You might think that during the summer months, things quiet down – not with us! We’re delighted to have welcomed some fresh faces to the FIBE team, and we're firing on all cylinders, working on the program, scouting potential speakers, and curating the festival grounds.

Prior to our debut in Berlin with Franziska Giffey, Mayor and Senator for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, we engaged in a series of strategic workshops and brainy group sessions. We've been engrossed in long discussions with our partners from BFI, Handelsblatt, and Berlin Partner. Plus, we've had the pleasure of interacting with some of you – the core of this ecosystem – to gather insights into what truly captivates your fintech universe. And surprisingly, some of you said that you don’t feel like you go home after such events with new insights, that you feel like critical questions are not being addressed, and that you spot many of the same ‘faces’ all the time. And that leads me to my not-so-surprised moment after our LinkedIn poll – I kind of thought "Diversity in Visitors" would get more votes. But well, it is what it is.

Major news alert – we've just dropped the first parts of our website! What you've seen so far was just the teaser. With our new website in the mix, we've cranked up the volume on everything – from the congress lowdown to exhibitor exclusives and partnership magic. And check this: our newsroom is where things come together. Interviews, stories, blog articles, infographics – you name it, we're serving it up, all things FIBE style.

[…]What sets fintech apart, in my opinion, is the need to collaborate with regulators, with banks or insurances, with other tech companies. We are also in an inherently global industry, but with local or regional regulation. Money, in its traditional and modern digital form, flows in different shapes and sizes across all customer segments and borders. We also take on a significant responsibility for the trust all our customers and the ecosystem put in us - we are - for good reason, regulated. Fintech has become a grown-up part of the tech ecosystem, which is continuously evolving.[…]

Berlin has long been the epicenter for particularly ambitious and smart tech companies, particularly in the fintech sector. One particular leader in this field was and is Ramin Niroumand and the team who founded finleap. Finleap has been firmly at the heart of the fintech ecosystem and a key driver of its establishment in Berlin. As finleap connect has evolved from this ecosystem, being based in Berlin was a logical next step. Today, we are here as it is fantastic to collaborate with other fintech leaders. VCs and M

The immediate answer to this question is very easy: My parents’ house at Nikolassee, in the very South West of Berlin. The green, leafy streets, the garden, and of course even more the feeling of belonging and “home” is hard to beat. A more commercial or public place is hard to pick, but I have always loved lush summer evenings with friends at “Rüdi” – Rüdesheimer Platz, sharing a picnic, stories, and a glass of wine.

The fintech industry is confronting an increasingly complex landscape of fraud. In the US, fintech firms lose an average of $51 million yearly to fraudulent activities, translating to approximately 1.7% of their total revenue. Given the magnitude of this financial drain, it's unsurprising that many fintech firms regard the cost of fraud as their principal challenge in conducting business.

Europe is unfortunately not exempt from these threats. If it’s true that implementing stricter security measures under the revised payment services directive (PSD2) has led to noteworthy reductions in fraud, fraudsters continue to adapt, exploiting the digitalization of retail payments and the increasing use of mobile phones for day-to-day payments. 

Here we will explore how AI technologies can serve as advanced, adaptive tools for fraud detection and mitigate such pervasive threats. 

I won’t keep you any longer. Thanking you for sticking around till here. Have a cracking summer and catch you real soon!

Cheers,

Madeline