Leda Writes for Fintech Futures: core banking changing lives

Every Thursday, Leda Glyptis, 11:FS Chief of Staff creates #LedaWrites. This week, she discusses how core banking is changing her life for the better.

‘But don’t you want to do something that changes lives?’

This, from one of my best friends, from her sun lounger.

The truth is everything we do touches and by extension changes people’s lives. And as a banker you have the chance to do exactly that. There may be little romance in pensions, but I wish my grandmother had had one. There is no fire in mortgages, but coming from a country of inaccessible loans towards home ownership i can tell you how it is the stuff of dreams. Roads that take children to schools and goods to market need financing. Money makes the world go round and there are ways to make it all a little better from inside the capitalist establishment.

But that is not the answer I gave her.

What she got was a lecture on Foundry and core banking transformation.

First of all, and I am not joking, the first lives that Foundry changed are our own.

My life has changed, my team’s life has changed.

We are not fixing a single issue. We are fixing the ubiquitous problem

We have come together with a vision, a dream and good cheer.

Talented, brilliant folks kept joining our ranks. And each day we see it in each other’s faces and in each other’s work: we are united by purpose. We don’t just love working together.

We believe in what we are doing.

My teenage idealistic self would not have been impressed with me becoming a banker. The level of complexity would have appealed to her, I’ve always enjoyed a challenge. But becoming part of the grey establishment less so.

She would have approved of my rebellious ways, pushing boundaries and winning small victories, being part of the Fintech wave (by accident as well as design) would also have appealed to her. Having found my tribe would have appealed to her. But let’s be honest, my 19 year old political scientist firebrand self would have reserved judgment until Foundry. But now everything changes.

Every day, I walk through the door of the 11:FS Foundry office and I feel proud

We are not fixing a single issue. We are fixing the ubiquitous problem. That made servicing certain communities financially impossible. That made issuing certain products financially untenable. That made looking after the vulnerable a balance sheet liability. We are fixing the infrastructure that drives costs up and creates risks that make it impossible to look at the margins as a zero sum game: no longer is looking after marginal issues and small communities done at the expense of your profit margin.

Every day, I walk through the door of the 11:FS Foundry office and I feel proud. Proud of the team, proud of our partnerships, proud of the dream that drives us.

When I asked the engineering team to comment on our corporate goals they scraped my lukewarm descriptions and replaced it with a statement that was disarming in its simplicity: we will build the best systems possible to democratise access to financial infrastructure. The best, for everyone.

They have changed my life. And each day we strive towards this goal we are closer to changing the lives of our customers and their customers, freeing them from what held them back so they can do the best work, for their customers, anon anon.

So when my friend asks don’t you want to do something that changes lives, the answer is: I do. And I am.

Read the whole story at Fintech Futures.