositions to the
market.
FinTech valuations…
We see them going really crazy. This allows FinTechs to build large teams etc.
What advice would you give to the incumbents?
• Don’t try to build everything by yourself. There are solutions available.
• Go back to the basics:
o Understand, where your advantage and value are. Think holistically of your advantages and
put your ego away.
o Listen to your customers and give them what they want.
• There is hope. If you have the right team, you have a chance.
Will we see more of BigTechs acquiring FinTechs, such as Apple buying Credit Kudos?
We haven’t really seen Google or Facebook buying FinTechs. The reason is that FinTech is a heavily
regulated industry; heavy regulation means huge costs.
Embedded Finance's Moment To Shine?
Louisa Murray, Chief Operating Officer Europe @ Railsbank
Lara Gilman, Co-lead @ iwocaPay
Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO and Co-Founder @ WealthKernel
From lending to payments and investments. Access to all is being democratized by a wave of embedded
finance, turning complex financial products into simple API calls. But will the phrase “every company will
be a fintech company” really hold true?
What do we mean by embedded finance?
The term took off in 2019 and was a buzzword a year ago. It means embedding financial experience into
the customer’s journey so that the customer does not even know the financial services provider. Financial
company is totally behind the scenes. End customer knows the brand of a retailer, a football club or
similar.
What financial products are the easiest/fastest to embed?
It’s not about the product, it’s about the context. How we make it work for the context? Do we understand
what is important to that partner’s customers?
Embedded finance is collective genius of partnerships.
Payment flows. Tax planning. Pensions. RegTech. Insurance.
Risks in embedded finance for the partner/customer?
• Reputational risk. Consider Wirecard’s example. People did not even know that they were the end
customers of Wirecard. Fall of Wirecard meant huge risk to the brands of Wirecard’s direct customers.
• Obviously, you lose control if you embed someone else into the process.

21
• More choice for the end customer brings more complexity for the service provider. The challenge is
in finding the right mix.
Overcoming The Challenges Of Challenger Credit Cards
Tim Waterman, Chief Commercial Officer @ Zopa
Martin Magnone, CEO and Co-founder @ Tymit
Julia McColl, Chief Product Officer @ Chetwood Financial
Chris Keane, VP of Business Development @ GDS Link's UK office in Leeds
Forget neobanks: After years of promise, challenger credit cards are suddenly roaring to life with novel
takes on how revolving credit should work. But with buy now, pay later cementing itself as the go-to credit
provider for millions, is it too little too late?
Driving force: What is driving bringing new credit cards to the market?
• High margins.
• Big market.
• Credit cards issued by the incumbents do not satisfy the customers. There is a huge gap between the
customer experiences and expectations.
• Credit cards are a long way behind when compared to where loans are.
• Surveys show that credit cards are products that customers want to use (given that customer
expectations are met).
Within the first 18 months on the credit card market, Zopa issued about a quarter of millions (≈250K) of
credit cards.
Tymit: There is a huge market in the UK. Customer experience at traditional providers is broken.
Customers are afraid of credit cards; for them, a credit card is the equivalent of losing control. Offer
certainty to the customers, put customers back to control!
Crypto firms are also doing cards… Are traditional credit cards waking up to the disruption?
They have lots of constraints: legacy tech platforms, legacy business models with high-cost base…
Challengers have structural advantage.
Why credit cards if there is BNPL?
BNPL does not work well if you start using it a lot, from different providers. BNPL does not replace credit
card; it can lead to bad behaviors.
BNPL clearly solves customer needs for two in five UK adults are now using this form of credit at least
some of the time when shopping.12
BNPL is very easy, very seamless. But this is starting to change as BNPL
is getting regulated.
Competition from neobanks?
Value proposition from neobanks is better than the one from incumbents. On the other hand, it takes
time for neobanks to get the product to the market.
12
Source: TransUnion Consumer Credit Report 2022

