Episodes

Where should a financial services business expand next? And what makes a market attractive enough to justify the move? In this episode of The London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark is joined by Mr King Leung, Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion 2 at InvestHK, to explore why Hong Kong continues to attract financial services, fintech and technology businesses from around the world. Drawing on his experience as an entrepreneur, consultant and investment promotion leader, King shares wh...

Anant Kumar discusses the current state and future potential of blockchain in finance, exploring how institutions are beginning to adopt the technology and where it could have the greatest impact: collateral, settlement and tokenisation .Drawing on real-world examples, including Benefit Street Partners’ Bitcoin-backed loan and Galaxy Digital’s tokenised commercial paper transaction on Solana, Anant explains how blockchain is being applied to traditional financial processes, and what needs to ha...

When you’re under pressure to grow, slowing down can feel like the wrong move. But rushing past the difficult questions can leave you fixing problems just as your business starts to scale. Emma Hagan, UK CEO of ClearBank, joins the London Fintech Podcast to explain why investing time in the right people, processes and conversations early on can help you move faster later. Having moved from leading risk and compliance to running the UK bank, Emma shares how ClearBank approaches growth, launches...

Blockchain may have its greatest impact on finance when customers stop seeing it. In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, about the convergence of blockchain and traditional financial infrastructure — and why the future of digital finance may be less about replacing existing systems and more about making blockchain invisible beneath familiar financial products. The conversation explores what stablecoins are already making possible...

Where is the VC money going in the UK, and what does it take for a startup to become investment-ready in today’s funding market? In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Thomas Easterby from HSBC Innovation Banking about the state of the UK innovation economy, the latest venture capital trends, the surge in AI investment, and what founders need to know when raising capital. The conversation explores a rapidly changing funding landscape, where AI investment has reac...

Crypto is no longer operating at the edges of finance. It’s becoming part of the core infrastructure powering global payments, treasury operations, and digital asset innovation.In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Ran Goldi, SVP Payments & Network at Fireblocks, to explore the rapid rise of stablecoins, institutional crypto adoption, and the technologies reshaping the future of financial services.Broadcast live from Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, the conversa...

Embedded banking is moving from concept to reality. According to Andrew Ellis, CEO of NatWest Boxed, the future of financial services will be shaped by organisations that can seamlessly integrate banking products into the experiences customers already use every day.In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Andrew Ellis, CEO of NatWest Boxed, about the evolution of Banking-as-a-Service, embedded finance, and how major brands are creating new opportunities through finan...

Most AI projects don't fail because of the model. They fail because organisations don't trust the data.In this special live edition of the London Fintech Podcast, recorded from Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, Tony Clark sits down with Remco den Heijer, Vice President APJ & EMEA Channels at Alteryx, to explore why data readiness has become the defining challenge in enterprise AI adoption.As organisations move from AI experimentation to real-world deployment, the conversation is shifting away from...

Recorded live at the Banking Transformation Summit, this special London Fintech Podcast panel brings together senior leaders from banking and technology to explore one of the biggest strategic questions facing financial services today: what happens when AI moves from assistant to autonomous teammate? Host Tony Clark is joined by Stuart McIntyre, Executive Director, Digital Strategy & Operations – AI & Change Enablement at Standard Chartered, Marc Barnard-Naulls, Head of Enterprise Platforms and...

Smartphones are evolving. According to Emmett Hollyer of Solana Mobile, the next generation of devices will be the foundation of how we own, trade, and manage digital assets.In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Emmett Hollyer from Solana Mobile about the rise of crypto-native hardware, the launch of the Seeker device, and why mobile phones could become the primary gateway to decentralised finance and digital ownership.Emmett shares the story behind building one o...

Crypto is moving from the margins to the core of global financial infrastructure — but the real question is how fast that transformation will happen, and who will lead it. In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Keith Grose, UK CEO at Coinbase, to explore the evolution of crypto, institutional adoption, and the technologies shaping the next decade of finance. The conversation traces Coinbase’s journey from early conviction in digital assets to becoming one of the ...

Banking is changing fast, but what does real transformation actually look like inside today’s financial institutions? In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Mark Johnstone, Chief Strategy Officer at MoneyNext and Managing Director of the Banking Transformation Summit, to unpack how banks are navigating AI, modernisation, and the evolving competitive landscape. Mark shares insights from curating one of the most practitioner-led banking events in Europe, where t...

