Insights: Why does your financial life reset when you move countries? With Paymentology

Benjamin Ensor (0:15)

Welcome to Fintech Insider Insights. I'm Benjamin Ensor, Director of Research and Strategy at 11FS.

Now, moving countries has in many ways never been easier, but moving your financial life with you can be a different story.

You can arrive in a new country with a good job, years of financial history, and a record of managing your money responsibly, and yet suddenly find that the financial system knows nothing about you. So that's exactly the problem our partners at Paymentology and Maxim are trying to tackle through a new partnership announced this week. Maxim has launched its UK credit card program, initially focused on the Nigerian diaspora, with Paymentology providing the issuer processing infrastructure behind it. The aim is to help Africans living across borders build their financial identity and access products designed around how they actually live their lives and spend money. And it leads to a much bigger question for financial services. For decades, diaspora banking has largely been associated with one thing, sending money to communities back home. But people living across borders need far more than just remittances. So on this week's episode of Fintech Insider, in partnership with Paymentology, we're asking what should financial services designed around people whose lives cross borders look like?

So to help unpack this, I'm delighted to be joined by three experts. First of all, we have a welcome back to the show for Merusha Naidu, Global Head of Partnerships at Paymentology. Merusha, welcome back to the show. Please could you remind our listeners a little bit about you and a little bit about your role at Paymentology?

Merusha Naidu (1:51)

Perfect. Thanks, Benjamin. I'm so happy to be back as usual. I lead global partnerships at Paymentology, where we work very closely with banks and Fintechs to bring new card programs to market, and really help them scale across regions. That really gives me a front role into being able to see the gaps, and how even though payments are so global, a lot of these banks and financial systems still operate very, very locally, and that's really what we try to change. One of the things I love about Maxim is, I moved from South Africa to the UK, and so the experience of having to rebuild your financial history and your credit history, and it resonated so well with me.

So we really want to understand as a professional, how do we help these types of customers, how do we really create real financial inclusion, and create a borderless experience for customers, where my identity remains my identity. So really excited to be here and excited to have this conversation with Ibrahim and Valerie.

Benjamin Ensor (2:57)

Exciting.

So yes, I'm also excited to welcome Ibrahim Oladele, founder of Maxim. Ibrahim, welcome. Could I ask you also to tell our listeners a little bit about you and a little bit about your company?

Ibrahim Oladele (3:11)

Thank you, Benjamin. Thank you for having me. My name is Ibrahim, founder and CEO of Maxim. Before Maxim, I built an exited Versicash, a licensed merchant of record platform operating across multiple countries on the continent. So I've spent most of my career on cross-border money infrastructure. Maxim is a credit-first bank and card for globally mobile Africans. We're starting with Nigeria in the UK like you mentioned, and we run a parallel operation in Nigeria as of today.

Basically, the goal is to make life easier and create a universally acceptable financial identity for people whose lives cross multiple countries and multiple jurisdictions. Thank you so much for having me.

Benjamin Ensor (3:57)

It's our pleasure.

I'm also delighted to welcome back to the pod Valerie Kontor, founder of Black in Fintech. It's really great to have you on the show again, Valerie. Could you also just remind our listeners a little bit about you and a little bit about Black in Fintech?

Valerie Kontor (4:12)

Hi, Ben. Thank you for having me. Glad to be back. My name is Valerie Kontor. As Ben said, Black in Fintech is predominantly a network of Black founders, Black operators, Black investors. We're really looking to see how do we solve for inclusive innovation and target or leverage Fintech to be a force for good for communities that have been underserved by traditional financial services.

I guess when it comes to myself, looking at my career, I've only ever worked in credit, so I started off my career at Funding Circle, which is the UK's largest lending platform for small businesses. I now currently work in credit products at a bank. Really honored to be here and be a part of the conversation.

Benjamin Ensor (4:48)

Welcome. Welcome to all three of you. Well, let's start with what happens when your financial life stops at the border.