Finch Technologies - Open Banking and Owning Your Identity

And I think the part where I'm mostly interested in is, you know, if someone wants to use my data, then pay me for it, right? And quite an interesting space. For Tessa, I'll have to share a white paper that I wrote literally along those lines. I'm a really big believer that the data I create belongs to me. And, you know, that transaction could be monetized the way that you say, or at least it has to be authorized.

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And I want to know that every iteration that my data is being transacted on or shared or distributed, is that I'm the owner of that. And I'm at least seeing the value for it. You know, the value can be monetary or the value can be enhanced benefits. And we are moving into this world where consumers and individuals are understanding their data that they've created and the value that is created for third parties. Welcome to the scrums.com FinTech Arena.

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This is the ultimate podcast for FinTech leaders who are eager to stay at the forefront of industry trends. In each 30-minute episode, we're going to engage with prominent figures from well-established FinTech companies, ready to uncover a little about their strategies for innovation, for growth, and navigating the challenges in this fast-paced FinTech landscape. From discussing groundbreaking advancements in digital banking to exploring the impact of AI, blockchain, and beyond, you'll hopefully gain some insights into their perspectives, and most importantly, some actionable advice that can help you grow your business. And today, joining me, we have Chris Ball, who's a dynamic entrepreneur and co-founder of Finch Technologies.

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He's based out of Cape Town, South Africa, and he's dedicated over 10 years of his life to revolutionizing the FinTech industry. As the co-founder of Finch Technologies, he's also played a crucial role in establishing the leading consumer data marketplace, providing data and insights to over 70 different financial service providers to help empower better financial decision-making. He's now turning his focus to his ventures full-time, really aiming to concentrate on scaling their impact in the industry. And beyond FinTech, he's also a passionate food enthusiast, lending his love for innovation and culinary exploration. Excited to have you on board, Chris. Welcome to the FinTech Arena.

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Awesome, Chas. Really good to see you in this arena. Let's start a little bit here. Awesome. And so Chris, you've been in the FinTech game, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, for over 10 years, right? You've been involved in lending solutions to consumers, lending solutions to businesses, you yourself have invested in a number of other businesses, also within the FinTech space. Quite a lot has happened over the last 10 years.

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But I'm interested to understand what really sparked your passion to start off and enter the FinTech space. Maybe it's a little bit of an embarrassing story to start off with that, you know, out of university, I was applying for jobs. And one of the fields that I wanted to get into was investment banking. After part of the psychometric tests, and with one bank in particular, I think there was a coming-to moment where both the bank and I realized that psychometrically, there wasn't a fit. During that journey, I was applying for work elsewhere, and one of the places was at Rocket Internet, which is the world's largest startup incubator. Within two weeks, they offered me a job.

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We launched South Africa's first peer-to-peer lending network. There’s something about that environment that's just invigorating—just how fast it moved, how people were able to make decisions. And then when I was in the business, it was similar, you know, the ability to iterate quickly, make decisions, be the champion of your own destiny, and really kind of get cracking.

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It was here that I first learned about FinTech and financial technology, learning from Germany and some of the best places around the world about how to implement technology in South Africa. And yeah, it was invigorating and steadfast. During this time, I also learned my passion for technology and early-stage businesses as one does. We iterated kind of business plans with my co-founder, Mike, back then. The first thing we started off, actually in partnership with scrums back then, was a grocery delivery business, where in Saint Francis, Hermanus, and Pittsburgh Bay, high-net-worth holiday destinations, we delivered groceries.

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That was, you know, me and Mike driving out to Woolworths and doing the packing and picking and then delivery. We thought we found something that we could latch on to. Came back to Johannesburg and did a product marketing exercise. You’re in boiler rooms of people discussing the product, and there you are sitting on the other side of the glass, and this beautiful idea that you had is being absolutely hacked apart.

