Name: First Direct at FinovateEurope 2023 – The future of open banking
Uploaded: 2023-04-06T09:54:03.298Z
Duration: 295.36
Description: At the FinovateEurope 2023 conference in London, FinTech Futures caught up with Saira Khan, head of innovation and partnerships at First Direct Bank, to discuss what the future might hold for open banking after reports that a number of UK banks are sceptical about the lack of commercial returns.

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English

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This is Fintech Futures at Finovate

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Europe in London, and I am joined

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by Saira Khan First Direct.

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How are you?

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I'm good.

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How are you?

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I, I, very well, thank you.

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Very well.

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How have you enjoyed

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the conference so far?

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It's been fantastic, honestly.

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What a buzz over the last

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couple of days, right?

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it's been good.

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It's been good.

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So, just to start off then, would you like

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to give a quick introduction to yourself

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then, and your role at First Direct.

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Okay, so I, head up innovation as a

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partnerships at First Direct and we

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are looking how we can really take

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first our right to that next level and

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forward for our customers and the great

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journeys that we have in place for them.

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Excellent, excellent.

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And you're here talking on a

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panel about open banking as well?

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Yeah.

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So bit of a mixed bag for open banking,

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I guess recently it's been, you know,

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said that it's about 7 million now in

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the UK using open banking for payments.

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But then on the flip sides, a lot

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of banks are saying, you know,

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that they don't see as much kind of

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value of Open banking beyond what

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is being used for at the moment.

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They don't know how to

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monetize it going forward.

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So I guess, what's your take

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then on, on the future of open

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banking and can it be monetized.

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That is an interesting point

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you've just made about people not

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understanding about monetizing and stuff.

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I think, look, when you look at anything

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new or anything innovation, or you look

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at any new product or service, I think

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people are always quite skeptical about.

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And I think open banking's not being

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far from that, especially with the

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way that we've been looking at it.

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Look, to be honest with you, we've

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just had VRP which is variable

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recurring payments that we've just

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launched from a regulatory standpoint.

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And you know, myself and some colleagues

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here from O B I E we're talking about this

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and I was thinking, what a great push.

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You know, sometimes you need

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a bit of regulation to just

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push you to start innovating.

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And I think off the back of this,

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we're gonna see so many opportunities.

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There will be opportunities to

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monetize us as we go forward.

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You know, not only for the banks, the

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fintechs, the partnerships, you know

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and, so on, but also for our customers.

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You know, I think it's gonna be a,

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great opportunity for us to look at

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how we can seamlessly be involved in

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the journeys and open banking will

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be the key part of that, and really

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taking forefront of that journey.

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Excellent.

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Sounds good.

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Strategic working group for open

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bank and then has found that

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different financial institutions

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have got different kind of like views

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of, where open banking is going.

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Do you think more collaboration then

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is needed in the space to  define it

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at forward route for open banking?

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Oh yeah, absolutely.

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I think we're still at

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the very, early stages.

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The conversation started, the movement

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has started around open banking, but I

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still think that there's so much more room

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for collaboration in this space.

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I think we still need to come together

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and that's where places like this, you

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know, Paul makes such a difference.

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And I think Finovate and other conferences

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that you go to, you get the opportunity

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to talk to other vendors and other

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partners just to see, you know, how we

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can work together and open Banking's

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one of those ones that I think we're

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gonna have to all work together on.

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But yeah, definitely think there's room.

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What would you say then are

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some of the key benefits of

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open banking for businesses?

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How's first direct?

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Oh my God.

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What a great one to ask.

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Okay.

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I think.

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Well, I'm gonna flip this and I've done

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this you know, with some of the guys that

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I've been talking to, is we need to start

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looking at it from a customer perspective.

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I think the benefit is huge from an

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institutional perspective as well, but I

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think from a customer perspective, it's

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really about, you know, for me, if we

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can be seamlessly involved at the point

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of sale you know, making, you know, the

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journey easier for the customer, whether

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it be, you know, buying a product or

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a service I think that's where, the

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opportunity is really gonna be laying and

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the misunderstanding of that from a lot of

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people is like, how is that gonna happen?

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How is it gonna be possible?

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Well, look, you're already doing

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it, you know, with a lot of other

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products and services like ai.

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We look at the great stuff that you're

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doing on net, you know, Netflix and

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the, movies that we're looking at.

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I've just actually mentioned

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them, haven't I now?

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But hey, we all use Netflix.

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That's fine.

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I guess with your role then as

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Head of Innovation and partnerships

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with First Direct, then Yeah.

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What are some of the, you know,

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key innovations that you think

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are happening in, digital banking

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right now that are really exciting?

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Okay, this is a really good question.

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Now.

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I think, you know, I am looking

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forward and I'm having a lot of

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conversations around individuals

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looking at the AI space.

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So Chat GPT, which everybody's talking

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about right now, you know, there are

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lots of imagery, stuff that's coming out.

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There's lots of things

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on the written text.

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I think our life is gonna get a lot easier

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with these kind of new developments.

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We are starting to talk about them,

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just like we were starting to talk

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about open banking a few years ago.

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I think I'm looking forward to that

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and seeing what's gonna happen in

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the metaverse and stuff like this.

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I'll give you a prime example.

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I had a conversation with somebody

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earlier about the Metaverse and

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they were like, well, what is it?

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And I was like, you zoom, we

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are already in the metaverse.

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And we are already kind

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of seamlessly doing that.

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So to answer that question, I'll say

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AI is hugely, gonna be important.

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The metaverse is something that

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I'm, you know, hugely excited

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about and the opportunities.

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But yeah.

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Hey, meet you in the

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metaverse next time, hey.

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I would love that.

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It would be really good.

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Well, thank you so much for taking

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the time out to speak with us, Saira.

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It's been  great meeting with you.

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Thank you, you too.

So, just to start off then, would you like

understanding about monetizing and stuff.

here from O B I E we're talking about this

still think that there's so much more room

And I think Finovate and other conferences

FinTech Futures

Expert Insight

At the FinovateEurope 2023 conference in London, FinTech Futures caught up with Saira Khan, head of innovation and partnerships at First Direct Bank, to discuss what the future might hold for open banking after reports that a number of UK banks are sceptical about the lack of commercial returns. 