The Finanser’s Week: 4th May 2020 – 10th May 2020

The main blog headlines are …

Where was the digital backup to our physical structure?

The coronavirus crisis has hit everyone sudden and hard. We originally thought it was a Chinese crisis and now it’s a global one. It’s shut down economies worldwide and the banking system has been asked to step in fast and address the crisis. Governments worldwide …

Build, Buy or Transform the Bank?

I was recently watching an online poll that asked the best way for a traditional bank to compete with the new digital banks. Should they build a new bank, buy a digital bank competitor, or transform the old bank? The vote was split fairly equally …

Revolut: over-hyped and immature? Yes and no …

Last October I wrote a piece on Revolut, questioning its valuation which, at that time, was estimated to be anything up to $10 billion: They claim to have 8M customers. Let’s assume *all* of them are active. If they are “valued” at $10Bn that’s a …

Wirecard versus The Financial Times: a FinTech poster child on trial

I’ve tracked Wirecard for some years, as they were the bank partner that allowed Ollie Purdue to drop out of university at 21 years old to launch a bank called Loot. Wirecard basically offer the platform of many other firms to offer full banking services …

Little Bó peeps … creeps … and sleeps … why big banks fail at digital banks

In the latest example of a bank that couldn’t hack the digital bank market, RBS gave up on Bó last week. It surprised me as the bank only launched last November, to a fanfare of £100 million investment and the acquisition of the start-up they …

 

And the main news headlines are ….

Banking the rich and famous: the rise of private digital banks - Sifted
The ancient world of private banking is getting a shake-up, with a handful of digital private-members banks on the horizon.

Virgin Money suspends thousands of credit cards with no warning - Guardian
Regulator likely to look into move as coronavirus lockdown hits personal finances Virgin Money has suspended thousands of customers’ credit cards without warning, at a time when many households are on a financial cliff edge. The Guardian understands that as many as 32,000 customers were told by email on Tuesday

Brexit talks hurtling towards new crisis point, says Irish foreign minister - Guardian
Warning comes as study finds cost of checks on Northern Ireland supermarket deliveries could exceed £100,000 per lorry Brexit talks are hurtling to another crisis point unless progress is made in the next two rounds of talks, the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, has said. His warning comes as industry

When the banks closed in Wuhan, nobody cared - Financial Times
Wuhan and the future of banks; digital insurance with Artificial; Robinhood’s $8.3bn valuation

Revolut on the hunt for acquisitions - Financial Times
UK fintech plans to use recent $500m fundraising to buy rivals hit by coronavirus pandemic

CEOs cutting salaries is mostly a 'publicity stunt' - BBC
High-profile chief executives are taking pay cuts during the downturn but could still be better off.

How the paper trail went cold in KPMG’s special audit of Wirecard - Financial Times
The accounting firm struggled to verify €1bn of payments held by an uncooperative trustee

Managing identity risk is the key to establishing trust in a digital world - The Telegraph

Warren Buffett dumps US airline stocks, saying 'world has changed' after Covid-19 - Guardian
The legendary investor indicates that financial markets could still have further to fall as worldwide cases edge towards 3.5m Coronavirus latest updates Warren Buffett, the legendary American investor, has sold his firm’s entire holdings in the four major US airlines, warning that the “world has changed” for the aviation industry

In many ways, stockmarkets have been extraordinary in 2020 - Economist
How this year’s crash differs from bear markets of the past