Ep237 – Barclays Takeover!

In this episode

Barclays takeover! Over the years, Barclays have pioneered tech in financial services, from the first UK bank to launch the ATM, to their award-winning app. We sit down with four excellent guests, including CEO Ashok Vaswani, to discuss the impact of PSD2; the challenges and opportunities that come with being a 357-year-old bank; how to attract fresh talent in a world filled with tempting FinTech startups; and more.

Guests

• Ashok Vaswani, CEO
• Catherine McGrath, Managing Director of Transaction Products and Payments
• Ruchir Rodrigues, Managing Director of Digital & Open Banking
• Frankie Woodhead, Director of Commercial & Channels – Business Lending

Highlights

On PSD2

“I’m hugely excited about it. I think, as a customer, it’s going to present me with completely different opportunities about how to manage my finances, and, as Barclays, we are right in at the heart of that, and helping that happen. I want to be confident that I can recommend to my friends and family that they should feel comfortable to move their data around, so we need to make sure that we’ve got customer protection at the core, so I feel safe, which means I can get all those great competitive advantages.” – Catherine McGrath

On omnichannel

“Customers never think of, “I want to go to a channel,” or, “I want to go omnichannel.” They’re saying, “I want to be served by Barclays.” That’s how people look at it, and that’s exactly our view. So the question for us is, how do you solve a customer need? And what is the need you are trying to solve for? It’s not about which channel you want customers to come to, it’s about what do they want? Is it convenient?” – Ruchir Rodrigues

On scale and risk taking

‘’I can count ten programmes where we’ve spent a lot of money on, and frankly they haven’t gone anywhere, right? Okay, we thought it was a great idea, we made a mistake, we drank a glass of water, it was over, we move to the next thing, right? I mean, the speed of change is so rapid that to think that everybody’s going to get everything right is foolhardy, right? So having the ability to actually do it, having a culture where everyone, as a team, we are committed, we are just absolutely committed to making this happen, so we’re putting our money where our mouth is. ‘ Ashok Vaswani

On looking outside of banking

“I think it’s as important to look at non-competitors, I saw WhatsApp launching p2p payments in India, Alibaba and what they’re doing […] in Asia and the APAC region, we have to not just look at banks. We have to look outside of industry and what’s going off, because that’s going to be more important, in my view, in the next five to ten years.” – Frankie Woodhead

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