Fintech

Jan 7, 2016

10 Fintech predictions for 2016

There are a lot of Fintech forecasts out there but two of the best I spotted were by David Gyori and Pascal Bouvier, so I decided to take the areas I agree with most to provide a few headline Fintech predictions for 2016 of my own: #1 PayPal will be a primary acquisition target in…

Dec 15, 2015

2015: Time to Open Source Finance

Another key development of 2015 has been the open sourcing of bank services. I’ve talked for a while now about Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) – first blog entry almost seven years ago – and this forecast that anyone in the near future would be able to build their own bank through apps, APIs and analytics. The core of…

Dec 10, 2015

Start-ups have to start somewhere … but what happens when they grow up?

The world changes every day, and some of us feel it changes faster every day. This is evidenced by the rapid cycle change in Fintech where last year’s hardly mentioned thing has become this year’s hot thing. Blockchain is the case in point. However, as pointed out at Fintech Connect this week, most of this…

Dec 8, 2015

Fintech by the numbers

I’m often asked how much is being invested in Fintech and where is it going? Based upon a lot of assumptions and studies, the figures this year look like they’re heading near $30 billion invested in Fintech, with most in Silicon Valley. A third is in payments, of which 10% is in blockchain and bitcoin…

Nov 23, 2015

Alibaba’s secret sauce

I saw a fascinating presentation by Porter Erisman, author of Alibaba’s World, last week. Porter was involved in the early days of Alibaba, having lived in China since 1994. As an American in China it must have been a fascinating experience, and Porter talked about how Alibaba was formed and how it differs to Amazon…

Nov 19, 2015

What is the real mindset of millennials about banks and money?

There’s been a lot of debate about millennials and their likes and dislikes. I myself cite regular surveys that millennials would rather go to the dentist than visit their bank, and that surveys of millennials find no bank brands are desired. In some ways this gives a false impression, as we have to think that…

Nov 18, 2015

Banks struggle to get the right talent … easy to see why

So I was listening to a couple of banking folks discussing the search for new talent. I didn’t know until I heard the discussion, how tough it is these days. I mean I knew that MBA students had moved away from banking in their droves to seek careers with consultancies, but generally thought banks were doing…

Nov 17, 2015

Why are Fintech start-ups avoiding the core of banking?

In that same dialogue about when banks should act to block, buy or beat new competition, I realised that the new competition is doing something quite clever. Unsurprisingly, Fintech firms look at banking and realise that it’s pretty dull and onerous stuff. AML, KYC, compliance, audit, regulatory reporting, rules and oversight of business are the…

Nov 16, 2015

Where is the banks’ tipping point?

I had an interesting discussion about change in the banking markets again the other day. We were citing emerging new players like Square, Stripe, Klarna and Lending Club, as well as players that have already emerged like PayPal and Apple Pay. In all of these cases, my colleague felt that these players have all added…

Nov 6, 2015

Are bankers just rearranging deckchairs?

I had a really interesting evening this week, moderating an industry roundtable with panel participants including: Cliff Moyce, Strategic Adviser, DataArt Chris Barker, Managing Director, Global Head of Digital & Engineering Services, RBS, Mike Powell, Managing Director for enterprise capabilities, Financial & Risk, Thomson Reuters Scott Eblen, Chief Product Officer, Nutmeg Frank Neumann (COO, Quantstore)…