Digital Bank

I was reflecting on the fact that I’ve been talking about digital banking for a decade and a half. That’s a long time. I’d claim to have fathered the phrase Banking-as-a-Service back in the 2000’s, and yet only a third of banks understand the concept of BaaS today. "Only a third of banks understand the concept"…

I just received an interesting report from Simon Kucher & Partners, a marketing strategy consulting firm, about Neobanks. It starts with some basic stats: There are 400 neobanks around the world with over a billion clients Over 50 neobanks launched in 2021 The main focus of Neobanking is UK, Sweden, USA, Brazil and South Korea The…

I’ve been writing about banks needing to refresh core systems for years. and I’m fed up with it. I’ve also been writing about the new business model of digital banking based upon apps, APIs and analytics for years, and I’m fed up with it. We need to move on.ANY bank that is still running on…

I noted that the FCA is holding the new UK banks to account for their mishaps over customer onboarding and, specifically, their lack of due diligence: Barclays’ fraud prevention team spotted a problem: some customers had handed over millions of pounds to a single, suspicious Monzo account in a matter of weeks.  As I said a…

For years now there has been a discussion of having chips inside humans. I was presenting this idea twenty years ago, and often used the example of the Baja Beach Club. The idea made sense: get a club chip inserted under the skin and you need no wallet or phone … just dance. It particularly…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed a new start-up called Column, but it’s worth watching as it’s a chartered bank in America created by the co-founder of Plaid, William Hockey, and his wife Anne. What’s Column all about? The problem the Hockeys are trying to solve is that fintechs and large tech companies often need…

Having spent the last decade saying that cryptocurrencies were rubbish (bankers) or the future (libertarians), I really enjoyed this new report from Thomson Reuters (which you can download for free here if you register). Therefore, thought I’d post the summary and tease you to clickthrough … SPECIAL REPORT: Cryptos on the rise 2022 — a…

New banks have great opportunities. They can fix all the things old banks do badly, using a clean sheet of paper. But sometimes they get it wrong. For example, many are fans of Monzo, one of the fastest growing UK challenger banks. I’m a fan, but have noticed one issue that keeps getting social media…

I had an interesting comment the other day from a friend who said that he had worked with incumbents and start-ups. The big difference is that the incumbent views digital as a cost-cutting exercise, whilst the start-up sees it as a customer-enhancing opportunity. It rang a bell with me. Having spent so long dealing with…