Podcast transcript: How EY is going beyond borders with FinTech

6 min approx | 12 November 2020

You are listening to the EY FinTech Beyond Borders, a podcast dedicated to exploring a European FinTech, WealthTech, InsurTech, and RegTech industries.

Christopher Schmitz

Hello and welcome to the kick-off of EY FinTech Beyond Borders. Starting today, EY’s EMEIA FinTech team will be hosting leading voices from start-ups, financial institutions, venture capital firms, accelerators, and hubs, to discuss market news, technological innovations, and the latest research from all over Europe. I am Chris Schmitz, one of your hosts, and the EMEIA FinTech leader at EY.

Thomas Bull

Hello. I’m Tom Bull, I’m another host, the EY FinTech leader in the UK. We’re starting this podcast series, in order to showcase FinTech activity in Europe, so you’ve come to the right place, if you’re interested in understanding who are the key players driving financial services innovation, what transient activities are developing in the region, and investigating the strengths and highlights of FinTech in different parts of Europe. 

In each episode, we’ll explore different FinTech subsectors from a variety of angles. D2C, B2B, from start-ups, the investor perspective, as well as incumbent financial institutions. Regulation and legislation will have their place as well.

Schmitz

Yes. And here, at EY, we are passionate about digitization and the development of FinTech. We see ourselves as a connector or a platform amongst yourselves and all the participants in the ecosystem. You’ve probably met some of us at a meet-up, a conference or at a hackathon somewhere already. We work with the ecosystem, helping start-ups with fundraising, growth, scaling, and internationalization.

Helping investors identify, invest, and lead start-ups to a successful exit. And helping established players harness the innovation and agility of FinTechs into their own business models and value chains. From the idea to the proof of concept, on the proof of concept to the minimum viable product and to scaling, we accompany our customers on their way from end-to-end.

Bull

Chris, before we go any further, let me introduce you to our audience. Chris leads our German and European FinTech team. He’s a partner in our strategy and transaction service line, with over 25 years of consulting experience in the financial services industry. He represents EY at TechQuartier in Frankfurt and in Surelab in Cologne, and acts as a mentor in international FinTech accelerator programmes.

He’s also the curator of EY start-up academy, the early stage accelerator. He works with great enthusiasm with start-ups, banks, and insurance companies on digitization, strategic development, and the move towards the marketplace economy.

Schmitz

Thanks, Tom. And just for a little introduction for yourself. Tom is an Associate Partner and leads a UK FinTech team. He has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry across transactions and assurance. He co-founded the EY Global FinTech Adoption Index, which measures real use of FinTech amongst consumers and SMEs in different markets.

Bull

Thank you, Chris. The EY EMEIA FinTech team sits across 13 countries in Europe and covers the FinTech, WealthTech, InsurTech, and RegTech industries in 17 plus countries in total. We’re part of the EY global FinTech network with over 500 members spread across 30 or more countries, all of whom we use to connect disparate parts of the industry. That includes the start-ups, banks, investors, accelerators, professional services providers, and other members of the ecosystem, to drive FinTech and innovation across financial services.

Schmitz

This podcast aims to leverage EY’s broad experiences and connectivity, in order to share with you interesting experiences and viewpoints from around the ecosystem. You can expect dynamic discussions with founders, investors, digital leaders, accelerators and incubators, as well as hub and lab operators, with each episode hosted by members from EY’s EMEIA FinTech practise. As listeners, you will be right with us as we discuss, argue, learn and explore topics together.

Bull

Episodes will last 30 to 50 minutes and come in many different formats from expert discussions, panel discussions, to hot chair questions, to fireside chats. And we aim to produce two or three episodes a month. We’d welcome any feedback or suggestions for future episodes. Please reach out to either Chris or I on LinkedIn or email us on eyfintechbeyondborders@uk.ey.com.

Schmitz

So, that’s a wrap for our first episode. Please join us for our next episode, which will focus on key themes and trends in Italy, including discussing FinTech Waves, our latest assessment of the Italian FinTech market, which was recently launched in cooperation of FinTech district, the Milan based FinTech ecosystem. Susan Barton from EY Italy and I will be hosting interesting guests from the Italian ecosystem. We will put contact details and links to further readings into the show notes of this opening episode.

Bull

Thank you again for joining EY FinTech Beyond Borders and see you again soon. 

Schmitz

Thanks. Bye, bye.