From shells to Shekels, paper pounds to PayPal, money is forever changing. Never more so than in recent years when contactless technology, mobile apps, tokens and Bitcoin mean the way we exchange value is evolving. The annual Finextra Future Money conference keeps you up-to-date with developments. With over 600 of Europe's top banks, VCs and startups gathered at the East Wintergarden in London's Canary Wharf, UK, this live blog keeps you abreast of developments.
Tuesday 21 April 2015
Editor's note: All times reflect local time in London, UK
17:30: Panel ends. Day 1 of Future Money 2015 ends.
17:29: Anne Boden provides an answer: “Barclays will survive,” she says. "Barclays are doing some great things around innovation." True, but they jumped ahead of other UK banks by launching Pingit without waiting for the shared pay-m platform to launch. Watch this space to see who else survives.
17:28: The panel is being cagey answering which banks will survive the wave of FinTech disruption?
17:28: The moderator is asking the panel some concluding questions. Particularly interesting is: Q. “Last year we saw an algo take a seat at a VC firm in HK. How long until we see that at a bank? ...Another Q. is "How many banks will survive the next crisis?"
17.26: Five Degrees’ CEO Hohmann agrees, commenting: “FinTech is where it is at.”
17.22: “Over last 10 years people have become more tech savvy. At the moment people want to work in tech, rather than in banking,” says Starling Bank’s Boden. Yes, that is why FinTech is taking off. Google and Amazon are getting the best graduates these days, not banks!
Things are getting spicy on twitter ...
17.18: “A big bank in the UK will typically spend £1bn on operational running costs, meeting compliance obligations and so forth,” says Starling Bank’s Boden, formerly of RBS, as she discusses the battle for budget. “Only £20-30m will go on things that are truly innovative."
“Banks are taking innovation seriously but it’s a very very difficult thing to do, within their constraints,” she concludes.
A. In response Lloyds Banking Group’s Lien rightly says banks aren’t tech firms, despite endless protestations to the contrary, but he adds they can introduce proven, tested new money and service propositions.
17.09: That’s better. The moderator asks: Q. ‘Can banks become tech firms and vice versa? Can banks innovate'?
17:04: "Starting from scratch is much easier," says Starling Bank's Boden. As an ex-RBS banker who is now setting up a newcomer 'challenger' bank she should know. Could do with more debate about payments and future money here, and less about banks.
17.02: “It’s difficult for a large bank to say we’re no longer going to do unprofitable or small margin business like personal loans and to exit the large numbers of business areas established banks have traditionally operated in,” says Anne Boden, CEO of Starling Bank. “Newcomer banks like mine will focus on doing one thing very very well – whether that is a basic all online retail banking proposition or whatever it is.”
16.59: Lloyds Banking Group’s Lien admits his bank isn’t as agile as a small startup. How could it be? “My focus is on transforming my bank and making it as agile as possible,” he says.
16.52: Samantha Ghiotti, Director, Anthemis Group is discussing the younger generation and how they’ll shape the future of money. The sharing economy might be more important to them as western economies stagnate and living standards are depressed. Older customers with the wealth may become more important to established banks, with new challenger banks targeting millenials, less profitable personal loans and so forth. Asia, Africa or other parts of world could easily leap ahead of western banks too, if they haven't already.
16.50: Will our children still have bank accounts, asks the moderator. "Yes," responds Lloyd's Lien. His role at Lloyds is to help the bank "transform itself," he adds.
16.42: Marc Lien, Innovation and Digital Development Director, Lloyds Banking Group, outlines the digital transformation impacting banking by commenting that: “Five years ago Lloyds didn’t have mobile customers. We have 5m in the UK now.”
16.39: “It won’t be in 20 years’ time when banks will be different. It’ll happen within the decade,” says Martijn Hohmann, Co-Founder and CEO of Five Degrees, implying that they’ll lose ground if banks don’t move fast.
16.34: According to Starling Bank’s Boden, the bank of the future will be collaborative, platform-based and invisible. “The power of data will be central. People will buy off platforms and banking will be invisible because it’s efficient when it is.”
16.32: Anne Boden, CEO of the new challenger institution Starling Bank, ex-of RBS says that: “Banking is broken and I’m hoping to fix it.” Martijn Hohmann, Co-Founder and CEO of Five Degrees agrees with her.
