429. News: Is it tough to be a challenger bank right now?

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429. News: Is it tough to be a challenger bank right now?

David Brear and Simon Taylor are joined by some great guests to talk about some of the most interesting stories of the last 7 days, including: The challenges facing challenger banks in the current climate, Freetrade’s record-breaking raise and PayPal sees a rise in 'silver tech' as older generations test digital payments for the first time. All this and much more on today's episode!

Our expert hosts, David Brear and Simon Taylor, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include:

  • David Thomasson, CCO, MetroBank
  • Simon Cureton, CEO of Funding Options
  • Caroline Plumb - CEO and Founder of Fluidly

Kicking off the show, our panel focus on stories in regards to what it means to be a challenger bank in the current climate:

  • Monzo faces near 40% valuation drop in latest fundraising 02:35
  • Volt pulls IPO 13:36
  • DBS to hire 2000 new staff 22:10
  • Freetrade sets new Crowdcube record 26:41
    • Cutaway from Freetrade CEO and Co-Founder Adam Dodds 27:28

We then take a look at some other stories from the fintech sphere:

  • ANNA Money secures £17.5M funding for its SMB-focused business account 36:10
    • Cutaway from ANNA Money Chief Design Officer and Co-Founder Daljit Singh 36:46
  • PayPal sees a rise in 'silver tech' as older generations test digital payments 44:54
  • Stories we didn’t have time to cover: 52:41
  • JK Rowling And The Deathly Bitcoin Hellos 58:24

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This podcast is also brought to you by Salesforce. Right now, business leaders are re-thinking, re-assessing and re-purposing business as usual to deal with this new crisis. It’s a global conversation Salesforce is having called Leading Through Change. And it’s all about businesses relying on each other to achieve one simple goal: Help. Learn more at salesforce.com


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Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. Hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David Brear, Simon Taylor, Jason Bates, Leda Glyptis and Sarah Kocianski and joined by a range of brilliant guests, we cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking.

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Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, alternatively email podcasts@11fs.com!

Special Guests: Adam Dodds, Caroline Casey, Daljit Singh, David Thomasson, and Simon Cureton.

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