Blog Index

Our biggest stories of the past week are … This week, I completed a five-part history of Swiss banking.  Here are the five parts: Part One: We are Knights of the Bank Table  Today's surprise is the story of how the Knights Templar invented modern banking and made the Swiss the best bankers in the…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Data is at the heart of everything today, especially cyberattacks Another dimension of discussion at the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery conference was the whole area of hacktivism and cyberattacks.  We all know that the cybercriminals are organising cybergangs of cyberteenagers to cyberattack the cyberbanks (ed: isn’t…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Data is at the heart of everything today, especially cyberattacks Another dimension of discussion at the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery conference was the whole area of hacktivism and cyberattacks.  We all know that the cybercriminals are organising cybergangs of cyberteenagers to cyberattack the cyberbanks (ed: isn’t…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … KYC, Laundering and Regulators: a Lose-Lose Situation I chaired a meeting today about KYC: Know Your Customer.  KYC is a wonderful thing that is debated in many financial circles and is an area that I could blog about for two minutes, but I think I need…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … European Union means Banking Union, but what does it mean for the City of London? We had our usual first footing for the Financial Services Club this week, with an illuminating update from David Doyle, Policy Adviser on all things related to EU Financial Legislation.  The…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … Welcome to 2014 with a few wild predictions … Hello everyone and welcome to 2014. The teenies, as this decade is known, is becoming a fascinating decade of change. From fundamental change in the economic and political world, thanks to the financial crisis of 2008, to…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … The story of the official Financial Services Club's Bear! The Financial Services Club finished the year with a party, of course. This party was at one of the ancient livery companies of London, the Wax Chandler’s Hall (what’s a wax chandler?), and dedicated to the newly…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … What role for banks in a sharing economy of social capitalism? I was struck yesterday, as I presented my themes around Digital Bank at a conference, that there’s one area I’ve discussed for a long time, but not blogged about much in-depth. That is the collision…

Our biggest stories of the past week are … The relationship between Bitcoin and Mount Everest We were talking about Bitcoin yesterday at the Financial Services Club Vienna, and there was a great dialogue about the difficulties of buying and then using Bitcoins. I’ll talk more about the practicalities and details of that conversation later…