22
Lessons from the debt control issues of BNPL? Social responsibility of credit card providers?
• Provide the users everything in one place, give them full picture on where they stand with their
credits.
• The other key thing is flexibility: allow the adoption to customer’s financial circumstances.
• Give customers a view to the future / financial projections.
• Make sure borrowers borrow for the right reasons, not for gambling and speculation.
How Are Lenders Adapting To The Post-Covid Lending Environment?
Valentina Kristensen, Director of Growth @ OakNorth Bank
Richard Prime, Co-CEO and Founder @ Sonovate
Ian Nelson, Managing Director in EMEA @ Q2
Daniel Drummer, CFO @ Auxmoney
Surging inflation, rising interest rates and an economy still sputtering back to life are among the challenges
faced by lenders as they adapt to the post-Covid lending environment.
How would you compare the last two years to the five years before that?
OakNorth: In 2016, there was the Brexit vote… Challenging environment ever since. Some businesses did
not survive the COVID crisis, but many did. There were CBILS and BBLS13
, but there was regular lending
too. There were some credit losses – going to see some losses in this year too. We expected the
coronavirus impact to be a lot worse; government support was really essential. In March 2020, we cut
back in lending, but returned already in April 2020. Observed a lot of creativity among our customers, incl.
customers in the hospitality sector. E.g.: “Test and Rest” airport hotel for air passengers who were waiting
for their COVID test results.
Q2: We have been in business for six years. COVID really accelerated the trends of digitalization etc.
Different credit types and credit processes evolving. Bringing clients closer to the lenders.
Auxmoney: In business since 2007. There had been mostly good times. Coming to COVID, we really did
not know what to expect. The portfolio has been very resilient. Our models proved to be stable. How do
you score loans in today’s world? You look at the past performance and future perspectives, and make an
offer accordingly.
Post-COVID environment… Inflation, stagflation, war… How to survive and thrive?
• Volatility is here to stay. Be cautious. Monitor what is happening and react to data almost in real time.
The use of real-time data is bringing flexibility and agility.
• There is also a lot of opportunity. Consumers are now trusting online providers. They have seen that
they do not have to go to the bank.
• This trust is reflected on the investor side as well. Auxmoney recently closed €250m securitization
deal, one of the first social bond transactions in Europe.14
13
HM Treasury coronavirus (COVID-19) business loan schemes
14
https://www.altfi.com/article/8373_auxmoney-closes-eur250m-esg-bond-securitisation

23
How are you monitoring the cost of living, and the link between cost of living and credit risk in lending?
• Scenario analyses.
• Still optimistic. Now, post-COVID, there is a huge demand for hotels, restaurants etc.; people have
been stuck at home for a long time and want to get out.
• In cost of living crisis… If customers are paid late by their employers, this really hurts.
COVID loan frauds? Are SMEs and consumers overloaded with debts?
Bullish on British SMEs. Looking at each SME customer: how is the business structured?
Over the past couple of years, consumers have learned how to deal with uncertain environment. Already
now, they are cutting down non-essential expenditures. This gives a reason for being optimistic about the
credit outlook.
Use technology to help customers to manage through the cycle.
AMA With… Anand Sambasivan, CEO, PrimaryBid
Anand Sambasivan, Co-founder and CEO @ PrimaryBird
A 30-minute no-limits ‘Ask Me Anything’ sit down with one of the leading minds of financial technology.
Anand is the Co-founder and CEO of PrimaryBid. He started the company to democratise access to public
capital markets. The company has completed over 200 public equity and debt transactions across the UK
and Europe generating over $1.1 billion in transaction value. […]15
During the pandemic, PrimaryBid grew from 15 to 200 people. What has that growth meant?
COVID time was scary time. We saw companies raising money and public being left behind. This is quite
the opposite of the idea of public markets… We were only 15 people, doing two deals a day. Amazing
engagement.
How have the kinds of your deals changed? What kind of deals are you doing?
80% are second raises. Consumer IPOs are sexy deals, now 10-20% of our business.
Does your vision extend beyond public markets?
I am a big believer in public markets. But then we are seen the line between public and private getting
blurred. We see private companies selling on secondary markets.
What are your ambitions / goals in five years time?
Get to the point where inclusion of individuals on public markets is a norm.
As a founder, you have interesting investors. One is SoftBank. What does it feel, having SoftBank on
board?
VC money is very strategic money. SoftBank by their portfolio… Everything that they do, has high
relevance to us.
15
https://www.altfi.com/people/anand-sambasivan

