FinTech LIVE: Interview with Steve Round, SaaScada

December 13, 2024

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Steve Round, Co-founder of SaaScada

FinTech Magazine recaps its exclusive interview with Steve Round, President and Co-founder of SaaScada

On 22 and 23 October 2024, FinTech LIVE London made its inaugural appearance at 155 Bishopsgate for a two-day hybrid conference that enhanced meaningful interactions, accelerated industry growth and catalysed innovation.

Across both days, our attendees had the opportunity to engage in an agenda that delved into the most notable topics in our industry, including B2B payments, financial services, AI and sustainability.

Our event also marked the launch of the debut Global FinTech Awards - a reputable awards ceremony that celebrated the disruptive technologies and solutions that are redefining the boundaries of innovation in our dynamic industry.

Across 18 categories, our awards ceremony acted as a platform for pioneers in our industry to showcase their latest achievements and helped to spark inspiration among those who wish to take their first step in the fintech industry.

Here, we recap our exclusive FinTech LIVE London interview with Steve Round, President and Co-founder of SaaScada.

🎤At FinTech LIVE London Global Summit, Steve featured on our ‘Financial Services Forum’ alongside Russell Fisher, COO of Admiral Pioneer at Admiral Group, Dan Dica, CEO of Lynx Tech and Bentzi Aviv, Global Head of Fintech Solutions at Amdocs.

Talk us through some of the key points discussed in your panel debate, the ‘Financial Services Forum’.

“I think it was an exciting panel. The most I got out of it was the focus on the customer - hyper-personalisation, the changes to data and the quality you need now going forward as a bank and agility.

“It is (agility) the ability of banks or any financial institution to be agile in its product development and product services.

“Key to everything is data. Banks are terrible and legacy banks are terrible - they don’t have the right data - new banks do.

“Cores like SaaScada provide data as our core currency in many ways and that is the data that will help banks and financial institutions to give the customer this thing called hyper-personalisation.

“We talked that banks and financial institutions have access to over 7 billion people every year, so what on earth are they doing in ESG terms? Why should they not be doing more when it comes to loan origination and the products that they provide should be giving more on climate risk and climate change.

“So, I think the key for me was hyper-personalisation and data - we are very customer-centric but let’s do more on ESG and climate change.”

The Financial Services Forum at FinTech LIVE London 2024

How much of a challenge is sustainability in the fintech industry?

“I think we’ve seen a bit of recycling of coffee cups in canteens.

“I know that’s unfair, but the reality is that if you’re giving a loan to someone, wherever you are in the world, why should not the impact of that loan be measured?

“Therefore, if you are doing something that has either a social benefit or an environmental benefit, you get a discount.

“Then you’re incentivising people to do more for the environment. I think one of the other challenges I have personally is that we spend a lot of time on the ‘E’ (environmental) and actually ‘E’ has become more of a middle class issue where people can afford to make those choices - let’s focus on the ‘S’.

“If we focus on the ‘S’ (social) to enable people to have those choices, then we’ll make a better world for all of us.”

What are your aims moving forward in the next 12-18 months at SaaScada?

“We’ve spent six years being an overnight success and we now have clients all over the world.

“The next 12 to 24 months are very much about different markets and spending a bit more time in Africa and APAC, but calso carrying on the work we have particularly done in the UK and Europe.

“Global domination and giving the choices to banks to give real high quality services to their end users.”

Steve Round, Co-founder of SaaScada