The Finanser’s Week: 22nd June 2020 – 28th June 2020

The main blog headlines are …

Is FinTech getting it wrong? Focus on needs and wants

A friend of mine, Alessandro Hatami, wrote an interesting piece on Sifted that I shared in my news yesterday. He claims that neobanks like Monzo and Starling are not reinventing banking at all. They’re just modifying and improving it. Alessandro then goes on to cite …

Wirecard or Weirdcard?

Another day and another headline about Wirecard: ‘The money’s gone’: Wirecard collapses owing $4 billion Wirecard’s Missing Billions Forces Out CEO, Panics Lenders Wirecard: Former boss arrested over €1.9bn scandal How Wirecard fooled most of the people all of the time Inside Wirecard EY failed …

Coronavirus: from lockdown to bailout oh, and the issue of financial exclusion

There are lots of ways in which FinTech is changing the world, and the one we love to discuss the most is financial inclusion. The figures stun me. Over a billion people have been banked in the last decade, according to the World Bank. 69 …

The world’s best banks, according to Forbes

Forbes just launched a list of the world’s best banks, based upon a survey of over 40,000 consumers in partnership with Statista. I’m always wary of such surveys as, like influencer lists, they often reflect the world they want and miss a lot of what’s really …

An economic catastrophe and an apology

I got hauled up the other day by someone who thought I was very insensitive in blogging about this crisis as an economic one, but not a catastrophic one. What I actually wrote was (I’ve amended it slightly since): Someone wrote the other day that this …

 

And the main news headlines are ….

How Wirecard fooled most of the people all of the time - Economist
A financial scandal at the once-feted firm leaves Germany reeling

Britain nearly went bust in March, says Bank of England - The Guardian
Quantitative easing reduced government borrowing costs as Covid-19 crisis hit markets

3 APIs That Could Revolutionize Banking - Forbes
Application programming interfaces (APIs) have been around for 20 years or so, but you might not know it looking at most US-based banks.

Dear Monzo, Starling and co; We’re still a long way off the perfect neobank - Sifted
Over the last decade, so-called “challenger” banks like Monzo, Starling and Revolut have served as beacons of opportunity, promising a new way of banking.

Wirecard crisis looms large over Europe's fintechs - Financial Times
German fintech admits missing $1.9bn probably does not exist and faces crunch talks with lenders

How banks are planning to bring staff back to the office - Financial Times
Strategies range from offering antibody tests for staff to encouraging use of stairs

Big tech expected to shake up wealth management industry - Financial Times
Technology groups are well positioned to offer bespoke financial products for the affluent, report finds

Britain nearly went bust in March, says Bank of England - Guardian
Quantitative easing reduced government borrowing costs as Covid-19 crisis hit markets Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Britain came close to effective insolvency at the onset of the coronavirus crisis as financial markets plunged into turmoil, the governor of the Bank of England has said. Laying bare

'Having my identity stolen cost me £10,000' - BBC
The number of ID thefts in the UK in 2019 rose 18% on the year before to a record high 223,000.

Peer-to-peer lenders forced to abandon retail roots - Financial Times
Groups turn to big financial institutions amid falling demand and nervous investors