Grid

This week’s main discussions include … If people do not trust the system, they will not use it I just got the LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) Risk Intelligence report which makes clear that we have crossed a line. Fraud is no longer something that happens at the edges of the financial system. It has…

I just got the LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) Risk Intelligence report which makes clear that we have crossed a line. Fraud is no longer something that happens at the edges of the financial system. It has become the system’s shadow twin, growing in lockstep with digital banking, instant payments and AI. The 2026 LSEG…

I remember making a prediction twenty-five years ago that all of the biggest banks in the world would be Chinese. Unfortunately, I made this prediction at an American banking conference, when all of the biggest banks in the world were American. Twenty-five years earlier, or fifty years ago, all of the biggest banks were Japanese….

The Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute (BISI) produced a document yesterday about the risk of cryptocurrency to democracy . Seriously? Cryptocurrency is a libertarian dream that gives all of us a democratic vote. What risk is there? Well, let’s dig into the detail as this is not about “innovation in payments” or “the future of…

I always remember walking into Barclays in Canary Wharf and having a Boardroom meeting. We looked over to HSBC and realised that they were bigger (200 metres versus 156). Then there was Citibank, also 200 metres. Bar stewards. But now there’s JPMorgan. The American bank is building a new tower that will be bigger than…

I hesitate to write this, as my Polish friends have been asking me to keep it secret – that is the Polish way, humble but hopeful – but, as a Brit who moved to Poland in 2018, I can see it: Poland is the leading country of Europe today. It is the country that supported…

This week’s main discussions include … Will global fintech banks destroy traditional banking? I was recently interviewed by the International Finance Magazine about Revolut getting their UK banking licence and what this means to banks in general. Here’s the discussion: With Revolut securing a UK banking licence after years of scrutiny, do you see this as part…

I keep seeing the same pattern emerging in AI conversations right now. Everyone says: we need better tools but, when you dig into what the leading firms are saying – McKinsey, IBM, Bain, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture, Anthropic and OpenAI – they’re all coming to the same conclusion: It’s not the technology that’s broken. It’s…

I was recently interviewed by the International Finance Magazine about Revolut getting their UK banking licence and what this means to banks in general. Here’s the discussion: With Revolut securing a UK banking licence after years of scrutiny, do you see this as part of a broader shift where fintech platforms are evolving into fully regulated banks?…

We’ve moved from simplicity to fragmentation and now we’re struggling with the consequences. In short, we’ve built a highly fragmented financial world in the name of innovation and now the next phase is about reconnecting it, simplifying it, and making it usable again. By way of example, you have to launch several different apps to…