16.31: The fun starts straight away as the moderator, Nasir Zubairi, a Venture Partner at FinLeap gets all of today’s attendees to do a conference ‘selfie’ for his mum - see below:
16.31: This should be the fun panel, the real “future money” session future-gazing what is store for society and its monetary tokens.
16:30 - 17:30 Money 30/30
Moderator: Nasir Zubairi, Venture Partner, FinLeap
Speakers:
• Anne Boden, CEO, Starling Bank
• Samantha Ghiotti, Director, Anthemis Group
• Martijn Hohmann, Co-Founder and CEO, Five Degrees
• Marc Lien, Innovation and Digital Development Director, Lloyds Banking Group.
16.29: The final panel up next is very much a ‘future-gazing’ one. Where is the payments sector and society headed? The next panel is putting their mics on now ahead of the 4.30pm panel. Follow it on #FutureMoney & #society3.
16. 00: Panel ends. Coffee break. Right, who’s paying for the coffee or are we sharing it?
15. 58: “We’ve got simple technology, which works” says Zopa’s CEO Andrews. “Banks don’t have that benefit [i.e. have silos and legacy operational running costs].” Ouch! True though.
15. 53: “In the end we’ll thrive if there is structural value,” says Ratesetter's Lewis. He obviously believes there is.
15. 52: The panel is now debating how regulators made a move on the US sector, but it survived, and how regulation is no bad thing in terms of removing any bad players from the P2P crowdfunding arena.
A. Scott Eddington, Head of Product & Business Development, easyCar Club answers the question by pointing out his firm owns assets in the cars they rent out and specifically targets businesses to hire them out. “The business sector is obviously therefore important to us. More generally the sharing economy relies on businesses, as well as consumers.”
A. ”Yes,” says Ratesetter's Lewis. “Remember we do peer-to-peer lending, not person-to-person lending, so we lend to charities, businesses B2B, consumers and many many others. It’s a question of the relationship (and data) that matters.”
15. 48: Q. The next question from the floor is about the B2B corporate and SME lending & if that is as important as consumer lending?
A. “Yes,” says Zopa’s CEO Andrews. “You’re already seeing this in the UK.”
…"I think most unsecured lending is unprofitable for most FIs [due to running costs -Ed]," adds Andrews. "I think we’re already in that era."
15. 40: Q. Question from the floor: ‘Will P2P become big in the mortgage market and non-secured areas?’
15.34: Naturally enough Ratesetter's Lewis also defends the P2P lending model against accusations of risky lending practices when interest rates go up. No debate yet though about if they are cherry-picking the best customers and/or what happens if the VC money goes elsewhere in the future?
15.29: Zopa’s CEO Andrews argues that his firm and other good P2P lenders won't be caught out when interest rates go up and the lending environment gets tougher. "We loan money. But we know it's important to get it back and we have a good record on doing that."
The twitter questions for the P2P crowdfunding panel are coming in - example below:
15.21: Zopa’s CEO Andrews agrees. “In the fullness of time we’ll take the majority of that business” [i.e. unsecured consumer and SME lending].
15.19: Ratesetter's Lewis makes a great comment: "There is no pressure to focus on profit right now ...there has been such a boom in VC funding in the US and now UK crowdfunding scene." Very true. P2Pers are becoming so large now that Santander and others are partnering with them, giving SME small business lending and some unsecured consumer business to them, while they focus on bigger coroporate lending and more profitable activities.
15.10: For Rhydian Lewis, CEO and co-founder of rival P2P crowdfunding lender, Ratesetter, suggests, “the renting economy is a better phrase”.
15.06: Scott Eddington, Head of Product & Business Development, easyCar Club is more in favour of the term, ‘the sharing economy’. “As a car club we can provide big companies with assets (like cars) without large upfront capital investment. That is what is important.”
15.04: Giles Andrews, Co-Founder & CEO, Zopa says: “I don’t like the term ‘sharing economy’. I prefer the phrase efficiency. …We’re more efficient than banks. That is why we could displace a significant proportion of FS."
Zopa was established in 2005 and has lent £850m so far. Ratesetter is a peer-to-peer (P2P) rival in the crowdfunding space.
15:00 - 16:00 The sharing economy
Moderator: Yann Ranchere, Director, Anthemis Group
Speakers:
• Giles Andrews, Co-Founder & CEO, Zopa
• Rhydian Lewis, CEO and co-founder, Ratesetter
• Scott Eddington, Head of Product & Business Development, easyCar Club
15.00: The sharing economy is up next, with the next panel forming on stage ahead of the 3pm panel. Follow it on #FutureMoney & #society2.
