FinTech LIVE New York- Speaker Sessions

On 17 June, FinTech LIVE continued to expand its engaging span of events and hosted an incredible event that united the world’s leading fintech leaders- FinTech LIVE New York. 

Throughout the day, those who attended could hear exclusive discussions from internationally acclaimed business executives, participate in interactive sessions and delve into the most prominent topics in the industry today. 

FinTech LIVE New York fostered connections across the industry and equipped attendees with the knowledge they required to craft a better tomorrow. 

Explore seven incredible speaker sessions below and relive the inspirational moments that catalysed change.

AI: a Modern “Deus ex Machina?”

Niki Kouri-Maglaras, Chief Digital Officer, International Businesses at Prudential Financial took to our virtual stage to deliver an engaging keynote chat that focused AI's history and future developments.

Throughout the discussion, Niki traces the history of AI, noting that this technology can be traced back to 1958 with Frank Rosenblatt. The next step, she explained, is how it was shortly followed by the first ‘AI winter’, where the progress of the technology was stalled due to the limitations of this time period.

She then continues to trace the rest of AI’s history, mentioning the resurgence in the 1980s, the development of backpropagation, GPUs, digital data and venture capital investments.

Later in the discussion, Niki began to delve into the benefits AI is causing in the insurance sector by enhancing customer service by providing instant and accurate responses to queries, as well as its incredible ability to enhance health and financial wellness through improving AI- driven wellness apps to promote healthier behaviours.

Overall, Niki highlights the abundance of potential AI holds we haven’t accessed yet while highlighting the need to include ethical considerations and responsibility when utilising this technology.
To discover more about this technology, click here.

Supercharging Small and Mid-sized Businesses Through the Power of Fintech Partnership

During this discussion, Jane Prokop, EVP and Global Head of SMEs at Mastercard, explored how to supercharge SMEs through fintech partnerships.

Jane began the discussion by highlighting the significant role SMEs play in the economy across the world, spotlighting the fact that they make up over 90& of businesses globally. She continued to explain how vital it is to foster collaboration between fintechs and banks to increase SMEs' access to credit to capital, which is their biggest challenge.

She delved into how Mastercard supports early- stage fintechs through its Start Path Programme, allowing them to access the entire scope of Mastercard capabilities. In addition, the programme also permits companies to meet new financial players. This two- pronged approach allows SMEs to access a wide range of benefits which aim to increase their access to credit to capital.

Later on, she discussed how Mastercard aims to provide the correct tools to people so SMEs can propel themselves in the business landscape and enhance their participation. 
To delve into this discussion in greater detail, click here.

The Future of FinTech

During this panel discussion, Nabil Bawa, Managing Director of Financial Services at NTT DATA and Philippe Daoust, Vice President and Managing Director at the National Bank of Canada, discussed their vision for the future of the fintech industry, as well as the importance of recognising the current issues the industry faces, too.

Taking to the virtual stage at FinTech LIVE New York, the pair highlighted the rapid evolution of the fintech industry and the need for the players in the field to embrace the innovations that are taking place to gain a competitive edge.

Throughout the discussion, both speakers focused on the impact of AI and how it developed technology that can unlock further opportunities, the benefits of fintech partnerships and how to handle emerging threats in the industry.

The panel highlighted the need for user education and behavioural changes amongst customers to solve the growing issue of cybersecurity, as well as the unintentional bias AI can create.

On reflection, the discussion emphasised the need for financial institutions to adapt to the constant changes the industry faces to stand out in the future. 

To explore this panel discussion further, click here.

Making Retirement Human

Aynsley Toole, VP of Product Management and Chief Product Owner at ADP, delivered a fascinating keynote presentation that explored how we can make retirement more human.

Through the keynote, she explored how ADP provides abundant services to its customers to prepare them for retirement. 

Beginning her discussion, Aynsley explained that a number of new trends, such as having a greater number of retirees, a move away from traditional pensions and longer life expectancies are resulting in greater pressure for individuals to look after their retirement savings, causing a rise in anxiety around finances. 

