Panel Moderator
Arsh Salh - Associate Consultant, Data Platform Services @ IBM
For any accommodations, question change requests or anything at all please feel free to reach me
via LinkedIn or email at arashdeep.salh@ibm.com
Panelists
Anni Huang - Manager of Finance, Corporate Planning & Analysis @ American Express
Hanna Zaidi - Director of Regulatory Ops @ WealthSimple
Marc Folch - Sr. Manager, Innovation Insights & Emerging Solutions @ Interac
Salman Momin - Director of Cloud Financial Management @ SunLife
Questions
Note:
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The order may change during the panel and/or some questions may be removed/changed
slightly. My goal is to go through everything, but we'll need to be flexible based on
timing. There is no student Q/A.
The questions below may not be read word for word as they appear but the general theme
will still be the same.
Please pay attention to who the question is for indicated by the bold & underlined text
after each question. I've included potential prompts I may ask and other info. My goal is
for everyone to get roughly even speaking time so please make sure you share all your
thoughts with us while being respectful of the other panelists!
1. FinTech acceleration didn't stop in 2020 with some major events taking place. Various M&A
deals (Inuit/Credit Karma, Visa/Plaid [now cancelled], SoFi/Social Capital SPAC) took place,
there's been general increased awareness & adoption of equities trading and the foundational
infrastructure that supports our payments has been put to the test through increased spending and
govt payments.
What's something in the FinTech space that caught your eye or taught you something that you'd
like to share with everyone today?
For everyone, in any order
2. Each one of you here today is involved in the open banking movement in some way. Marc &
Hanna you're both public voices for this cause. Salman & Anni, both of you will be at the
forefront of changes and need to consider their impacts on your clients & organization. Can you
please share why open banking/data is important to you and how it'll have an impact on not just
the future of your careers, but also that of the students in attendance.
For everyone, in any order
3. Open banking, and open data as a whole, has been positioned as a great enabler for consumers
by giving us control over how our data is shared & stored. Can you share what your favorite
applications of this concept are or how your organization is involved in democratizing access to
data? What are some risks that we may not be aware of?
For everyone, starting with Anni to get a banking perspective
4. Billions of people use Facebook on a regular basis and it's also the gatekeeper of an
unfathomable amount of user data. Entire businesses make a living selling on Facebook given
the ease of connectivity between parties. This would indicate it's a decent candidate for an open
banking experiment.
So why did the Libra project fail at Facebook? To give brief context, Libra was Facebook's
attempt to allow users to pay for goods and services using a blockchain solution.
Open to anyone with input, starting with Hanna given regulatory experience
5. Interac E-transfer went from a convenient way to pay rent or split bills with friends to being an
essential service that many relied on to ensure their loved ones were taken care of. There were
few ways left to pay for goods and services without cash or cheque and that's why the Canadian
Central Banks’ Governor, Tiff Macklem, took steps to deem Interac E-transfer a "prominent
payment service" in August of 2020.
What does this mean? What patterns did you see in people's spending habits during COVID and
what were some interesting findings as you dealt with the rapid increase in E-transfers taking
place?
Primarily for Marc, open to additions from others at the end
6. Continuing on the topic of Peer-to-Peer payments, Wealthsimple recently announced WS
Cash. Could you please shed some light on what that process was like and what Wealthsimple’s
goal is with their P2P service? Do you want to compete directly with Interac or is your value
prop different and how? To Anni and Salman, is there an opportunity for P2P payments to add
value to your organizations?
Starting with Hanna, then Anni and Salman
7. The Central Bank of Canada has long explored the possibility of a digital currency with the
conversations becoming more serious in recent years as technologies like blockchain get better.
Do you see a future with a completely digital currency? What are your thoughts on crypto
currency vs stablecoins that are pegged to a currency and do you see any scenario where any
existing crypto currency could actually become the fiat for a whole nation? Would you use it if it
were available today?
For everyone
8. Wealthsimple, Questrade, Robinhood and so many more brokerages experienced a mass
migration of new traders coming onto their platforms for the first time, especially a younger
crowd of teenagers. This is notable because access to financial markets has traditionally been for
finance professionals or regular folk saving for retirement.
What are your thoughts on this younger crowd getting involved in the financial markets and why
do you think it didn't happen sooner if people have always made money on the stock market?
For everyone, in any order
9. To finish off the panel I'd like to go around and give everyone a to share something they're
working on, excited about or want us to know about.
For everyone, prompt Hanna for WS Crypto launch