Episodes

China continues to forge ahead with its central bank digital currency, notching up millions of transactions through giveaways and lottos. But beyond the consumer headlines lies a long-term strategy that could disrupt both banks and international trade. We speak with two experts, ‘Cashless’ author Richard Turrin and Singapore Management University professor and China economic law scholar Heng Wang, on what it might mean for banks and the global financial order.

Description: The promise of conversational AI has so far been a disappointing series of chatbots helping banks reduce cost but doing little to inspire customers or improve the service experience. Can ChatGPT help the sector do better? We ask Sandra Ernst, the COO of a Singapore-based insurtech firm already using big data and AI to help deliver their products, co-host and resident AI expert Simon Spencer and, of course, ChatGPT.

What looked to be an emerging wave of challenger banks has in Australia fizzled, leaving few real challengers to the big 4. And after what was a much needed fintech correction in US and UK markets, only the best are left standing. In this special episode, and the first ever podcast interview with an APRA executive, we look at the lessons from the current wave of failed neobanks. Featuring APRA’s former head of regulatory affairs and licencing Melisande Waterford, The Australian senior journalis...

If 2022 felt like the year of the ‘perfect storm’ for cyber incidents, then it’s likely the weather will not improve in 2023 as banks along with many other enterprises continue to build, harden and invest in their cyber security capabilities, using new technologies and new approaches. We ask Rene Morel from Deloitte and Nick Ellsmore from Trustwave, both experienced cyber security specialists, what went wrong and where the next threats are coming from.

We chat to computer scientist and startup founder Paul McCarthy about new research based on a big data set he’s working on showing just how different startup founders are to regular employees, and the personality types that make the best mix in a startup team. Following Paul, Cocoon Capital Managing Partner Michael Blakey discusses how he and other VC investors assess founder behaviour and work with founders to broaden their skill set.

With a global recession on the cards, capital-rich bank venture funds are in a powerful position. We explore how they are using that power and whether they are capitalizing on opportunities created by private venture capital drying up — or not.

Open banking in India and the Philippines is opening the door for millions of people to take part in the formal banking sector, be it an individual opening a bank account or a small business getting a loan. We explore how new business models are being built in a region of empowered citizens who are more data rich than economically rich.

Open banking in Australia has stalled. It’s been active for two years, and before that had a three year runway to get the ground rules sorted out, but the promised influx of third party players hasn’t yet happened. Some have even left. Furthermore, a series of data hacks this year across the Australian economy is making Aussies wary about who is doing what with their data. We catch up with Brenton Charnley, former CEO of the Australia/New Zealand arm of UK open banking pioneer TrueLayer and get...

We step back in time to 2010, the year Steve Jobs released the iPad, Instagram joined the socials scene and Uber, and with it the gig economy, were being born in New York. It was also the year Brett King released his first book – Bank 2.0 predicting the future for financial services. To set the scene for the new edition of Breaking Banks Asia, new host Rachel Williamson and Producer Charis Palmer dissect Brett’s predictions, what fintech has done for bank innovation and posit the question: Is i...