Quite often, with attribution, I let other websites cut and paste this blog onto their own. American Banker did that recently but changed the title of the blog from The reports of my bank's death are greatly exaggerated to Like Airlines and Pharma, Banking’s Too Big to Disrupt*. In so doing, the intent of the original…
Building on the discussion of data being key to disruption, I often use the phrase ‘digital core’ in this context. Therefore, I was intrigued when someone asked for a definition of a ‘digital core’ and one of the replies was there isn’t a core anymore. I wondered what they meant and, in explanation, they referred to…
I just finished presenting on Digital Bank strategies and Fintech, and was asked a wide range of questions: How do we transform our legacy structures? What is the biggest obstacle to becoming a digital bank You mention partnerships but all cooperative structures failed in the past, how can we succeed in the future? Can you…
I’ve heard a lot of talk this morning about Big Data at a conference here in Barcelona, and had a realisation half way through. The conversation was all about the move from mass markets and customer segmentation to the market of one and peer-to-peer personalisation. In other words the deep data mining demanded by Don…
I’ve written a lot about incumbents versus startups lately and noted with interest that Jamie Dimon’s annual letter to JPMorgan shareholders picks up on this theme (not as a direct result I’m sure?). He talks about “hundreds of startups with a lot of brains and money working on various alternatives to traditional banking” and that “the…
I’m intrigued by how often I hear the line: “banks are stuck in the past”. Most upstarts and startups are saying that banks have their heads up their rears, aren’t focused upon the future, don’t think out of the box, cannot change, blah blah blah. Do they really believe this? Apparently yes. Such arrogance is…
Whilst debating whether new fintech startups would eat the banker's lunch yesterday, I stumbled across a really interesting read by Philippe Gelis, co-founder and CEO of FX firm Kantox. It was so good that I asked Philippe if I could put it on the blog and he kindly agreed. Read and enjoy … Why Fintech…
The smartphone revolution has radically restructured every industry from booking a trip (TripAdvisor), a room (Airbnb) or a taxi (Uber), but where’s the Uber of banking? There isn’t one yet and consumers will soon defect to new players unless high street banks wake up, says Chris Skinner, chairman of the Financial Services Club Technology is…
A brainstorming session with a group of banks raised this question: are we going through a Kodak moment in banking? Are we seeing a Nokia change? Will banks miss the tipping point and die from the reformation of the internet, or will we respond and change in time? As it's Friday the Thirteenth, it's a…
