The Finanser’s Week: 27th September 2021- 3rd October 2021

This week’s main blog discussions included …

The day the old bank died

For many years I’ve enjoyed talking about the origins of banking with the Medici’s in the Renaissance era. Amazingly, one bank has survived since then and I use them to talk about the oldest bank in the world. Do you know which bank that is? …

Banks don’t die of technology, but succeed because of it

I was thinking about the day the old bank died, and thought the comment could be taken in a wider context: the day the old banks died. A lot of people want old banks to die, but they won’t. They’re the walking dead, in some …

Open Banking is finally here … it’s only taken 30 years!

The financial marketplace is becoming incredibly diverse and niche. Instead of universal banks, we now have plug-and-play code. Some would call it an object-oriented market structure. The basics are that no one dominates this structure. Instead, there are boutique players at every level of the …

Are big bank fintechs unfairly valued?

I’ve watched Marcus for a while and was not surprised to see its founder is leaving. There are those who are great at building companies and those who are great at running companies. They are rarely the same person. In fact, some of the greatest …

How does enthnography relate to banking?

Making a statement I was intrigued by a news headline that Lloyds Bank is turning bank statements into art. Sounds ridiculous? Who gets a bank statement anymore? We use an app. But then I read the piece and was more intrigued as yes, it’s been …

 

The week's big headlines include:

• JPMorgan Chase taps 10x for UK digital bank
• Visa teases plans for an interoperable hub for crypto payments
• HSBC CEO backs CBDCs against crypto and stablecoins
• N26 fined €4.25 million over AML failings

 

This week’s top reads include (via Citadel Advantage):

• Jamie Dimon says 'you're a fool' if you borrow to buy bitcoin, and that he wouldn't care if its price increased 10 times
• What Does Bitcoin Mean for the Payment Industry of El Salvador?
• SEC chair Gensler worried ‘people will be hurt’ without crypto and SPAC regulations
• U.K. Investment Banks Pay Women 56% of What Male Colleagues Make
• Should Your Web History Impact Your Credit Score? The IMF Thinks So
• Visualizing the Rise of Cryptocurrency Transactions
• New York Fed researchers design climate stress test for banks
• 4 Tech-Driven Forces That Could Bulldoze Banks Off the Map
• Mastercard to launch new BNPL service
• Wells Fargo fined $37.3M to settle DOJ foreign-exchange case
• Bank Mergers Are On Track to Hit Their Highest Level Since the Financial Crisis
• How Yahoo Built a Culture of Cybersecurity
• Central banks and the BIS explore what a retail CBDC might look like