Arturs Kononovs, Deputy Head of Sales at COLIBRIX ONE, discusses the company's focus on processing services, direct banking accounts, and the challenges faced by companies in the fintech industry. He emphasizes the importance of a human approach in onboarding and the need for a balance between AI and human interaction in the banking process.

Takeaways

• Fintech companies face challenges in onboarding due to the lack of a human approach.
• The future of banking and payments requires a balance between AI and human interaction.

Chapters

• 00:00 Company Overview and Focus
• 02:14 Challenges in Onboarding and AI
• 05:18 Modern Fintech Banking Solutions
• 06:23 Subscription Businesses and Payment Flow
• 07:17 Geographical Focus and Future of Banking
• 08:19 Combining AI and Human Approach
• 11:12 Priorities for the Future

The Density Shift: Why Nvidia GB300 chips are pushing rack power requirements to 150kW, necessitating a move to liquid cooling.

Regional Hub Status: How the Middle East is leveraging subsea cable connectivity and reliable power to become a global data hub.

Infrastructure Obsolescence: The risks facing investors in legacy "powered shell" data centres as technology requirements leap forward.

Data Sovereignty: The growing demand for "on-soil" data centres to protect confidential government and enterprise information.

Inferencing vs Training: Why the next wave of data centres must be distributed and low-latency to support real-time AI applications.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to The FinTech Times News and Views.

00:41 - Milan Radia on his background in data centres and Taranis Capital.

01:32 - The transition from "glorified real estate" to high-complexity compute hubs.

05:15 - Subsea cables and the Middle East as a strategic information highway.

07:30 - Why the UAE and Saudi Arabia are winning the data centre race.

10:45 - The impact of Nvidia Blackwell architecture on data centre design.

13:20 - Moving from AI training to real-time inferencing and the latency challenge.

15:44 - Conclusion and closing remarks.

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

Regional Growth: Comparing the energy and investment landscapes of Web Summit events in Lisbon, Rio, and Qatar.

Scaling Success: How Started PR evolved alongside its clients from pre-seed stages through to international expansion.

Market Trends: The current industry focus on AI applications and the role of stablecoins in modern finance.

Globalisation Hurdles: Strategies for internationalising regulated fintech solutions across different jurisdictions.

Impact Measurement: Moving beyond hype to identify where AI is delivering tangible results in onboarding and credit.

00:00 – Introduction to TFT News and Views

00:41 – Kimberly Waldron on the energy of Web Summit Qatar

01:50 – Transitioning PR strategies from startups to larger brands

03:00 – Key trends: AI, stablecoins, and capital efficiency

05:10 – 2026 Outlook: Moving from talking points to case studies

06:40 – Conclusion

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

Episode Notes:

The Graph Advantage: Shifting from rigid data tables to mathematical nodes and relationships to mirror real-world systems.

Financial Crime Prevention: How the ICIJ used graph databases to untangle the complex shell company webs of the Panama Papers.

AI’s "Left Brain": Using knowledge graphs to provide deterministic logic, explainability, and access control for Large Language Models.

Data Sovereignty: Managing the balance between on-premise security for regulated banks and managed cloud services like AWS, GCP, and Azure.

The Context Revolution: Why venture capital identifies context graphs as a trillion-dollar opportunity for the next wave of AI deployment.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction to The Fintech Times News and Views.

00:41 – Meet Philip Rathle, CTO at Neo4j.

01:35 – Why networks fail when shoved into traditional tables.

03:32 – Case Study: Untangling the Panama Papers.

05:32 – Market nuances and expansion in the Middle East.

06:41 – AI agents and the transition to graph-based queries.

08:19 – Solving AI hallucinations and the need for explainability.

10:11 – Data sovereignty and cloud security options for banks.

11:32 – The future: From AI buzz to the "trillion-dollar" context graph.

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

Key Topics Covered:

Leapfrogging Development: Why the Middle East and Africa are moving directly to open finance rather than following the incremental UK/Europe model.

Inclusion over Competition: How regional frameworks are designed to foster collaboration between banks and fintechs to reach underserved segments.

Infrastructure Foundations: The role of standardisation and quality APIs in building the "pipe work" necessary for market-wide connectivity.

Modernising Legacy Payments: Utilising open finance to solve regional-specific challenges, such as transitioning away from physical rent checks.

AI and Data Synergy: The potential for agentic AI to transform consented financial data into automated, high-value recommendations for users.