14:59: The moderator concludes by saying: "The best customer experience is no experience." [i.e. seamless and frictionless].
14:58: “How do you improve the check-out experience by 1%,” asks Michael Rolph, Co-Founder of YoYo Wallet? It’s a good question but he gives no answers. Whoever solves that will have a good retail payment solution – whether that is in-store or online.
14:53: Regulation is inevitably now being discussed with PSD II to the fore. This is supposed to open up the retail payment space to alternative payment services providers (PSPs). Equally, interchange fees V MPoS solutions such as Square could just as easily be debated, the role of merchants, banks, etc.
14:51: “You needn’t be locked into a Zapp-like scenario, where the banks own the faster payment in the UK,” says Ensygnia’s Deacon. "Indeed, under the EU PSD II regulation things should open up."
14:44: The moderator is now discussing “push and pull payments” in the light of schemes such as IDEAL in the Netherlands, Zapp in the UK / the pay-m UK mobile payments platform, and so forth.
More observations coming in via twitter ...
14:37: “We’re lucky and fortunate to be part of ApplePay,” says Wells Fargo’s Sahni. “The important thing to learn – and to remember – is to keep the customer happy and always at the front of your mind.”
14:31: In answer to the below question Matt Deacon of Ensygnia says: "No, banks won't become dumb pipes."
The questions for the retail payments panel are starting to come in via twitter. The first is below:
14.24: “We don’t know the future, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” says Matt Deacon, Co-Founder of Ensygnia. “Don’t make an enemy of existing infrastructures”.
Deacon is essentially arguing that you should use back end systems to gain consumer acceptance and uptake. “The platform play is what we’re focusing on. We want to embed capabilities, use open APIs and encourage widespread adoption.”
14.16: "All the capabilities of your wallet can be enhanced, but remember location matters too," says Wells Fargo's Sahni. "You can offer shoppers loyalty rewards, and so on."
Sahni goes on to show the audience a beacon device and to discuss "bio-pay" authentication options, using "facial, voice and eye biometric recognition technology. We've doing tests in the lab at the moment."
Wells Fargo also offers software development kit (SDK) to partners, adds Sahni.
14.12: First mention of Uber! Michael Rolph, Co-Founder of the YoYo mobile wallet firm explains how Uber works and the benefits of mobile wallets, as he sees it. As befits a techie he's wearing jeans and a t-shirt!
14.09: “This is an awesome space we’re in. It’s always evolving,” says Bipin Sahni, SVP, Head of Innovation and R&D, Wholesale Services Group, Wells Fargo & Company. The bank is a large remittance player, of course, and has a large ATMs estate and global presence. "Customer expeience is more important than the payment."
14.06: The panel is introudicng themselves. Four mentions of "frictionless" so far!
14.04: The retail payments moderator, Zilvinas Bareisis, Senior Analyst at Celent, is setting the panel for the panel explaining, “payments used to be simple – cash or card?”. No longer. "We’ve now got QR coodes, mobile wallets, tokens, contactless tech/NFC, ApplePay, etc."
14:00 - 15:00 ‘Society’ Retail payments – loyalty, iBeacons, Mobile money and MPoS
Moderator: Zilvinas Bareisis, Senior Analyst, Celent
Speakers:
• Matt Deacon, Co-Founder, Ensygnia
• Michael Rolph, Co-Founder, YoYo Wallet
• Bipin Sahni, SVP, Head of Innovation And R&D, Wholesale Services Group, Wells Fargo & Company.
13:58: Retail payments; cards, the Mobile Point-of-Sale (MPoS); loyalty points and other forms of future money are up for next debate next as the lunch break at #FutureMoney comes to an end. The #fintech audience is preparing for the afternoon’s first panel which will address societal impacts. Follow it on twitter #society1.
13.00: Panel ends. Lunch.
12.59: Fintech innovation is certainly active around the mobile, card and payment channels. Getting ID acceptance right is crucial, however, to ensure it takes off, concludes the panel. “Convenience also matters,” adds Zadka.
12.57: Lloyds Banking Group’s Zadka says: “I wouldn’t trust MNOs know your customer (KYC) process.” Good point. The protection of corporate IDs is as important as customers, especially when banks face huge fines when they get it wrong a la HSBC.
Miicard’s Varga disagrees, “they could play a role”, but does accept they’d need to improve.
