Intelligent Fin.tech Issue 22 | Page 7

NEWS

Britons are struggling with financial language fluency , and it ’ s costing the nation over £ 6b per annum

Klarna , the AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant , released the results of a national survey exploring financial language understanding across the UK .

The report , part of Klarna ’ s commitment to improving greater transparency in the financial industry , reveals millions of UK adults ( 40 %) think mastering money terms is harder than learning to speak a new language – with young adults feeling the pressure most . The study of 2,000 adults found 64 % of Gen Z believe picking up basic foreign words is easier than mastering money terms like APR , capital gains and compound interest .
Millennials face similar obstacles , with 57 % considering financial terms to be more difficult to learn than a foreign tongue .
But this drops to just 33 % of Gen X , with the older age group feeling more confident about their financial literacy .
It also emerged Annual Equivalent Rate , ( 28 %) County Court Judgement ( 28 %), adverse credit ( 25 %) and compound interest ( 26 %) are among the terms people are most confused by . And a quarter ( 25 %) of adults felt the language used by their banks was complicated to understand .
In a bid to promote greater transparency in the UK , Klarna recently launched Wikipink to encourage the wider industry to do the same . Where credit card companies had to be forced by the FCA to publish complaint rates , Klarna has done so voluntarily . By providing reliable , accurate , and unbiased information , Wikipink aims to educate and empower people to learn more about Klarna by sharing insights that are typically guarded secrets among traditional banks .
Srini Venkatesan

PayPal names Srini Venkatesan as Chief Technology Officer

“ Srini is a seasoned technologist and leader with a successful track record of building and scaling technology organisations , from early-stage startups to the world ’ s largest retailer ,” said Chriss . “ As we execute our mission to revolutionise commerce globally , Srini ’ s experience leading technology , digital transformation and AI personalisation from inside some of our largest customers and partners will be invaluable . I ’ m thrilled to have Srini join the PayPal team .”

PayPal Holdings , has announced the appointment of Srini Venkatesan as Chief Technology Officer ( CTO ), reporting to PayPal President and CEO Alex Chriss . In this role , Venkatesan will lead the development and implementation of technology across the entire PayPal ecosystem , including analytics and data science , Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) and Machine Learning , information security , infrastructure operations and product engineering .

Venkatesan joins PayPal from Walmart where he most recently led the US Omni Platforms and Tech organisation . At Walmart , he led a team to build platforms , features and capabilities to support the retailer globally . Prior to Walmart , Venkatesan oversaw Yahoo ’ s display and video ad technology platform . Earlier in his career , he led product and technology teams at eBay and was Chief Technology Officer at StubHub and Marketo . Venkatesan earned a bachelor ’ s degree in electrical engineering from Bharathiar University . www . intelligentfin . tech
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