Bankable Insights

Hosted by Stephen Walker

Technology

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Latest episode

Mar 2026

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EN-GB

About the show

Intention is to bring you the most interesting people in Banking and Fintech and ask no-nonsense, unpretentious questions on what they're doing, why it matters, guided by our data.

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14 recent

March 25, 202645 min

Mortgage Digitization in 2026: Mapping The Contours of Change

As part of the deepening integration between Global Data Financial Services, and Celent (now a Global Data company, effective December, 2025), we are delighted to be joined by Craig Focardi, Lead LendTech and AI Analyst at Celent, for a long form discussion on mortgage digitization in 2026. In this, our fourth episode of the year, we cover the impact of interest rates and inflation on mortgage volume and consumer demand, and lender appetite for digitization. We look at the evolving mortgage ecosystem of different provider types and business models, regulatory changes, the impact of AI, especially amid legacy renewal, and conclude with top level lender recommendations from Craig, bringing together all the different elements discussed.

February 1, 202624 min

Quick Take Series: Impact of Agentic AI on Product Purchase

In our third episode of the year (our second within our new Quick Take series), we look at the impact of Agentic AI on the purchase funnel in banking. We cover how and why AI research might drive a decline in traditional bank marketing efforts, how providers can adapt to that, and medium to long-term architectural considerations for agentic success.

January 9, 202645 min

Quick Take Series: Preparing an Embedded Finance Proposition

In our second episode of 2026, we launch a new "quick take" series, delving deeper into key predictions flagged in our first episode of the year, "Banking Predictions 2026". This first episode covers embedded finance, defining what we mean by the term, what has changed in recent years to suggest 2026 will drive increase activity, and what leading firms can (and should) do in response.

January 8, 202643 min

Banking Predictions 2026: AI, Ecosystems, Stablecoins and More

For our first episode of 2026, we've pulled together a select group of analysts from across the Global Data family to provide a taster or "amuse-bouche" following our long form predictions reports published at the end of last year.We start with Doug Blakey, Editor of Retail Banker International (RBI), who will review some of the key events in 2025, and what that portends broadly for 2026. We then move to Zil Bareisis, Head of Retail Banking at Celent, (now a Global Data company), to cover their top three predictions. Blandina Szalay, a GD Banking & Payments analyst, will then delve a deeper into stablecoins specifically.Last, and most definitely least, I, the host, Steve Walker, will comment further on what we expect within AI, Ecosystems, ESG and Digital Mortgages across 2026.

June 3, 202535 min

AI in Lending: Prospects, Probabilities and Platitudes

For our eleventh episode, we’re delighted to be joined by Giovanni Oppenheim, Director of Banking Solution, at Earnix. Earnix has a highly esteemed reputation in Insurance, and across the last seven years has made great strides in Banking,with a focus on pricing and personalization software. Our conversation covers key challenges for incumbent lenders, what role different types of AI technology can play in addressing financial inclusion, decisioning,personalized pricing, competition from Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) and delivering key tenets within Consumer Duty in the UK. We also cover key forward lookingtrends around financial inclusion and fairness in lending. Time stamps as follows: 0:00-05:00 – Introductions and Set Up05:00 – Where is AI most effective in reshaping lending activities?07:00 – What examples have we seen in Co-pilots Vs Gen AI for synthetic data?08:30 – Examples of live Earnix case studies in Banking 09:30 – Metrics used to quantify AI improvements in lending 11:30 – How can AI assist financial inclusion 14:30 – How does incumbent bank credit approvals compare to BNPL providers16:50 – Best examples of inclusive finance using Gen AI 20:00 – Best examples of Gen AI within Consumer Duty 23:30 – AI to manage credit risk amid increased uncertainty 27:00 – AI to increase agility and flexibility 28:00 – Conclusion and Wrap-Up

November 26, 2024Episode 942 min

Trump redux - implications of a trifecta administration on Financial Services

For our ninth episode, we’ve convened a panel of sector specialists at GlobalData Financial Services (FS) to cover the likely impact of the incoming Trump administration on key industry subsegments. We expect wide ranging policy changes. While the direction of travel is quite predictable, less clear is how far and how fast a Trump administration may go in reversing policies pursued under a Biden administration. We use this episode to identify the key care-abouts for each subsegment in order to help anticipate and mitigate potential impacts at a firm level. Time Stamps as follows: 00:00 - Introduction / Set-Up 02:35 – Impact on Banking by Stephen Walker 12:32 – Impact on Payments with Joanne Kumire 26:00 – Impact on Wealth Management with Andrew Haslip 33:00 - Impact on Insurance with Ben Carey Evans 42:30 – Conclusion & Wrap Up

August 13, 202447 min

Consumer Duty: Was it worth it?

