Bankable Insights

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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  

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.

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.

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!

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

Our fourth episode is with John Painter (or JP, as he’s more commonly known), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Cloud and Financial Services at Amdocs.   Amdocs is a dominant player in the telecommunications space but is now making a big push into financial services. Some early client wins include ABN Amro, Bank Hapoalim and Union Digital bank in the Philippines. This discussion runs to approx. 45 minutes and is intended for a non-technical audience. We start with some basic definitions and survey data on bank spend on cloud, then get into migration issues, "lift and shift" versus re-factoring, with some war stories of big migrations gone wrong, but also JP’s personal experience at the centre of DBS’ extraordinary cloud transformation program. We finish with insights on how cloud can enable new business models, such as embedded finance.   Time stamps as follows: 01:20 - JP introduces himself, his background, and the acquisition bringing him into Amdocs 03:30 - JP provides a working definition of “cloud” and “cloud transformation in banking” 05:36 - JP responds to GD exec survey data showing that “cost reduction” is less of a spend driver in cloud now (2023) than before (2021-2022) 11:03 - JP responds to CTOs at new digital banks claiming cloud is “the best and worst of technologies”, as benefits can be great but take time to realise 15:43 - JP comments on examples of banks going all in on cloud but then stepping back from that, as Dropbox has done 19:02 - JP comments on considerations between “lift and shift”, infrastructure as a service, and platform as a service in the context of legacy modernization 22:30 - JP provides examples of benefits banks can get from “life and shift” versus refactoring 26:40 - JP talks us through the top three ways big bank migrations typically go wrong 31:20 - JP talks us through prospects of big bank migrations going wrong again, as per the TSB Bank scare story 34:57 - JP talks through how cloud migrations can make it easier to pursue new business models 38:15 - JP talks through DBS’ cloud program, and what they achieved and how 41:22 - JP comments on concentration risks of working with only a handful of cloud providers 44:30 - We thank JP for his insight and guide listeners toward relevant GD research

Our third episode is with Conrad Ford, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Allica Bank. Allica is one of the very few profitable challenger banks worldwide, profitable in just over two years, and without accessing the government backed COVID-lending scheme, which makes it a particularly rare breed. However, Allica is going after different SME sub-segment, more “m” than “s”, and with quite a different philosophy. Allica sees it self as a bank, and firmly believes that’s what it’s customers want from it. There’s no talk of marketplaces, platforms, or other Consulting buzz words, but there is a lot of front line banking experience in the bank’s executive team, including Richard Davies, current CEO, former Oaknorth COO, and Conrad himself, former COO of Barclays’ Innovation Unit.   It’s a fascinating conversation overall that weaves its way through the distinctive elements of Allica’s strategy, it’s target customers, key competitors, and what the changing economic environment means for fintech, and UK banking landscape overall. Time stamps as follows:     00:00: We introduce the podcast and Conrad Ford.   01:45: What did running a start-up and being COO at Barclay’s Innovation Unit help Conrad bring to Allica. 03:10: What specific SME sub-segment is Allica targeting. 04:40: Why do incumbent banks struggle with this segment. 06:30: Who do Allica see as their primary competitors. 09:44: What does it take in terms of people to build a profitable new challenger bank. 11:44: Allica started life as Civilized Bank, then lost it’s license. What happened there. 13:00: What early technology bets did Allica place. 16:50: What role for non-traditional banking business models / alternative monetization at Allica. 19:50: What, if any, digital value-add services does Allica offer. 22:22: How does Allica compete against accounting software providers and e-comm platers in SME financial services. 25:20: What gives Allica competitive advantage in the commercial property lending market. 31:00: What does the much touted “relationship bank” element of Allica’s strategy entail. 33:45: How did you prioritize roll-out of different self service features. 37:20: How come Allica didn’t access government-backed COVID-lending scheme. 38:50: Conclusion and wrap-up.

Our second episode is with with Paolo Sironi, Global Research Lead at IBM Institute for Business Value, and author of the Amazon bestseller, "Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies: Contextual and Conscious Banking". This conversation isn't intended as a book review, but it is conceptual, and we start by introducing Paolo's Banking Reinvention Quadrant, his map of how to deliver platform business models, then get to what's hard about delivering platforms, from a technology and trust perspective, who's doing it well, who badly, and whether shifting economic and regulatory conditions in any way alter the calculus on all of this. Time stamps for the time-pressed as follows: 0:00: Intro 3:00: Paolo describes the inspiration behind writing Platform Economies 4:32: Paolo describes why trust and transparency is critical to platforms 7:31: Paolo explains what's hard about digitalizing relationships not just products 8:37: Paolo comments on the dangers of building trust by giving away money 11:31: Paolo comments on contextual banking strategies and monetization 14:18: We discuss how new interest rate environment impacts platform strategy 19:21: We discuss how executives can stay focused driving necessary tech change 21:10: Paolo comments on regulator guidance for conscious and contextual banking 23:49: We discuss some key casualties in move to platforms 27:21: Paolo offers his top single piece of advice for banks pursuing platforms 29:15: Outro

Our inaugural episode is with Brett King, founder and former CEO of Moven, author of multiple Amazon bestsellers, and Ricky Knox, co-founder and former CEO of Tandem.  Conversation starts with our consumer data on sentiment change re: new digital banks then moves to business model and strategy questions.  We've got time-stamps for the time-pressed but otherwise we hope you can enjoy the conversation from start to finish.  Time stamps:  0-3mins – We introduce GD’s podcast, and today’s guests. 3 mins – Brett and Ricky respond to GD’s survey data showing that in 6 years of new digital challengers, 9% fewer consumers globally are willing to use a bank with no branches. 6mins 20secs – Brett and Ricky respond to GD’s data showing a 17 % increase globally in consumers agreeing new digital banks are more customer centric, and 11% increase globally in those identifying as unhappy with traditional banks. Yet given continued importance of the branch, we ask Brett and Ricky if challengers should consider a limited physical presence. 10mins 30mins – We ask Brett and Ricky about lessons last ten years on how challengers can build trust quickly to secure primary account relationships in absence of a physical presence. 16mins –  We discuss how replicable lessons from China’s leading wallets are for rest of the world, and how digital a challenger Nubank really is in approach. 20mins – We ask Ricky to comment on efficacy (and profitability) of the different challenger business models. 21mins – We ask Brett and Ricky how VC sentiment has evolved toward lending vs tech business models in banking, and metrics preferred for valuation. 25mins 30secs – Brett and Ricky respond to GD’s data showing that 3% fewer consumers in the UK now believe digital only banks offer better mobile/online functionality than incumbents (2016 Vs 2022) 28mins 30secs – We ask Brett and Ricky how challengers can begin to fund the service they provide – yes there’s a gap in the market but can they find a market in the gap. 37 mins – We ask Brett And Ricky how challengers can co-exist with wallets and super apps. 41mins – We ask Brett and Ricky what prospects there are for value-based new digital banks, and share our data that “ethical” considerations is the least important driver in consumer provider choice and switching. 44mins – We say goodbye to our guests, and link to relevant GD research for further reading.