12.56: “MNOs IT isn’t up to the job. I wouldn’t trust them,” says Au10tix’s Atzmon.
12.55: The role of Google, facebook, social media and generational acceptance, or otherwise, of sharing private data is now being discussed, alongside the possible role of mobile network operators (MNOs) in identity, remittances, payments and future money.
12.50: Anyone remember the response to John Reid’s idea last decade to introduce a UK-wide ID card scheme and how it was trashed, asks the moderator? There are nods of recognition in the room in regard to the explicit question about the role of citizen trust, governments, etc.
12.48: Discussions now centring around the right to privacy, EU’s imminent data protection update; cloud computing V security considerations; & anonymity.
12.42: James Varga, CEO of Miicard’s assertion that “privacy is dead” is getting a reaction on twitter.
A: Au10tix’s Atzmon naturally stresses that: “automation is what matters.”
A: Lloyd’s Zadka responds: “FIs haven’t quite got to grips with the blockchain yet in terms of using it for ID purposes. We’ve been focused more on biometrics up until now.”
12.38: The identity panel is now taking questions, the first of which is:
Q. ‘What is the most untapped innovation that FIs need to address?’
12.24: Alon Zadka, Senior Innovation Lead at Lloyds Banking Group, stresses the role of banks, alongside governments and others in protecting people’s IDs and payments. “It is up to us as a bank to assess KYC [referring to regulation -Ed] and to promote the customer experience, make it easy, etc.” The role of shared platforms is important here too, via SWIFT, vendors and others.
12.19: The panel is now discussing the role of regulation. In the UK, for instance, the Faster Payment Service (FPS) was only started because the OFT ordered the previous 3-day clearing regime to be removed. The panel agrees regulation - as with governments - can be important, but it isn't the only consideration. Innovation matters too and banks must educate consumers to protect their identities.
A. 40% of FutureMoney attendees agree by putting their hands up in the air, perhaps thinking of the great Indian national payment and ID infrastructure established in that country in recent years. The UK's 'GetSafeOnline' educational programme is another governmental example of how governments might help.
12.13: Q. The moderator asks the 3-400 people in the room here at FutureMoney 2015: ‘Should governments play a role in digital identities?’
12.11: Ron Atzmon, Managing Director at Au10tix warns that, “your fingerprint can be hacked “. He is referring to ApplePay and other such developments and agreeing that protecting consumer identities is crucial is future token-based, mobile money is to take off.
12.06: James Varga, CEO, Miicard rightly says consumers should take some responsibility upon themselves in regard to protecting their online, digital identity. “Consumers have always trusted big corporations, banks and others with their identity and security but 100% protection is difficult.”
12.01: The next panel on identity is starting up. Follow it on #connections3.
12:00 - 13:00 Identity, privacy and the new age of cyber
Moderator: Eric Van der Kleij, Head, Level39
Speakers:
• Ron Atzmon, Managing Director, Au10tix
• James Varga, CEO, Miicard
• Alon Zadka, Senior Innovation Lead, Lloyds Banking Group
11.58: Clearmatics’ Sams says you could end up replicating custodian institutions as the blockchain develops. “We already have them in banking.” Panel ends.
11.51: Discussing the federated model now – i.e. if you can monitise a ‘facebook-like’ system in the digital currency world. Chris Gledhill of Lloyds and Mark Smargon of Colu agree it’s possible.
11.44: The moderator is questioning Jon Matonis about the Bitcoin Foundation’s finances and future (recently in the news and a bhot topic in Washington, US). He responds (kind of): “Our role is to be the holder of the standard until someone else takes it forward. We’re only 30-40% there at the moment.”
11.39: "Settlement technology and new products will be the focus of future development," says Robert Sams of Clearmatics, answering the question about LEIs by saying yes, it's important, but the panel isn't addressing the ECB's specific move, rather how the blockchain might assist common global LEIs in derivative and other trading.
11.36: Mark Smargon, VP Product & Founder of Colu, says there are still a lot of things that need to be built and apps to be developed to make the blockchain truly relevant, referencing BTC again there.
Panel is discussing the twitter question below now via #connections2.
11.34: Interesting point from Loyd’s Chris Gledhill, who points out: “You could have energy as a future currency itself in a world where carbon trading is prevalent.” Indeed, why not? The blockchain tech could help.
11.28: "Decentralisation is not efficient but does help resiliency,” says Bitcoin Foundation’s Matonis.