Throughout the keynote, she highlighted the range of applications ADP offers to their customers, which aim to enhance retirement readiness. For example, Aynsley explained that ADP consistently asks for customer feedback, offers personalised data and has developed a new app that makes the process more accessible for its customers.

She highlighted that ADP works with a philosophy of ‘easy, smart, human’ to improve user experience and reduce anxiety related to retirement.

Altogether, Aynsley highlighted that crafting an ideal customer experience will enhance retirement readiness and ensure that retirement becomes more human.
To learn more about this keynote, click here.

Transforming Financial Services with AI: A Modern-Day Industrial Revolution

During this keynote session, Pahal Patangia, Machine Learning & Generative AI for Fintech at NVIDIA explored the power of AI in transforming the financial services sector.

Pahal delved into the journey of AI, recognising the release of AlexNet in 2012 and the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022 both catalysed this technology's global adoption. He then explained how AI has become more accessible to users through democratisation and permitted users to communicate with it in a familiar language. 

Later, he explored the abundance of benefits AI possesses across many industries, such as improving efficiency in the workplace, providing real- time insights, automating manual workflows, detecting fraud effectively and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Overall, Pahal focused on the benefits AI will have on the future of financial services when organisations begin to embrace its transformative potential and acquire a competitive edge as a result.
To discover more about this keynote discussion, click here.

FinTech Fraud & ID Verification

Eric Hussey, SVP and Chief Information Security Officer at Finastra, Mark Turi, Associate Director of Connected Experiences at Verizon and Marwan Semida, Senior Business Development Manager at Sumsub delivered an exciting panel discussion that focused on the development of challenges that exist across the fintech fraud and identity verification (ID) systems. 

Throughout the panel discussion, the three speakers focused on the need for organisations to adopt a layered approach to security investment and invest in internal training to enhance secure identity verification in the fintech industry.

The speakers explained how important it is for organisations to stay alert to technological innovations that are taking place across the industry, collaborate with partners and invest in security updates in order to reduce fraud and maintain a competitive advantage in the field.

In addition to this, all of the speakers began to explore how to solve current challenges the industry faces, such as adopting a layered approach to security to adapt to the complex landscape of the field, enhancing customer experiences through constant communication and providing awareness programs to raise awareness of fraud tactics.

Further in the discussion, the panel explored the benefits of emerging technologies like AI and multi- factor authentication, whilst also emphasising the importance of embracing these in the future to enhance fraud detection efforts.

To explore this panel in more detail, click here.

Navigation the Digital Payments Landscape

Taking to our virtual stage at FinTech LIVE New York, Anand Natarajan, TMT and Fintech Head at Standard Chartered Bank, discussed how to understand the evolving field of digital payments.

Throughout the discussion, Anand explored how digital payments transform the banking landscape by promoting financial inclusion and economic participation in isolated areas. As well as this, he highlighted the surge of digital payments in emerging markets such as Asia, the Middle East and Africa, creating greater access to QR codes, instant payments and mobile wallets.

Later in the fireside chat, Anand explained how scalability can be enhanced by crafting collaborations between traditional banks and fintechs in the industry, creating greater opportunities. 

To conclude his discussion, Anand shared his wealth of experience with professionals in the industry, explaining that there is now a need to solve the current problems the industry faces instead of focusing on existing techniques and technologies. In addition, he advised young professionals to detect pain points in industry processes during their work to enhance adaptability and promote long-term success.

To delve into this discussion further, click here. 

Essential diary dates for 2024 and 2025

FinTech LIVE continues to expand its LIVE events with more to come in 2024 and 2025 discover the essential diary dates below.

2024: 

• FinTech LIVE London | 22-23 October
• The Global FinTech Awards | 22 October

2025:

• FinTech LIVE Singapore | 25 February 
• InsurTech LIVE | 1 May
• FinTech LIVE Dubai | 6 May
• FinTech LIVE New York | 17 June
• FinTech LIVE London | 7-8 October
• FinTech Awards | 7 October

Make sure you check out the latest edition of FinTech Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series – FinTech LIVE 2024.

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