Ep. 175. News: The War For Talent

Our show begins by discussing why Fintechs and Banks are duelling for talent, as financial technology startups go in hiring overdrive- thus butting heads with the incumbents for the very best candidates. Are banks worried about losing out on top rate talent? Next we explore some pretty damning stats, as the U.S. big four retail banks dealt with almost 20% increase in credit card losses last year. Financial crash anybody? The team get their bear masks on and discuss how growing credit card debts in individuals could be increasingly concerning for incumbents and the economy in general. Staying with empty bank accounts....Wells Fargo apologise for a a glitch that emptied out bank accounts. According to reports, a glitch caused online bill payments to be processed twice which led to some customers with very unhealthy bank balances.

Moving across the world, Australia plan to introduce industry-wide platform for real-time payments called the NPP (New Payments Platform). The infrastructure will allow payments between business accounts and customers at different financial institutions in Australia. Next and staying the the outback, Westpac brings back transactions via text messages. Westpac's new iMessage shortcut will allow customers to make payments. Is this secure? Our team discuss whether or not customers will trust payments via iMessage and whether or not anyone even uses the service anymore!

On to technology, Google and Tencent team up agreeing to share patents in a global tech alliance. The 2nd and 5th large companies in the world have teamed up and this should allow Google to rebuild its presence in China. Partnerships continued, Transferwise and Flinks partner up in Canada-which will facilitate instant account verification and will act as the link between Transferwise and the Canadian banking world.

We wouldn't want to bring you an episode without some regulatory news and to give you your fix on today's Fintech Insider news show, we discuss 'seven key facts about PSD2 could cause some head scratching'. Our panel run through this story and discuss how some of these could be interpreted.

Finally, the man who ordered £3,000 worth of Bitcoin gear online was furious when he received a Boss Baby DVD. Think it's safe to say he was not impressed, and the team discuss whether or not the film itself is worth it? Finally 2.0, 'Grumpy Cat' wins a $710,000 payout in copyright lawsuit. Grumpy Cat Limited sued the owners of coffee company Grenade for exceeding an agreement over the cat's image. You can imagine the cat's owners were 'feline' great after that mega payout!

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Special Guests: Patrick Lane and Sophie Winwood.

Links:

• Banks and Fintechs Are Duelling In a ‘War For Talent’
• Business schools have a problem with fintech
• What is Fintech? And how to build a career in Fintech
• U.S. Banks Suffer from Big Credit Card Losses
• Wells Fargo apologizes for glitch that emptied out some bank accounts
• Australia to introduce industry-wide New Payments Platform for real-time payments
• Westpac brings bank transacting to text messaging
• Google, Tencent Agree to Share Patents in Global Tech Alliance
• Transferwise partners with Flinks to power its instant account verification process
• Seven key facts about PSD2 that could cause some head scratching
• Man who ordered £3,000 Bitcoin gear online furious after being sent Boss Baby DVD instead
• Grumpy Cat wins $710,000 payout in copyright lawsuit - BBC News