11.23: Cryptographic technology is important but doesn’t have to be censorship-resistant, says Clearmatics’ Sams. There is that world, but also the ‘lit’ world of ledgers and blockchain technology, he argues, which share the same tech and algos but are different conceptually.
11.19: First mention of Ripple. They’ve been pushing ledger and blockchain technology for a while. The panel is widening the discussion beyond Bitcoin now into other areas.
11.12: Robert Sams, CEO of Clearmatics, a blockchain focused firm that seeks to use it for clearing and settlement purposes, gives an overview of how BTC was designed to be “censorship-resistant”, prompting a discussion of if it's accepted yet in financial circles. How the currency should be stored, protected against hackers as a stored value, etc.
11.09: Chris Gledhill, a technologist with Lloyds Banking Group points out that Bitcoin – and by extension – the blockchain more widely, needs consumer uptake and acceptance to really take off. “Smartphones were around a long time before they took off with Apple’s iPhone (and we need something similar here).”
11.06: "I believe the volatility of it will be sorted out as the market matures," says Matonis in answer to tough questioning from Mark Smargon, VP Product & Founder of Colu, about the volatility of BTC.
11.05: The panel is introducing themselves. Jon Matonis of the Bitcoin Foundation naturally makes a strong case in support of BTC maintaining that despite the bad press associated with the Silk Road website, the Mt Gox. Affair, etc it is still the major digital currency. “The blockchain is almost an untainted term now,” he says, “but BTC is still the major power. It has the most computational power and is far and away the leader.”
"It's truly disruptive as it competes with national issuance. Bitcoin is true disuption. It will start in the less developed world. In Africa, Argentina and elsewhere. These countries can leapfrog cards and other technology.
11:00 - 12:00 Blockchain and beyond
Moderator: Richard Brown, Executive Architect for Banking Industry Innovation, IBM
Speakers:
• Chris Gledhill, Technologist, Lloyds Banking Group
• Jon Matonis, formally of the Bitcoin Foundation
• Robert Sams, CEO, Clearmatics
• Mark Smargon, VP Product & Founder, Colu
10.58: The blockchain, ledger and so forth are up for debate next with the next panel forming on stage ahead of the 11am panel. Follow it on #FutureMoney & #connections2
10.30: Panel ends. Coffee break.
10.29: “Technology is not the only challenge, not the real one,” says Santander InnoVentures’ Belinky. “How banks respond and make tech relevant for customers is what matters.”
10.26: The panel is concluding now with a discussion of what future money technologies might disrupt the banking sector next? “The blockchain and ledger [as in Bitcoin et all –Ed.] are important,” says RBS’ Whoriskey. “I’m looking forward to that discussion later on today.”
10.24: Intesa Sanpaolo’s Profeta says “you’re wrong” to the moderator. “We do care about innovation, but there is no single template. Banks have to assess everything and decide upon the best route to follow. Just because it’s a startup doesn’t automatically mean it’s the best solution.”
10.22: The bankers on the panel are annoyed with the VC moderator’s assertion that “banks don’t care enough about innovation”. We do, says Roberta Profeta, head of innovation for the European Region at Intesa Sanpaolo.
10.18: “…to some extent that is true,” admits RBS’ Whoriskey, who goes on to explain they, “have to have 99.96% reliability; you always hear about the 0.04% when systems fall over.” Meaning operations are important to banks too. True. “We do also need to keep in touch with tech developments to remain relevant for customers,” she admits later.
10.17: The moderator disagrees. Things are heating up here. “Banks don’t care enough about innovation. They do care about being perceived not to care …really, they don’t think the threat is big enough.”
10.16: Brigid Whoriskey, Head of Research & Innovation, RBS makes a bold claim: “Banking is historically the most innovative sector,” she claims. Mmmmmmmmm Yes, banks introduced ATMs, credit cards, online and mobile banking, etc but are they really at the cutting edge?
10.11: Mariano Belinky, Managing Director of Santander InnoVentures answers the question well: “I always ask can we add value to the startup themselves; to the customer; & to the bank. Those are the 3 key questions for any startup approaching a bank in our evaluation of them.”
10.05: “Good question, it’s not easy,” says Brigid Whoriskey, Head of Research & Innovation, RBS. “You cannot ‘over-govern it, but you do need to apply filtering questions to decide if we add something to our pipeline and invite startups to come to our lab in Edinburgh or London.”
10:04: The moderator is asking: how do you screen which startups can approach you as a bank? [i.e. how do you cope?!]
