The main blog headlines are …
Transforming the bank: three phases of change
I’ve mentioned quite often that you cannot sort out all of the banks systems and structures overnight. It has to be a slow burn and often takes more than five years. It also appears to take place in three phases. The first phase is to …
There are five camps out there. The first is the FinTech camp. This camp sit around the campfire and go “down with banks, down with banks”. They believe banks are out-dated legacy firms who have no idea about the modern age of technology. They believe …
What does the #Brexit vote mean for banking and fintech?
Being British with a British accent, everyone asks me about what life will be like with Brexit … and my answer is that I have no idea. I can see that the country is divided, and we have real issues, but then don’t most countries? …
Will Facebook become the world’s central bank?
I got a large number of pings over the weekend to read and comment on an article on Medium by Lance Ng headlined: Facebook Plans to Become World’s Biggest Central Bank? It is a conjectured article that takes the story from The New York Times …
What is better: some job or no job?
This is an old but true story of my very own. Back in the day, I worked for a computer firm that had a unique piece of hardware and software called the Contents Addressable File Store, or CAFS for short. I was the marketing manager …
And the top news headlines this week are …
Top 10 Fintech Companies to Watch in 2019 - The Street
This year very well may be one of the biggest years for fintech, with dozens of fintech companies on the brink of achieving "unicorn" status - that is, reaching a $1 billion valuation. But even apart from the up-and-comers in the fintech space, there are plenty of tried-and-true fintech companies that have made businesses' and consumers' lives easier - including staples like PayPal
Berlin’s Bad Bank Idea - Wall Street Journal
As bad banking ideas go, Berlin’s proposed merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank is in a special league. German politicians seem to think they’re creating a national financial champion. The result ...
UBS to be taken to court over rape allegations - Financial Times
For all their high hopes, the challenger banks have finished up on the ropes - Evening Standard
So, this challenger bank caper is all proving rather challenging. The idea was that, in the wake of the financial crisis they at least partly caused, the mainstream banks would be, if not swept aside, at least slapped around by a new breed of lender.
Why are Banks reluctant to Bank Crypto? - AMB Crypto
We’ve long seen the reports that crypto entrepreneurs and business owners have faced some pretty significant problems trying to access even the most basic of banking facilities. Since the early days of the crypto industry, we’ve seen the banking sector regard it with
Bank of England 'must practice what it preaches' - BBC
In a critical report, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the Bank risks undermining its credibility if it fails to do so. Working practices at the Bank appear "years out of date", the committee added.
Deutsche Bank’s Arranged Marriage Gets Shove From ECB - Wall Street Journal
Success is a mixture of being good and being lucky. Whatever you think about management at Deutsche Bank, luck isn’t on its side.
Brexit fallout on UK finance intensifies: think tank - Reuters
More than 275 financial firms are moving a combined $1.2 trillion in assets and funds and thousands of staff from Britain to the European Union in readiness for Brexit at a cost of up to $4 billion, a report from a think tank said on Monday.
NatWest to pilot biometric fingerprint bank card - Money Savings Expert
NatWest is giving 200 customers a bank card that uses fingerprint technology to verify transactions over £30, as part of a nationwide trial.
Bank of England takes action over Visa card payment outage - City AM
The Bank of England (BoE) has taken action against Visa following an outage last year that caused more than 2m card transactions to fail.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
