Auto news on Youtube Feb 1 2018

If I had a message to young women who are interested in tech, I would say don't

doubt yourself. Technology definitely interested me but I really didn't know

how to make the jump. Once I heard about the Akamai Technical Academy program it

seemed like it was meant for someone like me.

My name is Takara Larsen and I am from Medford, MA. Even though I was

doing well in my former career I was getting a little bit stuck. It was at a

point where I really couldn't see a way up. It's easy sometimes to think that you

can't do certain things. Now it's really silly because this program shows that I

did have the skills, and I'm really excited to have the opportunity to have done this.

The Akamai Technical Academy for us is a

program that we started to help really broaden the pool of candidates that we

want to attract to the organization.

For Akamai, talent is everything. We are in the technology sector. Innovation is

very important and we feel like diversity is the gateway to innovation.

Within the tech community there is a shortage of diverse candidates. The

Technical Academy was put together to take candidates and then put them

through a six-month program to give them those skills and the exposure to Akamai.

I don't want to hire somebody for a day I want to hire them for 20 years.

If it takes you six months to be fantastic, great we'll give you that six months.

A program like Akamai Technical Academy is a bit unique. Although this is something

that I would encourage other companies to take in consideration. What it's

afforded us is to essentially tap into talent that we would have never

typically pursued under any other circumstances, and we had no idea the

volume of people who are either under-employeed or not pursuing their passions.

It was not for the faint of heart. It was very few days off, I had homework,

I had assessments, I had projects. My fiance was definitely a support system

for me. He helped me see the long view of okay things are tough right now but

think about where you're going to be in six months.

Takara is a great example of

someone who spent many years in higher education and essentially felt like she

wasn't necessarily pursuing her passion. And in our process we were able to

uncover that she absolutely embodies the things that would make her successful

here at Akamai.

I think the best part - definitely the people. I had amazing classmates.

We were able to help each other. I think my classmates really

helped me along to be successful.

I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to accomplish in a short period of

time with the Akamai Technical Academy. It's really changed lives and helping people

to really give themselves a fresh start or really to reinvent themselves along a

path that will help them to pursue their passion.

To be on this new career

trajectory, it's really exciting. It's definitely not easy sometimes to take a

risk like this but I'm just really happy I stuck with it and I worked hard and

that I'm here now.

For more infomation >> No Experience Required: Building a New Digital Workforce | WorkingNation - Duration: 3:06.

-------------------------------------------

Free Internet Service Can Help Bridge Digital, Community Divide - Duration: 2:11.

For more infomation >> Free Internet Service Can Help Bridge Digital, Community Divide - Duration: 2:11.

-------------------------------------------

Eurobank Ergasias digital solutions help Greeks regain trust in banks | World Finance - Duration: 5:22.

World Finance: As the Greek economy slowly recovers, local banks have a lot of work to do.

How to reduce the high percentage of non-performing loans, and recover a significant volume of deposits?

Both, of course, while maintaining profitability.

Joining me down the line is Iakovos Giannaklis from Eurobank Ergasias.

Iakovos, the public lost a lot of trust in the banks –

how have you been working to rebuild it?

Iakovos Giannaklis: At Eurobank, our goal is to focus on customer needs, while building

trusted relationships with our clients.

We want our customers to choose us, knowing they'll find top quality services, along with

access to digital solutions.

We try to work and serve our customers through our corporate values: dynamism, cooperation,

empathy, trust and innovation.

Based on them, the bank supports customers' difficulties on servicing their loans, addressing

each case with social responsibility and respect.

Another very important factor of building trust is that we never stopped financing the

companies that bank with us, as this is the time that the bank's support is needed and

valued the most.

World Finance: And how have these efforts helped you re-grow your deposits?

Iakovos Giannaklis: We see that slowly the increased trust of depositors helps the

partial return of deposits into the system.

For Eurobank, the design and launch of new products and services mainly focuses on creating

the right context and infrastructure to support the bank's current and future development in deposits.

Numerous actions were implemented in 2017.

The enhancement of locality campaigns for our customers through our best in Greece loyalty

programme, that cooperates with a large number of retailers.

We increased considerably the number of salary earners and pensioners –

a strong indication we're becoming the bank of first choice to more clients.

We promoted the value of saving to young people, capitalising on the heritage of Hellenic Postbank.

With cooperation of a large number of companies for their transactional needs, and many other

initiatives through both the physical and digital channels led us to increase our market

share on deposits for the first nine months of 2017, while the cost of deposits continued to decline.

World Finance: How have you enhanced your personal banking offering to compete for

valuable affluent clients?

Iakovos Giannaklis: We need to mention that Eurobank Retail Banking was the first to present

the personal banking service model before all other Greek banks.

In 2017, our dedicated personal banking relationship managers

served more than 100,000 affluent customers.

We've introduced an efficient and well-defined process that meets all their wealth management

and transactional needs.

Our service is compiled by features like tactical economic reports, exclusive products such

as special deposit account, investment and insurance products, along with special services

in travel and real estate.

All that through a well-defined method that helps to identify banking products that cover

their client needs.

Our goal is to provide the top class customer service at this market segment.

World Finance: And how are you innovating when it comes to business banking?

Iakovos Giannaklis: Small business banking has the market expertise and gives us a sectoral

approach which allows us to establish solid relationships with high value customers and

attract new ones.

We support innovative enterprises, capitalising on European guarantee and financing programmes,

through collaboration agreements with European institutions like EIF.

We help small and medium enterprises that want to expand their activity abroad,

with our electronic gate to global trade and business networking, exportgate.gr;

recently enhanced with its participation in trade club alliance.

We've introduced a distinct customer service, client business support and consulting services,

through the innovative CRM tool Business Checkup, a complete methodology addressing fully customers'

needs, through customised business proposals.

