Today we are excited to unveil the first podcast of Under The Hood from 11:FS and Synapse. In this series, we’re going to uncover the banking infrastructure, taking you deep into the technology that is disrupting traditional models to improve the financial lives of millions of customers. 

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The co-hosts, Simon Taylor from 11:FS and Sankaet Pathak from Synapse are joined by Helen Bierton, Chief Banking Officer at Starling Bank, a fast-growing challenger bank in the UK with over 2 million customers, over $4 billion in deposits, and nearly $2 billion in assets. Also joining is Neel Ganu Founder at Finch who’s first-ever all-in-one account gives its customers the returns of investing while keeping the flexibility of a checking account.

In this first episode, we begin at the beginning by asking the question “what does it mean to be a bank in this expanding fintech ecosystem?”. We’ll take a look at the financial services ecosystem as a whole and explore how technology is disrupting not just banking, but our understanding of what a bank is.
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“We’re going through a revolution - everyone wants access to the same tools rich people have.” 

-Sankaet Pathak

The conversation continues with the participants discussing how the utilization of technology and a developer culture is helping neobanks and other fintechs stand out. They also talk about the emergence of big tech, why they stayed on the sidelines for so long, and what their big moves into banking in 2020 could mean. Then wrapping it up, they look at the players across the financial services ecosystem and assess the landscape for new entrants today and tomorrow.