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The big learning piece there, and this was 10 years ago, was that technology proved us wrong. Back then, the insight we got was the market we were serving was probably going to be 1.5 million people. Those 1.5 million people were extremely geographically dispersed. Serving physical products through distributor technology—was that really the best use of technology when your market is so dispersed? And that was the coming-to moment: “What are the scalable industries in South Africa?” It’s food and finance.

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How do we service that market without delivering physical goods? We’re going to be doing finance. That was the coming-to moment: “We want to get into digital finance in South Africa. How do we do it in the cheapest, easiest way to find product-market fit and get into the industry?” And that's where Finch Technologies and our first brand, Fincheck, was born.

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Amazing, man. I love hearing the stories of how people progress from startup to established businesses. Checkers is smashing it now. I don’t know if you saw their jet skis delivering ice lollies on the boats—crazy how innovation takes you places. For the listeners, Chris, what does Finch Technologies actually do?

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Yeah, we are a data marketplace. We built out APIs that allow FinTechs, telcos, insurers to access consumer data at scale. That sounds like a lot of words, so let me explain it like I tell my mom. Lenders, telcos, insurers need information to make decisions on your propensity to pay, your ability to pay, and whether there’s fraud in a transaction. To do so, they need information linked to your ID. Is Chase a South African? Does he have a registered base in Home Affairs? What is his bank account number? What are the transactions in his account?

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We extract and pass all that information, returning it to the telco or lender. They can use that information to make decisions—is this person earning enough to take off the contracts on their iPhone? Do they have failing debit orders? Do they have other products? One interesting use is understanding affordability and propensity, and identifying opportunities within data. Are they transacting with funeral insurance? Is that something we can sell them? Can we sell them the best-suited life insurance product?

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Correct me if I’m wrong, Chris. There’s also an education side, right? If I’ve taken out a personal loan, I can also understand what’s best for me as a consumer—pay it off quicker, or whatever?

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Yeah, so when we initially entered this industry, the reason we entered was the misallocation of capital to products. People were getting eaten up by payday loans. Although it’s not core to our business, we still have an ambition to find people the best products and educate them on what’s possible. From good borrowing practices to understanding your credit score, we try to help individuals see how their data impacts their financial future.

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Understanding what defaulting on a contract looks like or what gambling history means to a lender is part of the insights we provide. It’s not core to what we do, but we see it as providing benefits to the broader South African hub.

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Amazing. I recently read how passionate you are about open banking. Can you give a high-level overview and explain why you’re excited?

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Sure. A lot of what Finch Technologies does is a precursor to open banking—extracting data from PDF scans and online portals. Open banking is a protocol that allows consumers to share their banking transactions with third parties. The benefit? It drives financial inclusion. Banks have done great work, but innovation at the fringes will make the difference—like lending to underserved markets.

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An example: lending to the taxi industry, previously underbanked. Transaction Capital scaled it with SA Taxi, creating a financing platform where banks couldn’t. We see similar opportunities to innovate alternative financing schemes.

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Talking about data, digital identities come to mind. How do you think digital identity will evolve in South Africa? Is it on Finch’s roadmap?

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It’s an interesting space. I believe the data I create belongs to me. Transactions must be authorized, and I want to see value—monetary or enhanced benefits. Consumers are realizing their data’s value. We’ve been on the short straw with web 2.0 giants monetizing our data. The future? Authorized data sharing that gives consumers value, whether it’s security, control, or ease of use. Finch wants to play an integral role in this space.

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You mentioned AI earlier. How does AI fit into Finch’s plans?

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We started with machine learning to give our clients data to build their own models. Over time, we realized clients wanted us to provide scores, so we developed machine learning models for propensity and fraud detection. While AI advancements are promising, cost and speed barriers remain. For now, machine learning meets our needs, but we’re excited to see AI evolve and create greater efficiency.

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Quick fire question: Favorite book?

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Abundance by Peter Diamandis. It’s uplifting and shows how humanity is solving big problems, moving from scarcity to abundance.

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Thanks, Chris! It was great to have you on the podcast. For listeners, check out Finch Technologies and subscribe to our podcast to stay ahead of FinTech trends.