Digital Bank

We are really good at creating bingo buzz words in business to get everyone feeling they are missing the buzz. Terms such as Big Data, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS, invented by me!), embedded finance, invisible banking and more turn up every day. Some get traction and some don’t, but the whole idea is to make you feel…

I recently got an invite to present a TEDx talk at Haberdashers School in Elstree, England. Shortly afterwards, a second TEDx talk invite came through from the American School of Warsaw, Poland. Of course, I accepted both, but then the challenge became how to do two TEDx talks with some clear differentiation. The result is…

There’s a huge debate about banks and data. Should banks share data or sell data? This has been going on for over a decade. For example, Barclays tried to share and sell customer data back in 2013 and it hit the headlines; ING did the same in 2014 and got into similar issues. Both banks…

In recent days, I’ve discovered a lot of theorems and ideas in digital areas where, when you integrate finance and technology, you realise that you are living in a world of rocket science thinking. For example, I am spending a lot of time talking with experts about digital identity and trust, as that’s the theme…

I often meet CxO executives in financial institutions and fintechs who talk about the importance of the customer journey, but I wonder what they mean by this. After all, we all know that hold the line and the computer says no is the general experience these days. Most of this is caused by underfunding and…

I went to a conference the other day where the organiser left a load of beer mats with questions about fintech. I picked them up and decided to write my thoughts. Trust you enjoy this …  What was your ‘aha’ moment that led you into fintech? I never really had a moment, as I’ve been…

I stumble across a lot of stories online about fintech start-ups successes and failures, and really enjoyed reading the story of Airwallex by Thomas Yeddou on the Fintech Society newsfeed (worth subscribing). It’s a lengthy story of one Jack Zhang. Who is Jack? Well, you need to read the whole thing to find out, but here’s…

Building on yesterday’s blog about onboarding me as a client based in Buckingham Palace – or was that 10 Downing Street? – there is some interesting reporting about Revolut. Why haven’t they got their UK credit license sorted? After several years of discussion with the regulators, they finally got the green light to launch a…

Monzo allowed customers to open accounts from everywhere including Buckingham Palace … with no authentication Digital bank Monzo has just been fined £21 million by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), after onboarding customers claiming to live at 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and even its own premises. A lack of address verification…

Agentic finance. What is that? For me, it is where you can designate your financial life to an intelligent, connected network. The core of that network is: who are you? There is you and then there is your digital twin. There are two you’s: the physical you and the digital you. So we have to…