Blog Index

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Bitcoin is a Wild West … when the dust settles, will it still be around? Bitcoin has gone from the leading light for the future to a flaky, shaky infrastructure.  This is the result of the Mt.Gox meltdown, along with other exchanges since.  In other words,…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Fintech is the place to be (and so is London) I was reflecting on the number of new companies starting new ventures in financial services, and wanted to quantify the numbers somehow.  This cropped up because almost everywhere I go, there’s a fintech start-up or start-up…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Are you a career optimist or a headless chicken? I just read some interesting research by the Bank Workers Charity, a charity set up over a century ago to provide education to orphans but, today, a charity that looks after the needs of redundant or sick…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … The Top 1000 Banks in the World 2014 Each year, The Banker magazine (to which I contribute a monthly column) publishes their list of the Top 1000 banks.  It's a great research resource that I've been tracking since 1994, when half the banks in the top 10 were Japanese….

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Q: Why are banks organised in product silos? A: McKinsey I often hear the lament from bankers that their business is designed around products, rather than customers. Why is this? According to an article I stumbled across recently, it’s all McKinsey’s fault. How bank twitter #fails…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … The time is ripe to change the banking system I was surprised the other day when Financial News named me as one of the top 40 most influential innovators in financial technology, alongside friends including Sean Park, Matteo Rizzi and Nektarios Liolios.  It is gratifying to get recognition,…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … What can bankers learn from retailers and vice versa? I organised a fascinating dinner focused upon what banks could learn from retailers the other night.  As the evening transpired, various thoughts popped into my head and felt it worth recording them here. There is no next…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … The threat to banks is not Google or Amazon but … What amazes me about the banking system is that the banking system does not believe it needs to change.   It does not believe it is being disrupted by technology.  It is dismissive of many new…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … The threat to banks is not Google or Amazon but … What amazes me about the banking system is that the banking system does not believe it needs to change.   It does not believe it is being disrupted by technology.  It is dismissive of many new…

 Our biggest stories of the past week are … The threat to banks is not Google or Amazon but … What amazes me about the banking system is that the banking system does not believe it needs to change.  It does not believe it is being disrupted by technology.  It is dismissive of many new…