Barry O’Donohoe, CEO at Raidiam: “We will see a movement across the globe towards more regulated data sharing”

What do Brazil and Canada have in common? In the view of Barry O’Donohoe. CEO at Raidiam, both are leading the way for fintech innovation, and that’s just one of the insights from this globe-enveloping interview.

Such a wide view makes sense, as Barry is recognised as a global expert in Smart Data and Trust Frameworks, with 25 years of experience delivering ecosystems to unlock the value of data. A “founding father” of Open Banking, he’s shaped the policies and standards we’re all benefiting from today.

Keep reading to discover how Barry sees the world of fintech changing, both within its own sector and how it’s affecting traditional banks. “We will see a movement across the globe towards more regulated data sharing,” he predicts. That includes “significant steps being taken in interoperability” across both borders and sectors, with a big impact on both consumers and businesses.

Then there’s the small matter of Open Finance and easy payments in particular. That could revolutionise… but we’ll leave you to find out.

Our thanks to Barry O’Donohoe for sharing his time and his thoughts in this interview, and to everyone who has taken part in our Breakthrough Fintech series over the past three months.

Could you please introduce yourself to our audience and share how you ended up working in fintech?

I started off as a humble computer science graduate before working in various start-ups in the US and UK. Before founding Raidiam in 2016, I spent over a decade at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

My Co-Founder and CTO, Ralph Bragg, and I founded Raidiam to solve the problems we saw in the industry. We wanted to enable consumers to unlock the value of data.

As CEO and practice lead at Raidiam, I manage a diverse team of professionals focused on driving business growth and innovation, maximising customer success, and ensuring that our reputation for excellence and its award-winning Raidiam Connect SaaS Trust Platform technology is maintained.

As a career consultant and thought leader for global brands and multi-national regulatory programmes I’ve steered the delivery of world-leading Open Banking and Open Finance initiatives globally, shaping policies and standards and inputting on their architecture and design to drive commercial success.  I combine commercial insight with an understanding of modern InfoSec threats, and risk and compliance best practices across complex fintech and retail banking.

What do you think traditional finance and banking companies can learn from disruptors in the fintech space?

One critical lesson is adopting a customer-centric approach. Fintechs excel at providing highly personalised services through advanced data analytics and offering seamless, intuitive user interfaces. Traditional banks can leverage these strategies to enhance their digital platforms and improve customer satisfaction.

Embracing technology, such as automation, AI, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, is another area where fintechs lead. These technologies can improve efficiency, security and transparency, aspects that banks should consider integrating into their operations.

Fintechs’ agility and innovation, characterised by lean operations and rapid prototyping, offer another valuable lesson. Traditional banks can streamline their structures and adopt agile methodologies to foster faster decision-making and adaptability. Prioritising a digital-first strategy, particularly through feature-rich mobile banking and simplified online onboarding processes, is essential for modernising services and reducing customer acquisition friction.

Focusing on financial inclusion by targeting underserved populations and offering microservices can broaden banks’ market reach and enhance their community impact.

Data-driven decision-making is another crucial area where fintechs shine, utilising analytics and predictive models to understand customer behaviour and anticipate needs. Traditional banks can enhance their data analytics capabilities to optimise services. Building ecosystems through partnerships and adopting Open Banking principles allow for comprehensive financial solutions and foster innovation.

Moreover, a proactive approach to regulatory compliance and the utilisation of Regtech solutions can streamline processes and reduce costs.

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Which geographical hubs around the world are leading the charge when it comes to fintech innovation?

Toronto has a strong financial sector and supportive government policies. The city has a growing ecosystem of fintechs, particularly in areas like payments, lending, and blockchain. In fact, Canada has come up with new terms like “consumer-driven finance”, rather than Open Banking, which implies that consumers and businesses have the freedom to choose who they trust and want to interact with.

Brazil is an emerging powerhouse in the fintech landscape. The Brazilian Central Bank has implemented several initiatives to foster fintech innovation, like the regulatory sandbox which allows startups to test new financial products under a relaxed regulatory framework. Additionally, the introduction of open banking regulations and PIX, an instant payment system, has spurred further innovation.

