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UBS's chief information officer (CIO) is giving 1-on-1 mentoring to fintech startups in London, working in areas like blockchain software and social media investment analytics.

UBS CIO Oliver Bussmann visited London's fintech-dedicated office space Level39 in Canary Wharf to sit down and give advice to fledgling fintech businesses, according to Level39 head Eric Van der Kleij.

Van der Kleij told Business Insider: "Oliver Bussmann, who doesn’t come from financial services and is their CIO, is I think one of the most audacious CIOs that I’ve seen. He really understands it, he really gets it."

Bussmann joined UBS from German software giant SAP in 2013. He oversees the Swiss bank's technology globally.

Van der Kleij said: "He comes here and does 1-to-1 mentoring with startups to make sure that he is connected with the agility and the thinking. This is a global CIO with billions under his control, taking his time to come here to make sure he understands what the innovators are thinking at the sharp end.

"He’s doing it with blockchain [companies] and others. He’s also doing it with companies using social media to provide better investing signals. One of his responsibilities is to improve the investment performance of the bank."

Most major banks are interested in the potential of blockchain, the software that underpins digital currency bitcoin. The blockchain creates a public ledger of transactions, making them irreversible and transparent, and has the potential to make things like payments quicker and easier, as well as digitising things like stock and bond trading further. 

Blockchain startups in Level39 include blockchain building firm CodeStack and Tide Payments. Analytics companies include social media analytics company Datasift and Singular Intelligence.

Van der Kleij said representatives from most of the big banks regularly visit Level39 but Bussmann is by far the most senior bank executive to visit regularly.

UBS confirmed to Business Insider over email that Bussmann and executive Alex Batlin are mentoring startups at Level39. Batlin heads up UBS' recently established Blockchain Innovation Lab, based out of Level39.

Van der Kleij said: "What’s interesting is they didn’t put this lab in Zurich, which is what they normally would have done. That sends a very strong signal for the UK."

BNP Paribas recently said that blockchain technology had the potential to make some stock holding firms "redundant."

Santander is also looking at blockchain technology, with the head of the bank's fintech investment fund telling Business Insider that the bank has found 20 to 25 uses for the technology. We also believe that Santander is close to investing in a blockchain startup.

Barclays too is looking at the technology. The bank has signed a deal with Safello, a Swedish company that was on its fintech accelerator programme in London, to explore how the blockchain could be used in traditional finance.

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Spanish banking giant Santander made 200 of its top executives pitch an idea for a startup in one day in order to keep them "agile," according to the boss of fintech office hub Level39.

Eric Van der Kleij told Business Insider: "Santander came here to do agile retraining for their top 200 executives through a fantastic programme. It had their executives going through an exercise where they had to build and pitch a startup in a day.

"These are people that have been doing something like compliance in their daily job, the tough end of banking. It was just to encourage agility in thinking and digital adoption."

Van der Kleij didn't say when the event at Level39 took place.

Level39 is an office space built by the Canary Wharf Group specifically for fintech (financial technology) startups, many of whom are reinventing the world of finance.

Like most other banks, Santander is keeping a close eye on the innovation coming out of startups right now, both to see how it can improve its own business and to make sure that "agile" startups don't steal business by doing things faster and cheaper. 

The bank has set up 2 funds worth a combined £83 million ($130 million) to invest in and incubate fintech startups. 

Mariano Belinky, head of one of the funds, told Business Insider recently that the bank is also experimenting with blockchain, the technology that runs bitcoin, and can think of up to 25 ways to use it in the bank. Sources also indicate that Santander could be close to investing in a blockchain startup.

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