The twitter questions are getting abstract now, with analogies dominating - example below:
09:51: RBS’ Whoriskey : “…Just so much out there in terms of innovation, being informed is important. My unit is like an internal disruptor R&D unit in the bank, bringing attention to important developments at the wider bank, which deserve greater attention.”
As with other banks, RBS faces the problem of ‘keeping the lights on’ and ensuring its core banking infrastructure doesn’t fall over again versus investing in future money and customer service technology. It’s not an easy balance, but as RBS has found out get it wrong and customers will complain.
09:48: Claire Calmejane, Innovation Director at Lloyds Banking Group explains how they’ve partnered with InnovateFinance, government bodies and so forth.
09:47: The panel is getting interactive responding to more questions from twitter via #connections1, responding to questions like ‘is fintech a loss leader for banks’; ‘what’s their R&D or partnership approach ‘ etc?
09.43: "The banking community is becoming more open to fintech innvoation," says RBS' Whoriskey.
RBS' Whoriskey says scale is important. “I’d love to fix security concerns too concerning cloud encryption and so forth. Partnerships are important to us too.”
09:41: First twitter question of the morning is being put to panel via #connections1: ‘What’s your magic wish to improve banking innovation’?
09:39: Roberta Profeta of Intesa Sanpaolo is explaining the importance of scouting good tech and companies. “The best approach is to go out and partner with those innovators who do this as a job,” she says. “That’s why we’ve partnered with startupbootcamp, Accenture and other partners.”
09:35: Each member of the panel is introducing themselves. Mariano Belinky, Managing Director of Santander Innoventures admits, “there is a flaw” in the amount of time it sometimes takes for banks to introduce new disruptive tech. “InnoVentures is one way we’re trying to respond.”
09:30 - 10:30: PANEL: The innovation drive at banks
Moderator: Matteo Rizzi, General Partner, SBT Venture Capital
Speakers:
• Mariano Belinky, Managing Director, Santander InnoVentures
• Claire Calmejane, Innovation Director, Lloyds Banking Group
• Roberta Profeta, Innovation – European Region, Intesa Sanpaolo
• Brigid Whoriskey, Head of Research & Innovation, RBS
09.30: “If you’re going to look at the future of money, the point of low friction is what matters,” he concludes.
09.23: “We’re seeing powerful innovators coming into the industry [from the mobile sector, P2P, etc] as they recognise friction points that represent opportunity,” says Cheeseman. "Abstraction matters too and ubiquity."
09.21: Regulation is important too,” says Cheeseman. “Look at what the FCA is doing to payday lenders here in the UK. Basel III will impact banks and money too.”
09.15: “Technology is growing rapidly,” says Cheeseman as he outlines the 5 key themes he’ll address this morning during his presentation, highlighting how each impacts the future of money:
- diversity
- equality
- agility
- performance
- ubiquity.
09.11: Cheeseman is explaining how he looks at the future human via augmentation technology; the future of communication via mobiles and social media; the future of the city and future business, especially money.
09.06: “Whatever the driver for the invention of money it’s had clear benefits. It’s stripped away friction and I’ll focus on this,” says Cheesewright. Good to hear as frictionless payments will be a key focus of today’s conference.
09.03: “I’m not a historian, I look at the future,” says Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist and author of the ‘Book of the Future’. “There is some debate where money comes from? Was it invented by states to pay armies, to collect taxes via tokens, instead of sacks of wheat?
09:00: The first speaker this morning at Finextra's #FutureMoney 2015 event in London's Canary Wharf is Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist and author of the Book of the Future. He is starting the discussion now about connections and new money technology here. This afternoon will look at the social implications of future money. Tweet your opinions to #FutureMoney and #Keynote1.
09:00 - 09:30 Keynote welcome
Speaker: Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist, Book of the Future
08:59: Liz Lumley Welcome: Finextra's Liz Lumley is welcoming everyone and explaining today will look at bank and technology connections, with the afternoon focusing on society and consumers of new money products and infrastructures. Day 2 tomorrow will focus on tech startups.
08:53: Tea, coffee and pastries are being taken here prior to the opening speaker of Future Money 2015.
08:45: Attendees are gathering for the annual Finextra Future Money conference today in the East Wintergarden at London's Canary Wharf. The hashtags you need are #FutureMoney and #Keynote1 for our opening speaker today Tom Cheesewright. He's a Futurist and author of the Book of the Future and will begin the day's proceedings at 9am.