A series of other strategic choices have been made, like the launch of virtual banking service

for the first time in Greece.

This new service allows customers who are familiar with the use of internet banking

to communicate via video conference, with their dedicated business banking relationship

managers, and all that from the venue of their company, performing almost all kinds

of interactions with the bank.

World Finance: Finally, what's your digitisation strategy, moving forward?

Iakovos Giannaklis: Eurobank has made the strategic choice to embrace digital technology

in a dynamic manner, and become the premier digital bank in Greece.

We have launched a comprehensive three year digitalisation programme, with two primary pillars.

Full digitalisation of the basic bank processes, to ensure absolute efficiency and the implementation

of an omni-channel experience for our customers.

In 2017, we introduced tablets in all branches cashiers, in order to facilitate the signature

procedure for transactions.

An e-signature service that is prepared to expand so as to include the signature of contracts.

Regarding the Eurobank mobile app, which was launched in 2016, we presented a new set of

innovative features aiming to facilitate our customers' daily lives, and were awarded with

many local and international awards.

We believe that through digital banking we are able to address our customers

in a more sophisticated way.

We can offer a unique customer experience via customer journeys, and at the same time

we can increase revenues and profitability.

We have applied lean methodology in our processes, to ensure simplicity and less complexity for

customers, along with reduced operating costs.

World Finance: Iakovos, thank you.

Iakovos Giannaklis: Thank you.

Thanks for watching.

Click through for our European playlist, exploring the latest financial services stories from

across the continent.

And please subscribe for more international insights from worldfinance.com

For more infomation >> Eurobank Ergasias digital solutions help Greeks regain trust in banks | World Finance - Duration: 5:22.

-------------------------------------------

Digital currency investors eyeing Shenango Valley for new facility - Duration: 2:06.

For more infomation >> Digital currency investors eyeing Shenango Valley for new facility - Duration: 2:06.

-------------------------------------------

How banks will flourish in an increasingly digital age - Duration: 4:40.

David Birch: Now what we wanted to discuss was this proposition

about in the future are we still going to need banks.

Now of course to me because I'm a consultant, that sort of depends on what you mean by the

future and it depends what you mean by banks as well.

So we decided to have a slightly more specific question, ok.

So Brett is going to put forward the proposition, the more specific proposition, that banks

will have a reduced role in people's lives by 2030.

Brett King What history has taught us is that if you

look at any major technology innovation that's happened over the last 250 years we do see

a pattern emerging, and that pattern that emerges is that whenever an industry is attacked

by a technology innovation of the sort of scale that we see appearing in financial services

today, it changes the dominance of the key players in that industry significantly almost

every time without a fault.

So when you look at the innovation that's occurring in the fintech space today and in

financial services in general, what you see right now is the fastest creators of the innovations

around blockchain, artificial intelligence, voice capabilities and so forth, tends to

be the fintech leaders, the startups and those guys that can deploy capital more efficiently

to produce that innovation.

Steve Ellis: Over the past 22 years since the first internet

payment and banks first graced the internet, Wells Fargo by the way just in case nobody

knew that.

Wells was the first.

It wasn't a fintech company that started all this stuff.

Banks of all sizes have adopted and adapted new networks, like the internet, and new technologies

like biometrics in order to provide better, slicker services because it's, it's about

the customers right?

About a year ago I was helping my mom up in Boston.

She has a small community bank that she works with.

They have like one, maybe two branches.

I'm not quite sure how many, but I showed up right.

You now what they did have?

They did have mobile banking with two factor authentication because banks understand, right,

what the digital world is all about because we started banking on the internet.

Steve Ellis: You have to look at customers, what do they

want: safety, simplicity, transparency.

They want to be known.

They want to be able to do things in a moment.

They want to talk to somebody when they want to talk to somebody, right?

They want to feel their assets are safe, secure and private.

I look at that list, I could paint a lot of different futures, but I paint a future of

togetherness because banks and fintechs bring a wealth of skills and experience that compliment

and enhance each other, right?

Fintechs have done some great things around simple, easy customer experience, right.

Banks have tremendous experience in building long-term relationships, connecting across

the globe and working through recessions and the waves of economic progress.

Whichever way plays out one thing I'm sure of, right, whether he wins this debate or

I do, customers will be better off by banks and fintech working together.

Brett King: First of all, I agree that the future is brighter

with fintechs working with banks.

I'll give him that.

I think that that makes a lot of sense, especially given the fact that I think if fintechs can

innovate faster and cheaper than that makes economic sense for banks to, to partner with

them.

And you know there's certain elements that bank architectures and so forth give fintechs

an advantage today in terms of inter-operability.

Not saying that that's going to be the same in 10 or 15 years, particularly with technologies

like AI and blockchain and so forth.

I think that those core platform capabilities that are going to disappear.

Steve Ellis: So let's talk about emerging technologies

and who can deploy that more efficiently and effectively.

I don't know I've got this like really, really large budget because I work for this

really big company that spends billions of dollars investing in technology for its customers

all the time.

I don't know any fintechs that can really do that, right.

Who really understand the digital nature of financial assets, and I think it's a trap

that a lot of people fall in, right, and I've seen this for 25 years that someone is going

to figure it out and do something so remarkably and incredibly different that suddenly banks

are just going to fall by the wayside because any way you look at it, banks took advantage

of mobile banking first, banks took advantage of the internet first.

Banks took advantage of a lot of these emerging technologies that have popped up lately.

Why?

Because we've focused on it because it matters to our customers.

David Birch: So, now it's over to you.

So you've heard what these guys have to say.

So I want you to go back to your apps…

Let's stop it there…

We have to have a winner because that's part of the fun.

So please join me in thanking Steve, well done!

(Applause)