Brazilian fintechs are playing a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion. By offering accessible and affordable financial services to underserved populations, these companies are addressing gaps in the traditional banking system. It’s also the first country in the world to build on Open Finance and implement Open Insurance – we’re proud to underpin both of these ecosystems.

How does your company differ from its direct competitors in the fintech space?

We are quite literally the first and only in the market in terms of the capabilities, products and credentials that we’ve attained. Our heritage in Open Banking is something that particularly differentiates us because we were there when Open Banking was being developed in the UK. We designed technical standards and built the central market infrastructure that has underpinned every transaction since.

It sounds like hyperbole but everything that has happened since, and will happen in the future, is a result of Raidiam’s creative thinking on how to solve Open Banking and make it work for the UK – we created the blueprint that has become a template for other global markets to follow. It is a busy sector but most of the other players operating right now serve banks or consumers, whereas Raidiam is embedded right in the centre of the ecosystem providing the trust framework foundation.

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What are your top three fintech predictions for the upcoming years?

There are quite a few things in the works in the fintech space that we will see come to fruition in the next few years. We will see a movement across the globe towards more regulated data sharing. We have already seen this in the UK after the Competition and Markets Authority reviewed the largest banks and decided that they needed to implement Open Banking to drive innovation, competition and markets. Within that Open Banking scope comes the need to invest in modernising the existing financial infrastructure.

I believe we’ll also see significant steps being taken in interoperability – both cross-border and cross-sector – in data sharing. This will be the next big step forward in tackling data silos and will have a huge impact on positive use cases for consumers and businesses.

Finally, it’s one that we’re already seeing making a positive contribution to customer adoption of Open Finance, and that is payments. Payments benefit from addressing an immediate consumer need (the sending or receiving of money) and when combined with the capabilities enabled by Open Finance, many more options suddenly become possible. Consumers and businesses are presented with effective and real alternatives to cards that work in a variety of circumstances. Payment initiation can be done securely through banking apps with no need to share details themselves, and more control can be introduced with mechanisms such as Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs).

Which fintech sectors do you believe are prime for investment in 2025 and beyond?

Looking ahead, payments and money transfers are going to be huge opportunities for investment in the coming years. We are already starting to see innovation in payment technologies such as contactless payments, digital wallets, and real-time cross-border money transfers. The continuing rise of e-commerce will only serve to fuel this more as businesses require instantaneous transactions across the world.

Insurtech is another sector that is primed to take off in the near future. We are seeing an increased demand for personalised insurance products that will drive efficiency improvements and big data analytics. This will lead to new technology-driven insurance solutions built to improve the customer experience, underwriting processes, and claims management. And to be honest, this personalised and joined-up approach is something that I think many sectors will wake up to and want to be part of. Any industry or business that processes a lot of data, particularly sensitive data,  is going to need to move in this direction.

Regtech is another hot topic area where we will see major developments over the next few years. New and updated regulatory requirements seem to appear every other day and companies desperately need compliance solutions that are cost-effective to stay on the right side of regulators – and regulators need ways to ensure compliance is achieved and maintained. Much like our own Raidiam Assure product which provides multi-sector conformance and certification services across data sharing ecosystems for regulators to verify and enforce that participants are correctly implementing the ecosystem standard.

What are some of the biggest challenges the fintech sector is experiencing as a whole?

Regulatory uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges facing not only the fintech sector but the technology sector as a whole. We’re seeing patchwork regulations across different countries, creating a hugely complex environment for fintechs operating internationally who have to adhere to countless regulatory differences between countries. Beyond that, they need to adapt to all these regulations as they evolve with new data protection laws like GDPR, anti-money laundering rules and Know Your Customer requirements.

Aside from that, the fintech sector is weathering new developments in cybersecurity and fraud seemingly every day. Fintechs are already prime targets for potential cyberattacks due to the vast amounts of sensitive financial data they hold and this threat is only made worse by the addition of AI, making cyberattacks even more dangerous. It is more vital than ever that fintechs maintain robust security measures as they fight to gain and maintain customer trust. Any security lapse, no matter how small, can severely damage a company’s reputation. As new financial technologies come into the mix, customers need to be able to trust these entities to move away from more traditional banking methods.