The Finanser’s Week: 6th September 2021- 12th September 2021

This week’s main blog discussions include …

What if you had “f**k you money”?

I was quite taken by South Park’s co-creator Matt Stone talking to Bloomberg, about a deal where he and his co-founder Trey Parker just got paid $900 million to make six more seasons and 14 movies. His specific comment: “As you can see from this deal, …

One size does not fit all: the Rubik’s Cube of banking

I recently spotted this post from Panagiotis Kriaris, who leads business development at Unzer: In the era of #APIs, #openbanking and #openfinance, banking has become a totally different game vs what it used to be calling for equally adapted business models. Let’s take a look …

BaaS is not 2D or even 3D – it’s a Rubik’s Cube

Simon Taylor posted an interesting dialogue about BaaS the other day. He used a couple of charts to illustrate the banking stack. The easiest and most basic one is this: I quite like it but, as Simon himself notes, there’s lots of nuance missing here. So …

Financial people think digital will beat physical by 2030

I just picked up Deloitte’s report on blockchain where 76% of finance executives have voted that digital currencies may overtake fiat currencies in the next decade*. Most of us would just read that statement and go meh. Not me. That’s a phantasmagorical statement. People in …

Who owns the mandate?

I was intrigued by a new report from the IMF entitled: The Impact of Fintech on Central Bank Governance (you can download it for free). I was particularly intrigued by its opening: Central bank governance is a concept composed of four constitutive and interrelated components: …

Twenty years since 9/11 ...

• The Rise of the Twin Towers: A Photo Essay — Camilo José Vergara
• Remembering Wall Street’s Extraordinary Loss on 9/11
• Peter, Bill and Paul, a Sept. 11 Requiem — David Shipley
• The Economic Impact of 9/11, in 10 Charts — Justin Fox

... and 9/11 now ...

• Has the War on Terrorism Failed? — Bobby Ghosh
• The Afghanistan War Wasn’t a Cynical Misadventure — Hal Brands
• Afghanistan’s Fall Is 9/11’s Latest Unlearned Lesson — Max Hastings
• How Pakistan Won the War in Afghanistan — Eli Lake
• The U.S. Needs a New Approach to Fighting Terrorism — Bloomberg’s editorial board

And this week’s major headlines are (via Citadel Advantage) …

• Amazon takes Visa battle to Australia
• Regulators Investigate Crypto-Exchange Developer Uniswap Labs
• SPAC IPOs plunged 87% during Q2 amid tougher SEC scrutiny
• The SEC Is Serious About Cybersecurity. Is Your Company?
• What Traditional Banks Can Learn From Fintech Apps’ Explosive Growth
• Cross-border payments set to soar as the world begins to emerge from lockdown
• Developing Real-Time Payment Capabilities
• The future of payments in the Middle East
• 97% of Banks Miss These 9 Broken Journeys
• Crypto’s Rapid Move Into Banking Elicits Alarm in Washington
• Bitcoin Faces Big Test as El Salvador Makes It Legal Tender
• FinTech–shaping the future for the better (Part-II)
• Wallets Are Over. Your Phone Is Your Everything Now.
• SEC fines Kraft Heinz $62M, says procurement misled finance team
• After years of inaction against adtech, UK’s ICO calls for browser-level controls to fix ‘cookie fatigue’
• What ransomware negotiations look like
• Top Performing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Companies of 2021