The Big Tech Show
Online features and fighting fraud: should a neobank replace your legacy bank?
28 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the advantages of switching from legacy banks to neobanks?
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Hey there, we are Indosport with me, John Malloy. We cover sport and we have things like this.
If you ask Arsenal's defenders, Gabriel and Saliba, to play in that PSG team or that Bayern team, they would be exposed as much as those centre-backs were last night. Because effectively, the attackers were on top. Then you ask the question, how many defenders were actually on the pitch last night? Because none of the full-backs have no interest in defending. They're like wingers.
And I've seen Saliba and Gabriel in an open game in that League Cup semi-final doubleheader against Newcastle last season get torn apart by Izak. I won't have anyone convince me that they can defend in that space.
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Fraud, in this case, is evolving rapidly, right? It's not a bank problem. It's not a neobank problem. It's a problem in society. And you see it everywhere. And that is because our lives are increasingly online. So where do fraudsters go? Online. We, of course, take the safety of our users very seriously.
We've been working with AI, for example, for lots of years, really focused on that, to be able to see patterns at scale. Of course, we still... work with human judgment as well, right? AI is great at seeing like digesting lots of data and noticing the patterns, but you still need a human eye.
Hello and you're welcome to The Big Tech Show with me, Adrian Weckler. Now, how many of us are switching from traditional legacy banks to online ones? What are some of the issues that arise there? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages? I'm joined today by Bianca Swart, Chief Strategy Officer at Bunk. Thank you very much for coming into studio. And in Ireland, we...
We have quite an involved relationship with online banks here. Revolut's the big one here, but also we have N26, we've Bunk, we've recently Monzo. There was a waiting list for 100,000 people for that, we're led to believe. We have a lot of smaller niche players. wise or raising. We think of online banks as being sort of secondary accounts for people in Ireland. Millions of people have them.
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Chapter 2: How can neobanks build trust with their customers?
Yeah, so we started in the Netherlands, but we're a European neobank at the moment. So we have a European banking license and we recently applied for a US banking license and a Mexican banking license, which is fresh off the press. We did that two weeks ago.
And the extent to which you operate in Ireland, you mentioned deposit holders. What are your other ambitions here in Ireland? Because I think there was at some point an ambition to lend, etc. How are you fixed there?
Yeah, so we're really closely listening to our users' needs. And I think one of the things that we focus on is not necessarily what features do we use, what features do we launch, what do we not launch. Although we've added a lot of great features in the meantime. In Ireland, we've added stocks. We've added investing in crypto, for example, that people are really using.
But for us, it's really about trust. We want our users to trust us with whatever it is that they want to trust us with, like to hold their money safely, to make sure the payment arrives properly, etc. At the end of the day, it's not about the feature or the technology. It's really about do I trust this bank to take my side in every decision it makes.
You mentioned crypto there. There was a survey, I think it was last week, that suggests that Ireland is one of the highest retail crypto ownership markets in Europe. How has that gone for you here in Ireland?
Yeah, we see a large adoption. I don't have the numbers from the top of my head, but we do see a lot of Irish users using crypto. And what stands out there is that it's mainly the younger generation. I don't think that's much of a surprise. They really see it as part of their wealth generation. It's not just investing in stocks anymore. It's also crypto.
And I think what they are really looking for is having all of that in one app.
And so they're buying the stuff you'd expect them to buy, the Bitcoins, Ethereum, stuff like that.
Yeah, we offer many, many cryptocurrencies, but we do tend to see that they go for the more mainstream ones.
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Chapter 3: What role does AI play in fraud prevention for neobanks?
Now, lots of banks have had their issues. You've had your own issues as well in the Netherlands. I think you got a fine of sorts for that. How do you think about that? How do you think about trying to keep customer accounts safe, keeping ahead of things like anti-money laundering issues like that? These are criticisms.
we sometimes hear of about neobanks maybe because it's so easy to to to become a customer there and to move money about right um so i think fraud in this case is evolving rapidly right it's not um a bank problem it's not a neobank problem it's a problem in society and you see it everywhere and that is because the lives our lives are increasingly online so where do fraudsters go Online.
We, of course, take the safety of our users very seriously. We've been working with AI, for example, for lots of years, really focused on that, to be able to see patterns at scale. Of course, we still work with human judgment as well, right? AI is great at seeing, like digesting lots of data and noticing the patterns, but you still need a human eye to make the right call. And it's twofold, right?
