Blog Index

The main blog headlines are … The UN’s SDG’s, FinTech and Banking Due to various connections, I was asked to deliver the opening keynote speech at the United Nations High Level Political Forum last week (some coverage here). It was one of those rare occasions where I got nervous, looking …

The main blog headlines are … Two weeks to pay someone? Luxury! Being raised on Monty Python, an old sketch popped into my head (The Four Yorkshire Men) and led to a thought. A grandfather and grandson are at the dinner table … Grandfather: Ah, when I was a lad, life …

The main blog headlines are … How can you be AI with DD? No, I don’t mean Attention Deficit Disorder, which would be ADD, but I mean Artificially Intelligent with Dumb Data. Now, I know I moan on and on about fragmented legacy systems, but I honestly have no idea …

The main blog headlines are … Platform, marketplace, ecosystem … buzzword bingo! I encounter lots of banter about platforms, marketplaces and ecosystems, and do wonder in the flippant way people use them interchangeably whether they really understand what they are talking about. I’m sure many do but I’m also sure …

The main blog headlines are … Monzo and Marcus: American challengers or just noise? My mate Ron Shevlin is on good form these days. He’s written quite a few columns on Forbes that are clickbait: Customers don’t want digital banking The FinTech fast follower fallacy (which I spotted just after …

The main blog headlines are … Challenger banks don’t matter as they’re not a primary account During Money 2020 Europe, I bumped into a chap from Monzo. No names mentioned, but he was buzzing and no wonder. The start-up has just boomed through two million users and is growing at …

The main blog headlines are … M&A … Murder & Assassination I was having a breakfast meeting with a banking friend who had recently been through a tortuous experience. His start-up had been acquired by a major traditional bank, and it ended with blood on the floor. The start-up got …

The main blog headlines are … Earth’s future is all down to the banks I’ve been struggling for a while now. My struggle is that I love flying around the world, seeing new places, meeting new people, finding new things … but I hate polluting the planet. This was brought …

The main blog headlines are … When will the FinTech bubble burst? Reading about FinTech unicorns and pizzas worth $80 million, you would think that the world was bubbling over with wealth. FinTech investments last year peaked at over $110 billion, more than double the year before, and IPOs for …

The main blog headlines are … Five phases of FinTech (2005-2027) Three years ago, I blogged about three phases of FinTech. Three years later, I can expand on that theme and talk about five phases of FinTech. The five phases of FinTech are (dates are rough guide): Disruption (2005-2014) Discussion …

The main blog headlines are … Bitcoin, Stablecoin, Blockchain, Enterprise Ledger … WTF? I used to blog about blockchain and cryptocurrency almost every day. I stopped as it got too hyped, scammed and boring. In fact, my last blog was about the blockchain hype being dead, but the blockchain dream …

The main blog headlines are … Banking in the Cloud One of the surprises I have had in my discussions with banks that are doing digital well, is how all of them seem profoundly committed to cloud-computing. Some more than others, as one of the banks I spoke to wants …

The main blog headlines are … Doing good for society and the planet (an Earth Day FinTech update) It was Earth Day on Monday, and a national holiday in many nations as they observed what Christians call Easter. Whilst Sri Lankans mourned the fatal losses on the Easter Sunday church gatherings, …

The main blog headlines are … Will a global platform connect all of our money? When I talk about FinTech, I often reflect on the first time I encountered what I would, today, call a truly FinTech firm. It was on March 30, 2005, and a newly formed firm presented …

The main blog headlines are … Leaving customers digitally high and dry … big mistake I’ve recently seen two blogs about issues with challenger banks N26 and Tandem. They both relate to the ways in which these new banks communicate, or not in these cases. Judith Bogner, a well-known and …