Ep37: Hazal Muhtar, Director of Product Analytics at Wise, Building and Scaling a 40 Person Data Analytics Team In 3 Years

Each year, EDC's Advanced Payments and Fintech Report provides insights into the latest trends shaping the payments landscape. Now in its 17th edition, the report examines 14 key areas transforming the industry, driven by technological innovations, regulatory changes, and evolving consumer preferences. The report also includes findings from our annual industry survey conducted between May and July 2024, gathering insights from 100 senior payments professionals worldwide on the most pressing challenges and opportunities.

In this episode, Samee Zafar meets with Ralf Germer, Co-Founder and CEO of PagBrasil, to delve into the evolving landscape of payment processing in Brazil. Ralf shares his personal journey from Germany to becoming a fintech leader in Latin America and how PagBrasil is facilitating both local and international merchants in navigating Brazil’s sophisticated payments market. He discusses the unique challenges faced by global companies when entering the Brazilian market and how PagBrasil is bridging the gap by providing tailored payment solutions that meet local demands. We also explore how the Central Bank of Brazil’s openness to innovation has paved the way for advancements like Pix and the country’s rapid embrace of instant payments and digital currency. Join us as we uncover insights into the dynamic payments industry in one of the world’s most critical markets.

In this episode, Hugh Gallagher meets with Roenen Ben-Ami, Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer at Justt. Justt is transforming the world of chargeback management with its AI-powered solution that helps businesses recover lost revenue and streamline operational efficiency. Roenen shares how Justt’s unique approach simplifies the chargeback process by automatically generating case-specific responses, allowing businesses to efficiently resolve disputes while focusing on growth and innovation. We also discuss the future of payments and how automation is playing a crucial role in shaping the industry.

In this episode of the Leaders in Payments and Fintech podcast, Jerome Traisnel, CEO and founder of SlimPay, discusses his extensive journey and insights in the fintech and payments industry. The conversation delves into the evolution of SlimPay, the first payment service provider focused exclusively on recurring payments, and its role in the rise of the subscription economy. Highlights include Jerome's background in engineering and marketing, his early ventures in mobile technology with Freever, and SlimPay's recent partnership with Trustly to set new standards for recurring payments across Europe and the UK. The episode also explores the challenges and strategies in scaling a fintech company, regulatory impacts, and the future landscape of payments and subscription services globally.

In this episode of the Leaders in Payments and Fintech podcast, James Neville, CEO, and founder of Yaspa, discusses his journey and insights in the fintech and payments industry. The conversation focuses on the evolution of Yaspa, a real-time payments business leveraging open banking technologies to reduce fraud, improve customer identification, and streamline transactions in regulated markets. Highlights include the impact of GDPR and FCA regulations, the challenges and strategies in consumer and merchant adoption, and future prospects for growth and innovation in the payments landscape globally.

This week we speak with Fliss Berridge, co-founder at Ordo - a UK fintech offering fully managed and white labelled open banking enabled payments services. The company was founded by the former management team of the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme back in 2018 with a mission to use open banking payments to provide businesses with an alternative to card payments and direct bank payments. In our conversation we discuss the latest developments in UK Open Banking, focusing on recent announcements by the JROC - Joint Regulatory Oversights Committee - on both commercial VRP-enabled services  - that is Variable Recurring Payments, and the future Open Banking entity. Some amazing insights here to bring you right up to date with UK Open Banking. And before we dive into the conversation, I just would like to add that this is actually the last EDC podcast that I will be hosting. I will be moving on and handing you over to the rest of the EDC team for the next episode. So with that out of the way, let's get straight into the conversation with Fliss Berridge from Ordopay.

This week we speak with Hazal Muhtar, Director of Product Analytics at Wise. Wise probably needs no introduction. Launched in 2011 under its original name TransferWise, it is one of the world’s fastest growing, profitable fintech companies and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2021. Hazal heads up a rapidly growing data analytics team at Wise, and in our conversation, we discuss various topics including the role of data analytics in product innovation in a highly regulated industry, the challenge of building data and technology teams around strategic business priorities, and key considerations when scaling teams.

This week we are meeting with Edy Bruinooge, CCO at IBANXS. The company was founded in 2019 in The Hague and has grown to become the leading Open Banking provider in the Netherlands. The company independent PSD2 platform connects clients with over 2,500 banks across Europe for Payments and/or Account Information. Clients live on the platform range from Payment Service Providers to Accounting Software companies to Lending and Factoring companies. Edy and his team have done an incredible job to both integrate with so many banks across Europe. The APIs all vary and the ongoing effort to maintain all these connections and deliver a consistent quality of services is not to be underestimated. We have a frank and honest discussion about the state of PSD2, PSD3 and Open Banking across Europe. Edy talks openly about the iBANXS journey and explains why he continues to be optimistic about the future of Open Banking in the EU.

This week we meet Shiraz Ritwik Head of Banking, Payments, Insurance sectors at LatentView Analytics. LatentView Analytics Ltd. is a fast-growing digital analytics firms that helps companies combine digital and traditional data to drive digital transformation and gain a competitive advantage. In our conversation we discuss how organisations can build and optimize their data strategies to unlock the full potential of their data, and how to define a data roadmap based on an organisation’s operational maturity. Shiraz shares some insightful case studies on how advanced analytics and AI can be used to streamline financial processes, prevent fraudulent transactions & gain a connected view of data from marketing campaigns. Some great tips and insights so I do hope you enjoy this conversation with Shiraz Ritwik from LatentView Analytics.

This week, we meet up with Sergio Fogel who calls in from Uruguay's capital city Montevideo. Sergio is co-founder co president and chief strategy officer of dLocal, which is Uruguay's leading FinTech. dLocal provides cross border payments, infrastructure, connecting global merchants to customers in emerging markets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Establish in 2016, dLocal has become Uruguay's first fintech unicorn, and only the second Uruguayan company to list on wall street, which it did in June 21. In our conversation, we discussed dLocal’s startup journey, Sergio explains how dLocal continues to grow and impact the lives of many in the emerging market that it connects.  He also shares his view on the current market, and a lot more besides, so I do hope you enjoy this episode with Sergio Fogel from dLocal.