Now joining me to unpack all this is Michael O'Loughlin, Managing Partner of Argonaut Global and US Ambassador to the MENA Fintech Association. Michael, welcome back to the show.
Great to be back. Good morning.
Good morning to you, Michael. So Michael, we've talked about this off-camera, but something I want to discuss — first question right off the bat — you say that stablecoins have quietly become an infrastructure story instead of a crypto story. So what's changed here?
That's a great question. I think for years the stablecoin conversation has been dominated by crypto enthusiasts, traders, and speculation. And what I'm seeing is that that's really changing now. I would describe it as the conversation has grown up. Today, the most interesting discussions around stablecoins are happening surprisingly inside banks, inside payment companies, and inside financial institutions and regulators. And the question is why? What I'm observing is that stablecoins are solving an old problem. Money moves surprisingly slowly despite having the internet — it's still expensive, still fragmented, and particularly so across borders. What stablecoins promise and offer is the potential for faster settlement, lower costs, greater transparency, and 24/7 movement of value. That's quite unique. The important thing is that people are increasingly discussing them not as investments, but as infrastructure. And the winners in the stablecoin space are not going to be the stablecoins themselves — it's going to be the companies that focus on the rails: compliance, identity, custody, payments, and risk management. If I were to leave you with anything from the stablecoin conversation, it would be that it has really matured in the last few months, not just years. It's no longer about speculation. It's about infrastructure.
All right, so Mike, in just a blunt version — are they the new payment rails or just crypto with better PR?
That's a great question. I wouldn't describe it as crypto with better PR, but I would say the whole crypto arena has acted as a catalyst for the regulations that were necessary to bring an entire industry forward. So crypto with better PR is a clever play on words, but it's not necessarily where we are today.
OK, so let's talk a little more about open finance. You frame it as a fight over who owns the story of your financial life. In plain terms, for someone watching this morning — who actually owns your financial data right now? Is it your bank or is it your phone?
Great question, and you could give two very different answers. Most people don't realize how fragmented their own financial lives are. When you look at your own personal finances, you think — I have a bank account, multiple credit cards, multiple investment accounts, in some cases retirement savings, insurance policies, and payment apps. That's a lot to handle, and it's all sitting in various different places. Open finance is really about consumers taking control of that data — something that hasn't necessarily been possible in one place. Traditionally, the banks have owned the story of your financial life — they've been the custodians of your data and your hard-earned cash. What we're noticing now is that customers increasingly want more from their banks. They're expecting a level of transparency that banks have never had to provide before. With open finance, that data flow and money flow is becoming far more transparent, and that's a good thing. The overall winners in this space will be the ones who focus on trust. Open finance, I would argue, is really about the trust factor — and that's where the debate lies.
All right Mike, so big tech — let's talk about that. It keeps inching closer to your money, but big tech argues it doesn't want to become a bank. So what does it want that's worth more than being a bank?
I think big tech is possibly the most fascinating trend we're going to see, and it's going to continue to be. It's hiding in plain sight. People often ask whether technology companies are becoming banks — I don't think that's really the right question. You have to ask yourself: what do these companies really want that's more valuable than being a bank? And the answer is the customer relationship. If you influence spending, if you influence borrowing, if you influence investing or consumer behavior — that's where it all lies. Banks have traditionally fought for that relationship and spent millions on marketing around the world trying to stay in front of the customer. But if a customer wakes up and the first thing they reach for is big tech — which we all do — that's where the emerging competition is. Big tech doesn't necessarily want to be a bank, but it absolutely wants the customer relationship.
All right. So at the end of the day, when you tie this all back to one word, it's about control. For the average person watching this morning — where are they already losing control of their money or their data without even noticing?
I think we all give away our data freely every day. Every behavior — logging into things, sharing passwords, showing our location at every moment, commenting, sharing personal images. But should people be worried? I would say no, quite simply. I don't think people should be worried, but they should be paying attention. The institutions that earn trust over the next decade are the institutions that are going to win. And really, the company that packages together trust, technology, regulation, and customer experience — those are the ones that will win both the customer's mind and their heart.
And for the average person watching who wants to know who actually controls their financial life right now — who should we be worried about?
A lot of people would say big tech controls everything you do, but in reality, consumer autonomy over personal data is going to become a much bigger debate — across governments and regulators around the world. We're going to see people start to monetize their own data. Just as we have GDPR in Europe, in America we're going to see individuals granting access to their behaviors on their own terms. You'll be able to say to a company, "I will let you observe where I go Monday to Friday," and actually monetize that — because that data is valuable to big tech. Right now, a lot of big tech and small tech companies are taking that data for free. What we're going to see is a shift where people start to sit up and say: I can monetize my own movements.
Well, it's definitely going to be interesting to see how this continues to play out as the years pass and as countries start establishing different rules and regulations. It's going to be fascinating to watch. Michael O'Loughlin, thank you so much for joining us today here on Capital Markets.
