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Digital Bank

Supervisors show their lack of depth in digital

Last week the European Central Bank issued a report on the state of digital transformation across European banks, and announced that they were not only interested in this space but would be supervising it. Yay! Disappointingly for me, the report and perspectives fell well short of what I think of as truly digital. Here’s their announcement…

Time as a Service

I recently stumbled across traceable-time-as-a-service (TTaaS) and found it fascinating, especially as time is purely something we invented. “Time does not exist. We invented it.” Some guy called Albert pic.twitter.com/JS9JMfEyJk — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) August 28, 2021 That’s why China – the fourth largest country on Earth – has one single time zone. At 7:00,…

There’s a fine line … between crime and fine

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak posted an update on LinkedIn the other day, saying how brilliant Britain is for foreign investments. That’s kind of no surprise, coming from the office of the person who wants foreign investment, but I did take note of one paragraph specifically: Despite challenging economic times, lots of sectors are flourishing. As…

Hacks and attacks: what’s the right level of defence?

I watch the Ukraine-Russia conflict with anguish. The loss of life and property is appalling, and the bombing seems relentless. But I wonder why we fight wars with bombs today, when we could just as easily fight with computers. If you bring the network down, you win. Suffice to say that in the Ukraine-Russia war,…

Tech and Cybersec in 2023: a world that is virtually different

Technology markets in 2022 were decimated.  Tesla share price collapsed. Netflix stock has dropped more than 50% in the last year. Facebook is in freefall. Even TikTok might be in trouble. Oh, and cryptocurrencies lost 50%-80% in value. Will 2023 be better? I believe it will be and, continuing this week’s mop-up of the main…

Banks and crypto

Brushing FTX and the crypto winter to one side, a couple of other crypto-related headlines caught my attention recently. The first is America’s oldest bank, BNY Mellon (founded 1784), is offering digital custody services. BNY Mellon, America’s oldest bank, launches crypto service  The bank will store private keys to access the funds and provide the same bookkeeping…

Don’t be a wolf in sheep’s clothing if you’re not a wolf

There are so many people who have been saying banks are boring, unable to change, incapable of being truly digital and challenged by challenger banks and fintech. Yet, here we are, almost at the start of 2023, and all of the challengers and start-ups are begging for banks to work with them. What’s happened? In…

Top 11 blog entries of 2022

Here are this year’s 11 most-read blog items but, unlike previous year’s, they are not in order as it made more sense to list them by subject matter. Therefore, the placement is in parenthesis. Enjoy!   Banking in 2022: what’s going to happen? (#9) www.thefinanser.com/2022/01/banking-in-2022-whats-going-to-happen.html/ This was the forecast for banking made in January, using …

Can the Bankosaurus jump the asteroid?

There are regular forecasts of the end of banking as we know it … “Digital wallets are the Kodak moment of banking” – @BrettKing, renowned banking futurist began our Financial Services Horizons webinar today with discussions on the future of banks and financial services in the region. Stay tuned for more insights over the next…

Visa: It’s a war between their AI and our AI

Thanks to David Birch, I just watched this one hour episode about the history and development of bank cards, hosted by Professor Hannah Fry on the BBC.   I’m well aware of how cards started which dates back to when Frank McNamara forgot his cash and check book and created Diners Club back in the…

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