Crisis

Everyone keeps talking about Big Tech opening banks. Rather than opening or buying banks, most of the Big Tech firms are partnering with them. Apple and Goldman Sachs make a nice pair as does Google, who partner with a variety of banks to offer financial capabilities. Several of the Big …

During the summer I teamed up with a colleague, George Ravich, to research views on the crisis amongst the financial community. We published the results in August, and here’s an update guest blog from George on the process.   New Research Finds Banking Industry Positive on Effects of Covid-Crisis Chris …

WARNING: LONG READ During the last week, I had a chat with a friend about lockdown. I always start conversations with how’s lockdown been for you? For him, it’s been particularly bad. Based in downtown New York City (NYC), USA, he described how hordes of homeless people, evicted by landlords, …

I’m going to shut up about challenger banks soon, but noted that even the regulator is getting worried about them. After Monzo’s admittance that it may not continue as a going concern if the pandemic continues through 2021, N26 admitting that profit is not their focus, Revolut’s tripling of losses, …

Over the past week or two, the neobank and challenger bank sector has been issuing financial reports. If you haven’t noticed: WHERE WERE YOU? Monzo got a particular hammering for warning that the coronavirus pandemic could impact the company as a going concern. Some argue this is just accounting and …

So, the worst thing imaginable happened today. We had a power outage. I didn’t realise what that meant until it happened. I then realised that I was only maintaining my semblance of sanity during this lockdown thanks to having an oven, a laptop, the internet, power. When the power outage …

During the summer we performed some extensive research, released today. Details below: Download the Survey Report and View the Video News Release The survey is available at no charge and can be downloaded by providing a few basic details about yourself. View the video news release as well.   Bank …

During this lockdown, it’s easy to get a bit down. The constant news of deaths and corona cases; the arguments between liberals and conservatives; the debate over whether the government acted early enough, fast enough, good enough; the rage over those breaking the rules and anger over those enforcing them; …

I was on a call the other day and Nick Ogden, serial entrepreneur, made the comment that the pandemic had been like a digital enema for the world. This town needs an enema! True. The digitalisation impact of coronavirus is unquantified for the future, but it is obvious that it …

Someone asked me what the coronavirus pandemic means for the future of FinTech. I guess they thought that not much is happening and many firms will shutter and close. However, some may think that times are dull and boring, locked in at home and nothing going on, but there’s loads …

A great headline posted in The Financial Times the other day:  When the banks closed in Wuhan, nobody cared The Financial Times article makes clear how advanced the Chinese economy is today. For several months this year, banks across Hubei province, an area home to 60 million people, shut their …

I’ve grown up in a period of strong political stability. I’ve been lucky. Many other people grew up in a period of strong political instability, with war and famine and economic starvation. I realise I’ve been lucky because I’m now looking at lockdown, China-US trade relations, British-EU trade relations, African …

I was having a chat with someone the other day and lamenting the loss of open travel. My job was reliant on travel, going to conferences worldwide as a keynote speaker. Locked up at home: (a) how am I going to generate keynotes at conferences that don’t exist; and (b) …

Well, I’m actually not. But there are a few out there and they’ve ganged together to create Millionaires for Humanity. The aim of this group is to get governments to tax them more. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) and Ultra High Net Work Individauls (UHNWI) are those two groups who …

There are lots of ways in which FinTech is changing the world, and the one we love to discuss the most is financial inclusion. The figures stun me. Over a billion people have been banked in the last decade, according to the World Bank. 69 percent of adults – 3.8 …