317. News: Nettles and dock leaves

This week we have some great stories for you as David and Simon are joined by a few great guests:

• Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless
• Solange Dive-Chamberlain, Head of Commercial Banking Strategy at LBG
• Chris Maddern, Co-founder & CPO at Button, formerly of Venmo
• Niall Cameron, Global Head of Corporate and Institutional Digital at HSBC

We kick off the episode by taking a look at Station F, could it be France’s F-You to London’s fintech hub? Opened in June 2017, Station F is the world’s largest startup incubator. Station F acts as a statement of ambition. France wants to become the number one country for tech in Europe. Hiroki notes that Paris is five years behind London in terms of fintech environment and David's not a huge fan of the name...(02:50)

We speak to Oscar Williams-Grut, who wrote the story, for a bit more insight (03:34).

Next up, we talk about the evolution of the US prepaid card ecosystem. There were 10.7 billion prepaid card transactions worth $290 billion in 2016, according to The Federal Reserve. Business Insider Intelligence expects that to grow to $396 billion by 2022. Solange notes that prepaid cards impact on the way people interact with money and each other - driving customer behaviour (13:15).

Other stories include:

• N26’s Viennese whirl
• Turning the Tide on business registrations
• Stripe’s new SCA acquisition
• Robinhood shoots for a banking charter
• T-Mobile’s Take 2 on digital banking
• And finally, The Germans hoard more gold than the Bundesbank

All this and so much more on today's show.

Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on the stories @FintechInsiders on Twitter where you can also ask the hosts questions, or email [email protected]

This week's episode was produced by Laura Watkins and edited by Alex Woodhouse.

Special Guests: Chris Maddern, Hiroki Takeuchi, Niall Cameron, and Solange Dive-Chamberlain.

Links:

• Britain should be worried about France's tech ambitions
• THE PREPAID CARD REPORT: What issuers can do to win market share in a period of unprecedented regulation and competition - Business Insider
• N26 to open security-focused tech centre in Vienna
• Exclusive: Tide to launch company formation in UK banking first - AltFi News
• Stripe buys Touchtech ahead of new EU online authentication rules
• Robinhood applies for national bank charter in bid to form new challenger bank
• T-Mobile takes on US banks with checking account
• Barren, Münzen, Schmuck: Die Deutschen horten mehr Gold als die Bundesbank - WELT