23
de Setembre
de
2015
Act.
23
de Setembre
de
2015
Everything begins with a number: two billion dollars. This is the volume of transactions managed by Kantox, the company specialised in currency management and one of the start-ups that has gone furthest in the FinTech ecosystem. This Tuesday it is taking part in Next Bank, the congress held in Barcelona about the future of the financial system.
The company, headed by Philippe Gelis and ToniRami, has doubled the volume it manages in only eight months. "It took us three and a half years to manage the first one billion dollars, a figure that we doubled before expected thanks to a change of model that we are promoting from Kantox and which increasingly more companies identify with," says Gelis. This change of model is about the disintermediation of banks in currency management and opting for the union between the financial sector and technology.
With headquarters in Barcelona and London, Kantox already has more than 1,600 clients. "We set up in London because we believe the need was not only a Spanish one, but rather global. London accounts for 40% of the world's currency transactions and is Europe's main financial centre; yet, we are also determined not to give up Barcelona, which is a city that attracts a lot of talent," says Rami.
FinTech, the new mainstream
"This is not about future banking, but rather about banking right now," said ClaireCalmejane, director of innovation at the UK's Lloyds Banking group, during the inaugural conference of Next Bank. According to Calmejane, cooperation is the key to scaling up business: "Today there are more than 12,000 FinTech start-ups!"
Thus, the possibility of breaking into the financial sector, in the same way as the music, cinema and information industries, has created some alarm. "In Spain, there are FinTech companies in the majority of vertical markets, something that shows the evolution and development of the Spanish ecosystem," says OriolJuncosa, business angel and former investment director of Nauta Capital. For Juncosa, the FinTech panorama in Spain is very particular: "The financial sector still has a strong traditional component, it is a highly regulated sector, in fact, extraordinarily regulated and that brings with it a series of opportunities for newly-created companies here, because it creates a certain entry barrier for foreign companies."
According to Rami, "we find ourselves in an initialphase in which some are devoted to currency exchange, others provide loans and yet others, for example, do invoice discounting." In other words, innovation involves providing a better service to the client and being more efficient. A second phase is when these platforms work together and, finally, the final step will come when FinTech companies appear that will provide a service of banking infrastructure. "Some will be companies that we do not know of today and others will be banks that have transformed themselves," Rami believes.
He is not wrong. At the beginning of the year, the BBVA chairman, FranciscoGonzález, announced that "in the future, BBVA will be a software company," referring to the impact that technology is having on the transformation of the financial sector and aware that BBVA's mobile clients have risen 14 times in three years, totalling 4.3 million at the end of 2014. "The sector investing most money in technology is the financial sector, so far to set up today's more efficient processes, and from now on to develop new business models," says Juncosa.
Allies or competitors?
How should FinTech start-ups interact with traditional financial organisations? According to sources in BancSabadell, "the pairing or cooperation of entities, when it is suitable, can be beneficial for both parties and for the service offered to the client. However, it is indispensable that financial organisations have a genuine willingness to move closer to this new sector, with an open mind and the desire for innovation."
Toni Rami speaks of coopetition, cooperative competition: "I compete directly with traditional banks. This year, banks charged on average some 150 million euros less in currency commission. That is money that is not added to the results of financial bodies. I cause the banks to earn less money," says the co-founder of Kantox. "Nevertheless, I am the first to use the banks," he adds.
A curious case is the M-Pesa system in Kenya, a money transfer service that uses mobile technology created by Vodafone in 2007 and which moves 20 million euros in mobile transactions. "Kenya is a country with a very small banking sector, where payments by mobile are the order of the day! In Kenya there are more people with mobiles than with bank accounts." Do we need deregulation of the financial system to drive forward FinTech innovation? "That depends. All organisations need to be regulated but we also need to open the door to new players," Juncosa concludes.
The company, headed by Philippe Gelis and ToniRami, has doubled the volume it manages in only eight months. "It took us three and a half years to manage the first one billion dollars, a figure that we doubled before expected thanks to a change of model that we are promoting from Kantox and which increasingly more companies identify with," says Gelis. This change of model is about the disintermediation of banks in currency management and opting for the union between the financial sector and technology.
With headquarters in Barcelona and London, Kantox already has more than 1,600 clients. "We set up in London because we believe the need was not only a Spanish one, but rather global. London accounts for 40% of the world's currency transactions and is Europe's main financial centre; yet, we are also determined not to give up Barcelona, which is a city that attracts a lot of talent," says Rami.
FinTech, the new mainstream
"This is not about future banking, but rather about banking right now," said ClaireCalmejane, director of innovation at the UK's Lloyds Banking group, during the inaugural conference of Next Bank. According to Calmejane, cooperation is the key to scaling up business: "Today there are more than 12,000 FinTech start-ups!"
Thus, the possibility of breaking into the financial sector, in the same way as the music, cinema and information industries, has created some alarm. "In Spain, there are FinTech companies in the majority of vertical markets, something that shows the evolution and development of the Spanish ecosystem," says OriolJuncosa, business angel and former investment director of Nauta Capital. For Juncosa, the FinTech panorama in Spain is very particular: "The financial sector still has a strong traditional component, it is a highly regulated sector, in fact, extraordinarily regulated and that brings with it a series of opportunities for newly-created companies here, because it creates a certain entry barrier for foreign companies."
According to Rami, "we find ourselves in an initialphase in which some are devoted to currency exchange, others provide loans and yet others, for example, do invoice discounting." In other words, innovation involves providing a better service to the client and being more efficient. A second phase is when these platforms work together and, finally, the final step will come when FinTech companies appear that will provide a service of banking infrastructure. "Some will be companies that we do not know of today and others will be banks that have transformed themselves," Rami believes.
He is not wrong. At the beginning of the year, the BBVA chairman, FranciscoGonzález, announced that "in the future, BBVA will be a software company," referring to the impact that technology is having on the transformation of the financial sector and aware that BBVA's mobile clients have risen 14 times in three years, totalling 4.3 million at the end of 2014. "The sector investing most money in technology is the financial sector, so far to set up today's more efficient processes, and from now on to develop new business models," says Juncosa.
Allies or competitors?
How should FinTech start-ups interact with traditional financial organisations? According to sources in BancSabadell, "the pairing or cooperation of entities, when it is suitable, can be beneficial for both parties and for the service offered to the client. However, it is indispensable that financial organisations have a genuine willingness to move closer to this new sector, with an open mind and the desire for innovation."
Toni Rami speaks of coopetition, cooperative competition: "I compete directly with traditional banks. This year, banks charged on average some 150 million euros less in currency commission. That is money that is not added to the results of financial bodies. I cause the banks to earn less money," says the co-founder of Kantox. "Nevertheless, I am the first to use the banks," he adds.
A curious case is the M-Pesa system in Kenya, a money transfer service that uses mobile technology created by Vodafone in 2007 and which moves 20 million euros in mobile transactions. "Kenya is a country with a very small banking sector, where payments by mobile are the order of the day! In Kenya there are more people with mobiles than with bank accounts." Do we need deregulation of the financial system to drive forward FinTech innovation? "That depends. All organisations need to be regulated but we also need to open the door to new players," Juncosa concludes.