For our eighth episode, we're delighted to be joined by Keith Richards, founding director and CEO of the Consumer Duty Alliance (CDA), for a discussion on industry progress, pain points and challenges 12 months into compliance (as of July, 2024). No other jurisdiction worldwide has seen fit to mandate customer centric transformation in the way the Duty has, begging the question: do we have this new regime because UK banks have been unable, or unwilling to deliver it voluntarily? Or is the new regime in someway overzealous, or unnecessary. To an extent, the proof will be in the pudding. This episode is best enjoyed alongside our companion report, which looks at our survey data on customer satisfaction to show which banks have made the most progress in the last 12 months in the UK. But also, which banks elsewhere in the world, without Duty-like intervention, have managed to improve faster than the UK.

March 18, 202428 min

Financial inclusion: mapping the economic opportunity

For our seventh episode, we're delighted to be joined by Theodora Lau, author of "Beyond Good: How Technology is Leading a Purpose-driven revolution", for a discussion around the "S" in ESG; or: "financial inclusion". Many of the most successful digital banks in the world are about the economics of financial inclusion, such as WeBank and MYbank in China, Nubank in Brazil, Digibank in India, Current and Chime in the US. Further, as fintech funding declines, financial inclusion continues to perform well, with investors pouring money into many markets where mobile penetration is high, but bank population low, especially LatAm, because financial inclusion is big business. Yet closer to home financial inclusion often takes the form of highly segmented new digital banks like Daylight, for the LGBT community, banks in the US for black Americans, or Hispanic communities, and even anti-woke banks. Most of these have already failed, but there’s still real opportunity for incumbent banks to cherry pick those most “killer” features which can unearth a whole new customer segment. Our conversation covers where those opportunities are most real (i.e. commercially), and where they are more likely about identity politics and virtue signalling.

December 27, 202340 min

Banking in 2024: profitability, financial inclusion & Gen AI

For our sixth and final episode of the year, we take a look toward 2024 industry predictions and trends, with a focus on three key themes: the quest for profitability, financial inclusion, and yes, you guessed it, Gen AI. We start with Doug Blakey, editor of Retail Banker International (RBI), for five minutes of scene setting, then get to our expert panel: Leda Glyptis, author of Bankers Like Us, and Chief Client Officer at 10X; Theodora Lau, author of Beyond Good, and Mayur Vichare, Director of Strategy and Value Consulting at Backbase. Conversation runs to just over 40 mins, and goes great with a large glass of mulled wine. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

October 24, 202342 min

Open banking: retrospective, current state, future view

For our fifth episode, we’re delighted to welcome Gavin Littlejohn, founder of Money Dashboard, an early PFM in the UK, in 2006, and CEO until 2015, before going on to play a key part in the open banking negotiations in the UK, and advise many countries on similar initiatives worldwide since. The conversation is part retrospective on how open banking came about and part current state assessment, with fascinating insight from someone who had a front row seat through it all, covering how difficult it was running a direct to consumer fintech proposition back in 2006, how big banks behaved during the initial open banking negotiations, and what other countries can now learn from the UK/European experience. Time stamps as follows: 01:20 - Gavin sums up his experience as CEO of Money Dashboard and the barriers to entry he experienced at that time 04:00 – Gavin talks about the subsequent role he played in the open banking negotiations in the UK, and the two key strands of that 07:15 – Gavin comments on how the big banks behaved during the initial open banking negotiations 10:14 – Gavin comments on some of the implementation details of open banking in the UK that changed the shape and form of what the UK fintech community expected 16:15 – Gavin comments on why he thinks banks missed initial implementation deadlines and why it continues 20:15 – Gavin comments on which banks went on the longest journey to deliver value from open banking to their customers 22:15 – Gavin comments on who are the biggest beneficiaries of open banking - banks, consumers or new entrants - based on last five years 25:46 – Gavin comments on current adoption numbers in the UK, and whether that’s above, below, or on expectation 28:50 – Gavin comments on Account Information services versus Payments, and where the real opportunity is 32:00 – Gavin opines on how the rest of world looked at the UK case, and what could be improved. 32:50 – Gavin comments on prospects for open finance worldwide based on conversations he’s had 36:40 – Gavin comments on who he thinks has delivered the best open banking, why and how 39:00 – Gavin comments on whether next gen open banking will deliver disruptive new business models or primarily help incumbent banks improve existing operations