Susanne Chishti: The State of FinTech

On this episode, Sabine VdL interviews Susanne Chisthi, one of the leading names in the industry. Susanne started her career in finance before becoming an influential voice in FinTech. Susanne is also renowned for her work with investors and FinTech startups through the FINTECH Circle, a platform where startups can access education and angel investment. Susanne is also renowned for the wonderful books that she has written in collaboration with other co-authors and co-editors to educate the FinTech sector. KEY TAKEAWAYS The unique thing about our books is that we crowdsourced the best knowledge, worldwide, because we believe in the power of the community. No single person could ever write such a comprehensive book on FinTech, RegTech, or InsurTech, for example. It would be impossible. But accessing knowledge from 70 authors globally, representing corporations, Tech startups, Tech scaleups, and thought leaders, all contributing their expertise to the projects, makes these books extraordinary. Talking about the lessons we learned from the lack of travel, when you buy products abroad, you can claim the VAT back, sometimes large amounts. I never actually claim my VAT, because I never wanted to queue up at the airport to claim my VAT receipts. So I never claimed these back in my whole life. One of the FinTech companies I’m working with at present is putting all of this online. Imagine the future of VAT claims. This is an example of FinTech addressing a pain point in B2C that millions of customers worldwide face, and we can already see a significant impact when travel returns to normal. Diversity is key for anyone in a large financial institution. The team should be diverse. When we think about the testing and development of AI, business leaders need to be accountable for it too. Particularly, how fair is AI-led decision-making? Who gets accepted or rejected by an AI algorithm for a loan? Remember that those things can be very discriminatory if they’re coded wrongly. It is important for businesses to access a diverse workforce to develop AI-led technologies, consider use cases, how they can go wrong, and protect every individual through ethical AI. An ethical AI board is an important mechanism for ensuring businesses do the right thing in the long term and avoid well-known stereotypes. We have a responsibility as citizens to make things simpler and more transparent. We’ve seen significant movement in the FinTech sector in terms of investment behavior, but the good news is that, in the long term, the FinTech sector will continue to boom, and investors will want to stay in it. Investors will return to invest in ventures and deploy capital from earlier to later stages.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Our goal is to make FinTech a mainstream sector and, at some stage, to replace finance overall – there will be no finance without FinTech.’ ‘Lots of banks are trying to figure out the best way to engage with the FinTech sector. It’s certainly easier said than done. The devil is often in the details. If you acquire a FinTech company, the key thing is to make sure you integrate the company into your organization well so that it still works after the acquisition without destroying its spirit, so both the startup and the corporation can benefit.’ ‘Technology is everybody’s responsibility; it’s mandatory for leaders to understand how technology can shape, empower, and enable what they do from a strategic point of view.’ ‘2020 was a year that shocked us all. I was in China in January of 2020, actually promoting a book. The effect of the current change will be profound. And nobody knows yet what the future will look like. So planning long-term will remain challenging.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Susanne Chishti is the CEO of FINTECH Circle, Europe’s 1st Angel Network focused on fintech opportunities. Susanne is also the founder of the FINTECH Circle Institute, the leading fintech learning platform that offers innovation workshops for C-level executives and online courses. She is also the Co-Editor of the bestselling The FINTECH Book, which has been translated into 10 languages and is sold across 107 countries, as well as The WEALTHTECH Book, The INSURTECH Book, The PAYTECH Book, The AI Book, and The LEGALTECH Book (all published by WILEY). She has also been a FinTech TV Commentator on CNBC. After completing her MBA, Susanne began her career at a FinTech company (before the term “FinTech” was invented in Silicon Valley 20 years ago). She then worked for more than 15 years across a number of financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley, and Accenture in London and Hong Kong. ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]