Life after RBS and pinBox Solutions | Sanjeev Kumar | Negotiator 36

Sanjeev Kumar and Sami Miettinen worked together at Royal Bank of Scotland around 2010 to 2012, and this conversation picks up the thread almost a decade later. Sanjeev went on to run RBS global corporate advisory out of London, returned to Asia, built acquisition and leverage finance at MUFG in Singapore, and has just stepped into the next phase of his career. The heart of the episode is pinBox Solutions, a fintech focused on getting low-income workers and especially low-income women into savings and pension schemes, already live in Rwanda, Kenya and India with the stated ambition of lifting a billion people out of old-age poverty. Along the way they discuss financial inclusion in developing markets, why longevity is the sustainability question nobody prices, the unsolvable asset allocation puzzle in defined contribution systems, and what a fulfilling finance career looks like after the global financial crisis. 00:00 What pinBox Solutions actually does 00:25 Reconnecting after RBS with Sanjeev Kumar 01:20 Covering Finnish multinationals and the China story 02:30 Running global corporate advisory from London 03:30 Back to Asia and the move to MUFG 04:20 Leaving MUFG and starting the next phase 05:40 Life in Singapore and the Raffles ritual 06:40 Singapore versus the Finnish pension model 08:00 Introducing pinBox Solutions 09:00 The founders and the advisory board 10:00 Live in Rwanda Kenya and India 10:40 Fintech blockchain and tokenised assets 11:50 Financial inclusion in developing markets 13:00 Building an ecosystem rather than taking share 13:50 Progress narratives and the pension blind spot 14:50 Longevity as a sustainability question 15:40 What finance can be after the crisis 16:30 Funded pensions versus debt funded benefits 17:20 A multi country platform and a billion people 18:00 The asset allocation dilemma 19:00 No holy grail in portfolio construction 20:00 Agnostic on investments and working with providers 20:40 What comes after a banking career 21:50 The rise of impact investing 22:50 Disintermediation and the macro backdrop 24:00 The value of global connections 24:40 Why Sami started the Negotiator channel 25:20 Rebuilding trust in finance 26:20 Combining an executive role with board work 27:40 Closing thoughts