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A leading figure in the UK fintech sector, Al founded a platform connecting branches of government before going on to start Monetise, a system enabling established banks to build digital businesses. He considers how the financial services environment has radically changed, how disruptive startups have chipped away at the big players, and what any business can learn from the lessons of the banking sector.
View / Submit"Alastair was fabulous, everyone got up to shake his hand and personally thank him."
RBC Capital Markets
Alastair Lukies is widely known in the industry as a champion of the UK’s global fintech industry. After founding financial cloud platform Monitise, he was recognised as a ‘Technology Pioneer’ by the World Economic Forum.
Al was a co-founder of epolitix.com, the portal for Westminster, Whitehall and the devolved institutions, before moving on to conceive, finance and successfully build Monitise, an innovative venture built specifically for banks looking to add haste to the delivery of their digital strategies in order to grow (and defend) their business. The idea came to Al and his business partner Steve Atkinson when they noticed the potential of using mobile phones for more than calls and texts. Linking banks and mobile operators, Monitise allows consumers to manage finances and make payments directly from their phones. During Al’s time as CEO, Monitise grew to a market cap of $2 billion, employing 1500 staff on four continents.
After catching the eye of the UK government for his work with epolitix.com, Al was appointed as Business Ambassador to the Prime Minister for the financial services industry. He then worked as the sole Business Ambassador for FinTech before joining the broader Prime MInister's Business Council. He was named Non-Executive Chairman of FinTech industry body Innovate Finance at its launch, and then Entrepreneur of the Year at the Growing Business Awards. Al was awarded a CBE for services to mobile banking and charity.
In speeches, Al discusses the modern eco-system of economics, technology, regulation and the future of business, as well as teamwork, drawing analogies from the rugby pitch. He believes that companies must remove the ‘silo mentality’ in order to get the best out of their employees. He looks at how money itself has evolved and how we got to a world in which technology businesses rule and how the financial sector is witnessing a swarm of piranhas rather than one giant shark coming for their market. It’s not all bad news; the UK are at the forefront of FinTech and he considers a few refreshingly positive predictions for what lies in store for British businesses.