In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Christoph Rieche, CEO and Co-Founder of iwoca, about his transition from Goldman Sachs to building one of Europe’s leading SME lending platforms. “More than 80% of our customers receive instant credit decisions… and can draw funding the same day.” That capability sits at the heart of iwoca’s proposition — transforming SME lending from a slow, uncertain process into something fast, data-driven, and accessible. Christoph expl...

Entrepreneurship offers endless opportunities, but the real challenge is knowing which ones to pursue. In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with James Benham, CEO & Co-Founder at JBK & Terra and host of the InsurTech Geek Podcast, to reflect on a wide-ranging career spanning technology, insurance, and construction, and the hard-earned lessons that come with it. The conversation explores how procurement and RFP processes are increasingly incorporating supplier divers...

Money20/20 has become one of the most important gatherings in global fintech — bringing together the leaders, innovators, and institutions shaping the future of financial services. In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Oliver Smith, Head of Content for Europe at Money20/20 Europe 2026, to explore what’s coming at this year’s flagship event. They discuss the scale and ambition of Money20/20 Europe, the key themes driving the agenda, and how the conference continu...

Blockchain has been discussed for over a decade, but its real impact in institutional finance is only now beginning to take shape. In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset and Co-Founder of Canton, about how blockchain infrastructure is evolving to meet the needs of global capital markets. At the centre of the conversation is the Canton Network: a public, privacy-enabled blockchain designed to bring blockchain rails to financial mar...

As AI accelerates across financial services, the real competitive advantage is no longer just analytics — it’s decision intelligence. In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark is joined by Jamie Hutton, Chief Technology Officer of Quantexa, to explore how organisations are moving beyond dashboards and manual analysis toward context-driven, automated decision-making. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Quantexa is one of the UK’s standout post-pandemic unicorns, scaling global...

While much of the financial world is racing to keep up with AI and the rapid institutionalisation of blockchain and crypto, another powerful technology has been quietly advancing in the background for decades — quantum computing.In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark is joined by Christopher Jensen, Portfolio Manager & Director of Digital Asset Research at Franklin Templeton, to explore what quantum computing really is — and why it could have profound implications for digital ...

🎙️ In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark speaks with Søren Westh Lonning, CFO of Pleo, about how finance leaders are navigating an era of growing complexity, higher expectations, and mounting pressure — and why too many organisations are still making decisions based on hindsight rather than foresight. Søren shares Pleo’s growth journey, scaling from €65m to €165m in ARR in just three years, and explains how the company has evolved from a simple expense management tool into a...

In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Susanne Chishti to explore the growing pressure on CFOs operating in today’s increasingly complex financial environment, from geopolitical shocks to shrinking margins and fragmented data systems. This conversation is created in collaboration with Pleo, and highlights their work in modernising the CFO’s office through real-time visibility, automated treasury workflows, and embedded finance capabilities that unify spend acro...

🎙️ In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Sid Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, to explore the rapid rise of onchain finance and what it means for the future of institutional lending, asset management, and global financial markets. Sid explains how Maple is building institutional-grade borrowing and lending natively onchain, taking a different path from traditional finance players that rely on legacy rails. By using stablecoins, Bitcoin, and decentralized finance p...

🎙️ In this episode, Tony sits down with Richard Squire, founder of My Finance Future, to explore how his FinTech startup is reshaping the way people plan their financial lives—not just for today, but for the decades ahead. Richard shares his journey from a successful career in management consulting to building a platform designed to help individuals truly understand their long-term financial position. He explains why so many people begin planning too late, and how My Finance Future aims to solv...

🎙️ In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Dalal Buhejji to explore how Bahrain is fast becoming one of the most dynamic fintech hubs in the Middle East. Dalal unpacks Bahrain’s rich legacy in financial services, now the largest contributor to its economy, surpassing oil and gas. She shares how the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) supports global and local fintechs entering the market—providing investment facilitation, guidance, and an environment design...

In this episode of the London Fintech Podcast, Tony Clark sits down with Ben Brophy, Head of Institutional Growth, Europe at the Solana Foundation, to explore how the world’s fastest and most actively used blockchain is shaping the next generation of financial infrastructure. Ben shares his journey from traditional finance—spanning roles at NatWest and Fidelity International—to leading Solana’s institutional adoption across Europe. They dive into how Solana’s high-performance, single-layer netw...