24
How is the international expansion going?
Going well. Got authorized in France. Traction is going up. Now we are in Amsterdam, ABM AMRO is
another investor.
What is the biggest mistake you have made in building PrimaryBid?
It’s not a mistake, but a regret. In the US, more recently some great companies went public. Airbnb etc.
Our system wasn’t there, we weren’t ready. I felt helpless. The plan is this: US in 2023.
Piece of advice you wish you would have had in the early days?
The mistakes I made… They were so important to me. Around hiring. The data says one thing, your gut
says something else. Listen to both. Do not rely only on the data – and do not rely solely on your gut.
What frustrates you most about the FinTech industry today?
• Companies are amazing, but the adoption rates are so slow.
• Incumbents being slow in embracing new technologies. It is very difficult to adopt a new technology
in a regulated space…
What’s the next disruptive model in IPOs?
There is a flurry of innovation. The direct listing: companies can IPO without regulated process IF only
selling secondary shares (i.e.: not raising new capital). Community-based listing.
How focused have you been on core idea vs pivoting?
We had an initial pivot.
We are not considering pivoting to trading. There are already enough companies that are doing it, such
as Revolut.
Hiring, Hybrid Working And HR In 2022
Tom Morisse, Strategy and Planning Associate, People @ Spendesk
Sam Perry, Director of Strategic Alliances & Private Equity @ Globalization Partners
Karen Kerrigan, Chief Operating Officer @ Moneybox
Federico Travella, CEO @ Novicap
After a transformative 24 months, how is HR adapting to the employee demands of 2022, from hybrid
working to remote hiring and four-day weeks? We ask three experts to find out what modern HR looks
like.
How have things changed for you in the last two years?
Novicap: We have always provided flexibility. Before the pandemic, we were on-site. Now we are hybrid,
three days a week on-site. The days in the office are focused on collaboration. A number of individuals is
working from home 100%. Once a month, we come together.
Moneybox: Big change (growth) in the number of employees and in the nature of business. Biggest change
is rather personal. Suddenly the team is a lot bigger. How do you see yourself in the team? Getting one
single policy in place across company is a challenge. Many people work better at home.

25
Spendesk: Before, people coming to the office vs people working from home had a vastly different
experience. Now, this is not the case. Social connection is harder, though.
Globalization Partners: Our company has been fully remote, and has grown from 200 to 1,000 people.
About hiring: Do you hire completely remotely or have in-person meetings?
Novicap: We are hiring purely remotely. It takes off some of the bias. The process is a lot more efficient.
We are not against meeting people, of course. We strip hiring down to what is really important.
Moneybox: Totally remote.
What are you doing to attract people?
The job market is increasingly competitive. End of last year, Atom Bank introduced four-day workweek
and saw a flux in job applications. A discussion evolved about the four-day workweek.
Spendesk: In five years time, we see four-day workweek.
Federico, Novicap: I disagree with the four-day workweek. It’s a reaction to what is happening on the job
market. There are a couple of issues. First, it is a lot easier to do it if you are a very large company; it is
difficult for young companies. Secondly, you get into strange situations. What if you are in urgency? What
if you have an important sprint to finish?
Moneybox: Customer service, if you are small… There is lots of logistics to happen. We have explored the
four-day workweek. It’s about employee value proposition. There is a danger in being reactionary.
Offering flexibility is more important. Some people want to left office at 3 PM, but come every day. Think
in terms of entire working life.
How to focus on employee well-being and mental health?
• Have small talk for a couple of minutes before each meeting. This is for colleagues to socialize.
Encourage people to start a little earlier.
• Lots of 1on1 conversations.
• Slack chats like #dogs etc.
• Focus on hybrid. People love coming to the office if it’s not mandatory.
• The required rate of change is increasing. You have to experiment very often.
• Use donut.com to meet random people from your company for a chat.
How to ensure good company culture in remote or hybrid working environment?
Having values is part of the process. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Bring concrete examples of behaviors. Now,
written communication is more important too.
Is Buy Now, Pay Later Re-shaping The Financial Ecosystem?
Stephen Wishart, Director of FinTech @ TransUnion
Rakesh Harji, Chief Operating Officer @ Zilch
Deborah Ware, COO @
Ben Goldsmith, Managing Director @ Goldsmith Communications
After tapping into huge consumer demand for frictionless checkout credit, the buy now, pay later sector
now faces an uncertain, regulated future. Having re-shaped the financial ecosystem once already, can
BNPL do it again?

