No Spectators: The Cliff Edge of Financial Services
30th March 2017

As a Gold Sponsor for Innovate Finance’s upcoming Global Summit, we recently ran our own fringe event – No Spectators: The Cliff Edge of Financial Services.
With the help of industry experts Sophie Guibaud of Fidor, Ollie Purdue of Loot, David Brear of 11:FS and Claudio Lisco of UBS – we explored those looming dangers threatening London’s financial services sector; from culture to technology.
Ben Brabyn, head of Level39, opened up the evening with a keynote inviting all parties to take action – investors to invest and for financial services practitioners, startups and consultants to be courageous in a rapidly-changing industry.
Is there value in discomfort, in that it demonstrates we are challenging in the right direction? asks @BenBrabyn #nospectators @Level39CW
— Peter Cunnane (@petercunnane) March 27, 2017
We welcomed Sophie and Ollie to the stage first, discussing the billion-dollar ideas they’re working on including the Open Banking revolution we’re going through and the use of APIs in banking. As the CEO of a fast-growing business Ollie shared his insights into managing company culture – including Loot’s infamous forced-fun Friday staff outings.
‘Culture is very important for hiring, on-boarding and continuously’ – we’re coming over to @LootBank for forced fun Friday! #nospectators
— Level39 (@Level39CW) March 27, 2017
We brought on Claudio and David for the second panel, exploring billion-dollar opportunities – forecasting the future of financial services. With a focus on blockchain we pondered whether it would be the panacea the financial services sector has been waiting for – a quick discussion revealed probably not.
So what does the industry do to ensure it moves in the right direction? David offered this insight:
Next up is @davidbrear of @11FSTeam – ‘Start developing products that people actually care about & build warmth to your brand’ #nospectators
— Level39 (@Level39CW) March 27, 2017
No brainer, right?
Make sure to connect with us at the Innovate Finance Global Summit – our team will be there on the day running an Office Hours session followed by a workshop on the second day.