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!