26
BNPL has been in the news in negative light: people getting overindebted etc. Accordingly, key topics are
following:
• Regulation
• Data sharing to make sure that people do not overspend
• Affordability checks
• Complaint handling
The way it is presented in media: BNPL is faulty. In the opinion of the panelists, the law is faulty. Best thing
to do is setting proper framework, ensure level playing field. From consumers’ perspective there is very
little what needs to be repaired. Consumers like the product. Young people can improve their credit
reports. Missing BNLP payment has not as big impact to credit score as missing mortgage payment.
Responsibilities of BNLP providers:
• Make product Terms & Conditions easy to read. Make FAQ as simple as possible.
• Visibility of your debt as a whole. Otherwise, if you do four purchases within a week, you don’t know
any more how much you owe.
What about BNLP default rates as compared to consumer loan default rates? One of the panelists claimed
the data does not tell that there is a delinquency problem.
BNPL 2.0: Meet The Next Generation Of Pay Later
Tara Farrer, Senior Vice President @ Operations at APEXX Global
Rakesh Harji, Chief Operating Officer @ Zilch
Miyu Lee, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel @ Mondu, the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution for
online B2B checkouts
Marco Hinz, COO @ Crosslend
Andrew Whitworth, Head of Public Policy @ Curve
In the last 12 months, fast-growing alternatives to buy now, pay later are cropping up—using credit scores,
checking affordability and by offering either interest or fee-bearing loans. But do these challengers really
qualify as ‘BNPL’, and will they become the future of pay later lending?
Thoughts from the intros of panel companies:
• Curve: Our target customer is everyone who wants to control his/her finances better. Customer does
what he/she wants to do – within our framework.
• APEXX Global: Single access point to all BNLPs. Next year, we are the largest global processor of BNPLs.
• Mondu: B2B payments space, purpose is to simplify the financial lives of SMBs16
so that they can focus
on business.
Differences between BNLP 1.0 and BNLP 2.0:
• BNLP 1.0: unregulated; BNLP 2.0: regulated
16
SMBs – Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

27
• BNLP 1.0: check-out page; BNLP 2.0: anywhere anyway (check out with debit card, check out with
instalment loan,…)
• BNLP 1.0: focus on B2C; BNLP 2.0: also addressing other groups
About control and visibility:
BNLP is very competitive space. The problem with BNLP 1.0 is that a merchant may need to integrate 18
different options. Customers want to have one way of checking out, have full control and full visibility
within one app.
Zilch: We do not allow customers to link credit card to our service. This is to let customers know: paying
credit with credit is a bad practice.
Customer acquisition:
• Making it digital only.
• Referral traffic.
• High rating in Trustpilot helps.
Business model / making money:
• Zilch: From relationships with merchants. From affiliate networks. From data (profile data, spend data,
liquidity). Cost for the consumer is zero.
• APEXX Global: Cost per payment. For introducing new customers to BNPL.
• Curve: Interest payments.
• Mondu: Fees.
Who Won AltFi 2022?
Surprise (secret) speakers interviewed by Daniel Lanyon, Editorial Director @ AltFi
Our panel of experts debates the crucial question - who won at AltFi 2022? We'll give each of our panelists
£10 million fantasy VC money which they can use, alongside some guidance from the audience, to pick
their winners.
Potential in each of the following FinTech spaces
Lending data
• Traditional data + innovative data
• Finding underserved segments
Web3, Crypto, Metaverse
• What does it actually mean for the end customer?
• It’s certainly not too early to invest into this space.
Open Banking & Open Finance
• Yes. There are different parts of it.
Hiring, Remote working
• How we want to share learnings? Room for collaboration.

28
• Now you can hire best people from anywhere. That’s an opportunity. Companies that provide the
infrastructure for hiring from anywhere.
• Talent and culture are the keys. Getting people that are engaged.
• How do you create flexibility without losing engagement?
Where is your £10 million going?
• VC #1: I would split it:
o Small amount goes to crypto.
o Open Banking.
o BNLP style of products – instalment-based flexible payment solutions.
• VC #2: Data intelligence.

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