Measuring Future Success: Why the industry focus will shift from technical connectivity to tangible social and economic impact by next year.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to News and Views

00:27 - Guest Introduction: Nihal Abughattas

01:32 - The State of Open Finance in the Middle East

03:05 - Use Cases: Inclusion, APIs, and the SME Gap

06:14 - Beyond Banking: Insurance and Rent Payment Innovation

08:45 - The Marriage of Open Finance and Agentic AI

10:43 - Predictions for the Coming Year

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

Key topics discussed:

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to the importance of market analysis and risk management 00:44 - The role of Forex.com and StoneX Group in connecting global markets 01:11 - Differences in needs between family offices and other investment sectors 01:47 - The impact of recent market trends on risk strategies 02:44 - How market conditions influence diversification and risk mitigation 03:24 - Insights into assets, including digital and traditional assets, in volatile markets 04:03 - The effect of geopolitical shifts on asset classes and investment strategies 05:21 - The trending role of AI in global finance and portfolio management 05:54 - Concerns and opportunities surrounding AI's influence on jobs and markets 06:22 - The human element in finance amidst AI advancements 07:17 - Closing remarks and gratitude

Resources & Links:

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

Key topics:

Timestamps: 00:00 - Welcome to the Future of Payments with stablecoins and blockchain innovation 01:08 - Overview of recent developments in cross-border payments and fintech evolution 02:15 - How pandemic accelerated demand for faster, cheaper high-value payments 03:44 - The rise of stablecoins and crypto solutions as reliable settlement tools 04:36 - Challenges caused by lack of regulation and trust issues in crypto history 05:47 - How regulation like the GENIUS Act is shaping stablecoin adoption 07:00 - Consumer expectations driving banks and fintechs towards instant transactions 08:22 - The growth of stablecoins in emerging markets during macroeconomic pressures 09:52 - Younger generations' curiosity and global access shaping demand 11:32 - How messaging infrastructure differs from traditional money movement 12:56 - Payments ecosystem’s lack of transparency and the need for better understanding 13:16 - Adoption hurdles and the need for global regulatory frameworks 14:36 - Role of major networks like Ripple and Circle; are they enough? 16:14 - Main trends: stablecoins as a primary global settlement method in next 18-24 months 17:04 - Regulatory developments in Europe and their impact on stablecoin models 18:52 - The importance of proactive, global regulation and industry standards 20:44 - Future payment rails: multiple networks and interoperability needed 22:38 - Predicting stablecoins' market share in payments by 2025 24:24 - The transformational potential of real-time settlement and cost reduction 25:00 - Final thoughts: exciting transition ahead for the payments ecosystemResources & Links:

Connect with Nkiru:

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

Join Mark Walker as he delves into the world of stablecoins with Vincent Chok, CEO of First Digital. Recorded at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, this episode explores the latest announcements from First Digital, including their public listing and the launch of a new platform for agentic payments. Vincent shares insights on the future of stablecoins, the role of digital currency in Web3, and the importance of a multi-network approach. Discover how stablecoins are set to revolutionize digital payments and what the future holds for this transformative technology.

Chapters:

Introduction to FinTech Times(0:00)

Vincent Chok's Introduction and First Digital's Announcements(1:30)

The Role of Stablecoins in Agentic Payments(5:00)

Future of Digital Currency and Web3(10:00)

Multi-Network Approach and Global Adoption(15:00)

Closing Thoughts and Reflections on Abu Dhabi Finance Week(20:00)

Topics Discussed:

• Introduction to FinTech Times and Abu Dhabi Finance Week
• First Digital's public listing and new platform launch
• The significance of stablecoins in agentic payments
• Predictions for the future of digital currency and Web3
• The necessity of a multi-network approach for global adoption

Useful Timestamps:

• 1:30 - Vincent Chok introduces First Digital
• 5:00 - Discussion on agentic payments and stablecoins
• 10:00 - Insights on digital currency and Web3
• 15:00 - Multi-network approach and its importance
• 20:00 - Reflections on Abu Dhabi Finance Week

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.

In this engaging episode, Mark Walker, Editorial Director at the FinTech Times, sits down with Matthew Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management, at Abu Dhabi Finance Week. They explore the UAE's emerging role as a leader in the digital asset space, highlighting its regulatory clarity and technological advancements. Matthew shares Bitwise's journey from launching the world's first crypto index fund to becoming a major player in the ETF and ETP markets. The conversation delves into the challenges of gaining regulatory approval and educating institutional investors about crypto. They also discuss the transformative potential of AI in finance, emphasizing the inevitability of crypto's integration into mainstream financial systems. The episode concludes with reflections on the vibrant atmosphere of Abu Dhabi Finance Week and the promising future of digital finance.

Timestamps:

• [00:00] Introduction to the FinTech Times News and Views podcast
• [02:15] Matthew Hougan on the UAE's leadership in digital assets
• [05:30] Bitwise's journey and the creation of the first crypto index fund
• [10:45] Challenges in gaining regulatory approval
• [15:00] The role of AI in the future of finance
• [20:00] Reflections on Abu Dhabi Finance Week

The Fintech Times News &Views Podcast delivers strategic insight into the trends redefining global financial services, with commentary from industry leaders and innovators. Discover more coverage, interviews, research, and partnership opportunities at thefintechtimes.com and follow The Fintech Times across all major social platforms.