Breaking Banks Asia

Hosted ByRachel Williamson, Charis Palmer, and Simon Spencer

Breaking Banks Asia gets the inside look at the incredible innovation and technological changes that are setting the standard for the rest of the world. Led by host Rachel Williamson, we talk to the people across Asia about how their ideas came together, what innovations they are bringing to fintech, and the shifts in customer behavior that are forecasting what will happen in the rest of the world.

Rachel Williamson

Host

Rachel is a science and business journalist from New Zealand, writing and podcasting about technology, banking and climate change. As a foreign correspondent, her career has spanned the Middle East, South Asia and the Horn of Africa. Rachel has interviewed Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, politicians and Egyptian revolutionaries, Middle Eastern billionaires, Australian business leaders and former Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She is the Host of Breaking Banks Asia and Co-founder of Soundcraft Media. 

Charis Palmer

Producer

Charis started her career in banking as head of product for Easy Street Financial Services, a fast follower to ING Direct in Australia. She went on to found Banking Review Media, the only publication dedicated to what was then the emerging online banking market. After a career leading new media startups across business, technology and global news, Charis is now the Producer of Breaking Banks Asia and Co-founder of Soundcraft Media.

Simon Spencer

Cohost

Simon has worked across technology, banking and startups for most of his career, from serving at Telstra Research Labs, to assignments with Oracle, Citibank on Wall Street, Salesforce and closer to home with Nab, ANZ, CBA and Suncorp. Having run engineering and technology teams in Australia, India & Singapore, Simon now serves as the CTO for Digital Engineering at Appscore and Partnerships Director for Breaking Banks Asia.

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All Episodes

Episode 33: Bitcoin people will not eat your children

Though Bitcoin is still deep in the valley of disillusion, innovators continue to find new ways to meet investor needs with Blockchain. In this episode we speak with two...

Episode 32: StraitsX Co-founder Liu Tianwei on stablecoins and the future of payments

StraitsX is the issuer of the world’s first Singapore Dollar stablecoin, XSGD, and XIDR, the StraitsX Indonesian Rupiah stablecoin, and is also a Major Payment Institution in Singapore, enabling account holders to manage...

Episode 31: When open banking goes global

With Asian markets making the leap into open banking and open finance, there’s new talk of cross-border open banking and open finance. We sat down with opn payments and open...

Episode 30: How to get people to switch from cash to digital 

Sometimes it takes out of the box thinking to get people to make the move from cash to digital money.  And if there is one person who has had...

Episode 29: Hot takes from Money20/20 Asia 

The team from Breaking Banks Asia meet forward thinkers to sum up last week’s Money 20/20 Asia conference with a focus on the investment outlook for startups and fintechs,...

Episode 28: What will kill cash? Part II

In this second part of our series on cash, cards and digital wallets, we shift our focus to the challenges and opportunities of an entirely digital payments world and...

Episode 27: “Don’t be a dick” 

Debanking is a real problem for fintechs operating in Australia. Local companies and foreign intrants alike are not immune to a 30-minutes-to-midnight text saying “your accounts will be closed...

Episode 26: What will kill cash?

In Part 1 of this two-part show we explore the resilience of cash for payments. From cards and digital wallets to superapps and digital currency, we ask the experts what’s...

Episode 25: Untangling Filipinos’ complicated financial lives 

There’s a story told by the World Bank that in 2009 more people in the Philippines had a mobile phone than a bank account – despite there still being...

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