Promising robots, a merch machine, epic stages, a beach, incredible sessions, and so much more, money’s biggest conversation kicked off in true style this morning at the RAI Amsterdam.
FinTech leaders have gathered at Money20/20 since 2012. It’s where the community unites to create new and disruptive ways to move, manage, spend and borrow money – and this year is no different. With online and in-person attendees, the first day has got off to a great start!
Join us at the end of every day of this year’s event as we dig into the top takeaways and wrap up the key insights live from Amsterdam.
How HSBC navigated the integration of the beleaguered Silicon Valley Bank
Having swooped in to rescue the UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank following its collapse in early March, HSBC have since been navigating the process of integrating the startup-focused bank into their typically traditional high street bank.
In an interview hosted by Arjun Kharpal, Senior Technology Reporter for CNBC, HSBC’s CEO, Ian Stuart took to the stage today to share how things had really been going – warts and all! – since the bank acquired SVB for the princely sum of £1.
“It’s obviously quite complex, we hadn’t planned for it. […] so suddenly you’re trying to get enough resources to do this and trying to make it logical for the customers as well. Every day there are glitches, but we’ve got a great team on it and we’ll get there.”
Murmurs spread like wildfire throughout the financial markets when the acquisition was announced about whether HSBC was the right buyer for a modern, startup-focused challenger bank. Ian was keen to put these concerns to bed: “I don’t think the market should be concerned about that but we’ve got to prove that.”
Calls for AI to be regulated on a global level
With AI weaving its way into almost every corner of society, calls have been mounting for the creation of a regulatory body to step in and oversee the lightspeed development and advancement of Artificial Intelligence systems.
In an open letter published by the Future of Life Institute back in March, some of the biggest names in tech called for AI labs to pause the training of AI systems for at least 6 months to allow for this potentially life-changing technology to be “planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources” citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”
An issue that is not without a wider discourse, bias in AI (whereby AI-enabled systems make repeatable decisions that are systematically unfair to certain groups of people) was a hot topic this morning on the Encore stage.
Rumman Chowdury, Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University took to the stage to discuss how she and her team are building a tool to identify and mitigate bias in AI systems.
“I worry that we are entering this post-truth world where nothing we see online is trustworthy. Not any of the text, not any of the video, not any of the audio. But then how do we get our information? How do we ensure that information has a high amount of integrity? These are the global governance issues that need tackling.”
While AI and other technologies certainly have a place in supporting fraud detection, risk assessment and mitigation, and creating a truly personalised customer experience, there must be measures in place that combat the proliferation of bias within these systems.
Meet the NorthRow Team
If you’re at Money20/20 this week, do stop by and visit the NorthRow team on stand N06 in Hall 5! Or, if you (like me!) are keeping up-to-date with all the latest Money20/20 news from a distance, why not bookmark our blog and pop back at the end of each day for a roundup of the most fascinating topics from the event?
📸: Our very own Rich Evans, Customer Success extraordinaire