Hello. Um I hope you can hear me and thank you very much for waiting. Um So um today, my name is Alina Kornienko. I'm coo and co-founder of Pup. Um And we are building a financial bank as a service solution since 2017.And that's why today I will be sharing with you the latest tech uh disruption um events that happened in the banking industry just for you to understand uh it as a user and also uh from the tax side. So I will be sharing my slides with you. Yes, I hope you can, I hope you can see my slides. So just a few words about me. I am doctor in linguistics and communication and um I've been working on communications in the tech sphere for almost like 10 years and since 2017, as I said, together with my co-founders, I am um building a one of the newest Financial solutions, Global Financial Solutions. So, first of all, uh I would like to talk with you about the current situation in the banking sphere. So we're now living uh a very new wave of disruption that is being absolutely more powerful than all the previous ones. So its roots are technological, economic, geopolitical, demographic and environmental and yet the technological route, I'll be coming back. Disruption is still one of the key disruption drivers.

So today, the fusion uh of current technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and Blockchain, not only create new opportunities, but also engender new risks, uh new risks and new working ways and operational ways uh uh ways in the banking sphere. So the banking sphere is being crucially changed. And we should also when talking about the financial and banking disruption. Today, we should also take into consideration the Japan of uh developed economies such as European ones. So what is Japan? It's persistent low growth.

Uh It's low inflation or even deflation at near to zero or negative interest rate. And what does this low growth scenario bring to traditional banks? It brings drastic reduction in banking capacity with less and less banks being able to recover their cost of equity. What also influences uh new uh new disruption in the banking sphere also material consequences for banking, industry growth and profitability, aging population in those growth economies and also in China that is being extremely strong in the economic way in the past years. And for the first time in uh the banking sphere, such um criteria as a globally popular and increasing concerns about climate change and social impact. And of course, the world pandemic we're living today. Uh and that has drastically changed our lives, I think forever. So all of this shows that banking sector needs differentiated capacities to stay life and to bring better services to its clients. So banking should become how should become more open, more transparent, real time, more intelligent, tailored, secure, deeply integrated uh into customers lives.

And what one of the most important things is it should be rapidly adopted to all those criteria that influence not only banking but its customers' lives. So and the at this very moment, the tech disruption, I'm talking about gains, its preliminary role. So with this tech disruption, banking can no more be a closed off and exclusively vertical industry. So the main point of this disruption, what should actually banks do? Banks should partner external providers that uh capitalize new revenue streams and in large customer base.

So and at this very moment, this partnering brings to light the very new financial solution and the very new financial reality which is called bank as a service. So what is Bank as a service? Banking service is an end to end process where third parties like fin tax, non Fintan developers, etcetera can access and execute financial services capabilities without having to develop them organically. So banks are now providing third parties with access to core systems and functionality to integrate digital banking and payment services into their own banking, traditional products. And what does that actually bring to to us customers? Because I'm speaking with you. Not only like a tag disruptor but also like a financial solution customer. This brings improvement in the customer periods. And for those third parties who integrate into the banking systems, it also brings maneuver through some regulatory filth that are really, really strict.

Banking sphere is one of the most treated and regulated ones in, in the world. So uh third parties and banks bringing together a bank as a service, have a mutual benefit and that's the most important. So banking as a service, this new reality is beneficial for traditional banks for c disruptors and also for clients. So it looks idyllic really and thus banking as a service might be characterized as an ecosystem, an ecosystem that is being born and what's also important. Please do not think that bank as a service and open bank banking is just the same thing. They are absolutely different. So when open banking, uh means that banks provide access to third party providers to its existing customer data through some open API S bank is a service, uh gives the possibility for banks to provide access to specific banking capabilities such as payments on boarding, landing, allowing non-bank companies to connect users outside and the banking customer base to access its banking services.

So actually what benefits does bank as a service bring to traditional banks? It's of course new revenue streams, as I've said, new customer base and new customer experience and the benefits for third parties of course, it's faster speed to market, especially for the Finta that have lots of regulatory problems all around the world. Uh And also the competition that is extremely high in this sphere and also overcome regulatory complexities, as I've also said, so uh what's the main conclusion here is that modern banks should become m modular and platform based to face these new economical and financial realities, they should be innovative and revenue driven businesses.

And bank is a service that is the main point from all sides. And then bank as a service model proves that it is better for every segment of an ecosystem to focus on a very few key areas of strength and expertise and partner with other dedicated services or service providers in the area which are not their um core competence. And so who are these third parties that participate in the bank as a service ecosystem except those traditional banks, these are fintech and pay tax. But what is the difference like, I mean fintech, all of us have heard from everywhere about fintech uh in those last like 34 years, but pay tax, it's like a bit different thing. So pay t it's an organization that uses technology to enable the electronic, the electronic transfer of value. So not only financial thing but also data. Um so pay tag, it's about data, instant and secure transfer to fast and payment process and make it more efficient. Pay tag is really mm a functional way of combining all types of payment solutions to make it faster, convenient, cheaper than it than it is now. And Fintech, it's quite an opposite thing.