On one hand, we're doing everything we can to stay ahead of fraudsters that evolve constantly and are getting very, very sophisticated. On the other hand, what's important for us is to give you the tools to keep yourself safe as well. Not just education, but also the fact that you can change anything you want in the app directly. So if you notice something's fishy... You can block your account.
You don't have to call anyone. You have the agency to do that, which in a lot of cases at traditional banks, for example, isn't the case. So it's really about giving you the tools to keep yourself safe while we do the same at the same time.
Yeah. For older generations in particular, when I talk to them about neobanks, one of the things they say is that with their legacy bank, they feel that they can call somebody up and talk to them about it. And they also feel that there is more of a resolution potential for them in a case such as fraud.
One of the criticisms of neobanks is that the positive side of it being automated and you being able to pick things from the menu, might mean that there isn't as much of that human connection. You might feel that you're just given a flat yes or no if a problem arises. Is that an issue? Is that something you hear?
That's not necessarily, I mean, I hear the concern, yes. But we tackle that in different ways. So use of AI doesn't mean that something can't be human, right? So in our case, people can still call us. And actually, we have a very specific way in which we apply AI that makes it more human than human contact.
So if you were to call our customer service, which you can directly from the app, so it's encrypted, we both know that we're talking to the right person. There's no risk of impersonation there. It is about your money, right? You're calling about your money. You're in distress. So we've built an AI speech-to-speech translation tool.
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Chapter 4: How do neobanks ensure user safety and security?
Oh, it's because of a poor Wi-Fi signal or cellular signal.
Right.
I'm not quite sure if that's exactly the reason.
No, me neither. I'm sure there's other reasons as well.
But AI, you mentioned AI there. It's interesting because we're kind of at a pivotal moment about businesses today.
integrating ai and into their services you you're obviously speaking very positively about this i've seen a lot of stuff recently about a lot of big companies that have had some issues with ai that doesn't get get everything right particularly if you're dealing with customers particularly if they're complex right cases have you found that um yeah it's really about i think
AI, at the end of the day, is technology. I know. Massive insight. So it's a means to an end. So it's about what you're trying to do with it. For us, it is not about, because I know it's a lot of companies are just smacking AI at everything they're doing. For us, it's we want to be user-centric at scale. How can we do that using AI? And the answer can also be not using AI in many of the cases.
So we have been working with AI for a couple of years now, and there are many different ways in which we apply it. So we've built our own Gen AI platform internally. It's called FIN. I believe that's fair in Irish, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, it's also the name of Ireland's biggest customer service tech company, Intercom, which we branded as Finn.
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Chapter 5: What features attract younger customers to digital banking?
You're just as safe as anyone else.
Okay. I read recently in a magazine, you told a magazine that you like answering emails on holidays.
Oh, yeah.
Is that just sort of to sound good or do you actually like answering emails on holidays?
I remember that was Fortune, was it not? Yeah. No, I do think that that was slightly misinterpreted. Okay. I think my point that I was trying to make during that interview is that
I was talking about my job, Chief Strategy Officer, and at the end of the day, my job is to make sure that whatever goal we want to achieve, we achieve it, we get the job done, regardless of if I'm on holiday or if I'm not on holiday. I don't particularly enjoy reading emails when I'm on holiday, but if I need to do it, I'll do it.
You know what I'm going to say. If you're on holiday, though, then it's not really a holiday, is it, if you're dealing with customer issues?
Right. Yeah, no, no. But that's also not what happens. We have a great, great team of people. I work with many people. So when I'm on holiday, I can relax. It's just that me personally, I'd always like to know a bit what's going on. So I tend to open my email, but there's no need.
Yeah, I remember interviewing years ago, it was the founder of Evernote and my mind is blanking right now, but I remember interviewing him and he was making the point to me, which was common in Silicon Valley at the time. You still will hear people say this, that the pride of his life is his work and therefore holidays, call it a holiday,
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Chapter 6: How do neobanks compare with traditional banks in customer support?
With me, Joe Malloy, we cover sport and we have things like this.
If you ask Arsenal's defenders, Gabriel and Saliba, to play in that PSG team or that Bayern team, they would be exposed as much as those centre-backs were last night. Because effectively, the attackers were on top. Then you ask the question, how many defenders were actually on the pitch last night? Because none of the full-backs have no interest in defending. They're like wingers.
And I've seen Saliba and Gabriel in an open game in that League Cup semi-final doubleheader against Newcastle last season get torn apart by Izak. I won't have anyone convince me that they can defend in that space.