Fintech

I got an interesting research report from Economist Impact the other day, commissioned by Temenos. Usually I ignore such emails and updates, but this one was interesting as it’s focused upon how traditional financial providers are competing with challengers like Monzo, Starling, Bunq and Chime. According to the study, “Challenging the challengers: Europe’s banks face…

I’ve just finished a very long and fascinating read by Cory Doctorow in The Financial Times, talking about how the Big Tech giants have turned our world to shit. He calls it the enshittification process. The process runs in four stages: they claim platforms are good to their users: don’t be evil; making the world…

Vitalik Buterin, the guy who created Ethereum cryptocurrency and smart contracts, blogged the other day about what happens when AI and blockchain collide. Funnily enough, that’s the theme of my new book Intelligent Money. Vitalik cites four major areas where blockchain and AI will make a difference, and each has different ramifications. The focal point…

I’ve asked myself this question often recently: could the banking system be run outside the banking system? I guess the start point of this discussion is: what is the system? Just like to be or not to be, that is the question. What is the system? It’s a debate I’ve been having for years –…

I was recently having a chat with my old friend Slava Solodkiy about the way in which digitalisation is changing lending. He then surprised me by summarising our discussion and allowing me to share it here! Here’s his write-up: How digitalisation is changing lending When thinking about this my brain thought linearly – taking current…

Over the past few years, I’ve been to many fintech events around the world, from London to Las Vegas; Sydney to Singapore; Kigali to Karachi; but last week was a first, for me, Fintech Islands in Barbados. Well yes, someone had to go I guess and so, when asked, how could I resist? The conference…

I’ve just been through a very strange process with my main personal bank account provider who, thanks to fear of FCA and crypto, noticed that I had regular payments in and out of my account to Coinbase. During 2023, they decided that Coinbase and crypto is no good, and so they rang me to discuss…

Banks are boring but necessary. Banks are stable, secure, reliant, resilient and shouldn’t innovate or do things that could increase risk to the system. As a result, banks have been here forever and, love or hate them, will never go away. According to a new report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), global banks could boost…

There are a number of numbers being bandied around regarding the major slump in the fintech sector over the past two years. The latest one that I picked up on is from the Indian data intelligence firm Tracxn, stating that UK fintechs raised just $4.3bn in 2023, a sharp drop from $11.2bn in 2022, which…

Over the week, I got an update about Revolut and their business model. It was quite interesting although a little bit macro-level. My favourite part is where the Business Model Analyst listed the competitors to Revolut: Monzo: Monzo is a UK-based digital bank that offers features similar to Revolut, including budgeting tools, international money transfers, and fee-free spending…