So Fintech is a term that is used to describe financial technology and industry encompassing any kind of technology in financial services from businesses to consumers. And Fintech is all about what we just we were talking about some minutes ago. It's about new customer experience why Fintech seem to be today, the only solution for those unbanked people and they're estimated to be today, more than 2 billion all around the globe to access financial services and solutions they still need. So um Fintech, it's about experience pay tech.

It's about more about like an internal technology really the the backhand of of the bank as a service. Um But we see that nevertheless, Fintech, more customer oriented paycheck, more process oriented, we see that both of them uh bring new ways for customers to access and manage their finances. The thing that traditional banks were not that focused during the, the the last years.

And so that is actually how um my use case QP was born in 2017. So we are building a bank as a service step by step. But why I would like to just emphasize QP because it's not a traditional bank as a service case, it's a particular case uh as we're building not a classical bank as a service where the core is a traditional bank. But uh the very core of our platform and the bank of service is only platform based ecosystem is a fintech solution once uh focusing just on digital currencies today, focusing on this philosophy of um financial, personal, financial customer experience. So the main point of such bank as a service is this tech core tech core that enables to on the one hand build our own services. Some of them where our highest expertise is and on the other hand, connect through open or not open API s those services that are not our strength, but that are absolutely needed to our uh to our customers all around the globe. And what's also very important is the contactless point.

We're now uh strengthening just because of course, FTAS are mostly mostly um contactless and yet um we have seen a huge number of clients starting using our services, contactless bank account, opening contactless payments, contactless uh transfers, money transfers due to this uh pandemic uh tragedy that that is happening all around the globe.

And we understood that because we are a platform because we are an ecosystem, we can monitor the um global situation, economical social. We can see what our analyze in real time, what our users uh are up to. And we can efficiently and fastly add to this ecosystem. These services that are on a very needy like today by our customers just to enable them to efficiently use all the services and not to stop their lives. I mean, make uh the most important thing is to make banking experience, easy, fast and efficient, efficient, it means not only time uh forces span to, to make some kinds of financial operations and, and of course, the the low fees that we're trying to establish. Nevertheless, those are our own services or um partnerships. So that's the main idea of what is happening in the banking sphere today with this tech disruption point uh in globing this sphere. OK. So um the difference between C and contactless payments such as Alipay, Google pay is that we are not just a payment solution, we are all in one financial solution. So as I've said, as bank as a service, we bring together all types of financial services, financial investment and payment, uh all in one platform, all in one application. So you won't need any more. Um You won't need any more other applications.

We're now working on an A I solution that is like the next level of apple pay and Google Pay that will enable uh every user uh to connect all of its uh all of its um banking cards, all of its bank accounts to our application. And at the moment of purchase this A I solution decides itself with what part uh or account it's better to make this purchase at this very moment. Uh So we're taking these technologies to improve them and to make, as I've said, a better customer experience. Um Thank you Lily for the question and Nancy. So Nancy's question is what are the advantages of bank as a service? So um bank as a service is uh more customer oriented. So as I've said, the advantage for banks and for third parties is like a uh a global excess and in global access to new customers to new revenue streams. So basically, it's cost sharing uh different uh customer bases and different technologies, it's easier to connect them together instead of building a technology where as I've mentioned a bit earlier, you are not that expertise. Um So it's like going together to uh to new customers, to new technologies instead of building something separately, it's about cooper operation that is mutually beneficial. Um So Linlin uh also asks navigating the different regulatory regimes in different geographic areas such as EU versus us versus India. OK.

So uh we faced this problem when building our pup financial solution. Um So basically, uh it's all again about this type type of banking disruption. As we are bank as a service, we're able to connect to our platform, different banking and institutional partners. For example, if I want to operate in India or in China, I can either um get my own electronic electronic money institution em I license or what is more um more convenient and more fast to enter the new market is that I can partner through API through my platform with some institution that already exists in the region.

It's um in the European Union. It, it's not that uh it's not that difficult, but in the US uh in India and in Latin America, there are lots of different regional legislations in Asia also that uh make it really difficult to um to obtain all those licenses. So for me to enter any market and to propose more services to our customers, not only regional customers but global customers who for example need to uh make transfers, need to financially cooperated with some citizens of other regions and countries to partner um through our platform, open these regional institutions to our customer base and open our customer base and other partners, customer bases to these local institutions.

So it's cooper operation and communication. What I love a lot like, I mean, uh bank as a service, it's really a technical and financial cooper operation and communication plus dialogue enabled through these platform technologies. Probably you have some some more questions. Thank you again for, for asking me all of this. It really helps me to, to tell you more in details about bank as a service. Probably some something that I just missed in my main speech. Um Lily uh to check the approach by and finance, which partners with local institutions and was also working on supplying uh financial technologies. Um Yeah, it it definitely thank you for mentioning. It's definitely interesting for me to right after this event to check their proposals and the opportunities they offer through their technologies and through their philosophy. Um If you have some hm some proposals, some suggestions uh for, for our company, or you just want to discuss those banking as a service disruption ways and points always feel free to contact me uh via social networks or via um my email. I will write it to you in the chat right away once again. And it's really a pleasure sharing with you my expertise and getting to know more. What do you think about like what we do and sharing the ideas? Thank you. You're a really great audience.

So yeah, if you don't have any more questions, once again, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to uh to talk to you during this event or during the next women tech global events. Thank you. Have a lovely day and have a lovely event. Bye bye.