No, we did not learn his presidential preferences (although that was a pressing topic). Vikram Pandit, the former CEO of Citigroup Inc. was a guest speaker at the Economist’s Finance Disrupted (#FinanceDisrupted) conference recently in New York City put on by Economist Events (great job Stephanie and Maria) The theme, “Collaborate or Die,” featured fireside chats with leading FinTech experts on topics such as blockchain, financial inclusion, insurance and more. The Economist news desk Editor-In-Chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, chatted with Pandit in the late afternoon. In attempts to make this coverage “hot off the press” before the conference ends (!)
Here are some quick interesting bits we learned:
- Vikram still takes taxis (revealed during discussion of the different business models of Uber vs. taxi medallions)
- And, maybe older than we think (guess it’s those genes): He still remembers when Mosaic (?!) was around (sharing this while making the point that FinTech is in early stages)
- He loves Singapore (the moderator brought this up after he mentioned the country 3x) Why? Government policy towards regulation (Byte Academy loves Singapore too 🙂
- He does not like picking banking partners: Moderator: “Who you would pick as a partner with if you were back in banking?” Vikram: “Thank G-d I don’t have to make that decision.”
- Overall Vikram was a diplomat avoiding the moderator’s attempts to extract a true opinion (for instance, he avoided her question “does the US suck with regulation?”)
Stay tuned for a more extensive follow-up on the Economist’s FinTech Disrupted conference…