Digital Bank

I just picked up Deloitte’s report on blockchain where 76% of finance executives have voted that digital currencies may overtake fiat currencies in the next decade*. Most of us would just read that statement and go meh. Not me. That’s a phantasmagorical statement. People in finance think fiat currencies are dead? What? If true, we…

I’ve been close to Peter Vander Auwera for many years, thanks to Innotribe. He retired a few years ago on bitcoin – I wonder how many times I will use that line? – and became an artist. Great guy. But he’s still tracking me and others in the Finverse and posted this yesterday. It’s so…

Thing is, when it comes to inclusion, what financial products would you create for people who are blind, deaf, have lost limbs and more? I’ve seen people debating this point over the years, but I haven’t seen much done. Talking ATMs with brail numbers is about it. Thing is, as mentioned yesterday, this is a huge market…

15% of the world’s population has a disability. According to the Return on Disability Group, this consumer population is bigger than China and accounts for $1.9 trillion in disposable income. That makes me wonder why banks and companies don’t focus upon them more. Interestingly, seeing the Paralympics coming up, disabilities like losing a leg are…

I was thinking about things that are not being dealt with by banks or fintechs. Surprisingly, there are many things that come to mind: real-time proof of identity to avoid freezing of accounts multiple verifications of a payment to ensure you send to the right person’s account better use of FaceID and similar biometrics to…

This is a guest post by Matthias Kroener, a Bavarian who created Fidor Bank and then disappeared into the depths of gaming. Banking on the game The difference between gaming and gamification in banking Back in 1994, when I founded Direkt Anlage Bank (the first European discount broker) with a number of colleagues, it was…

The core of money is risk. When someone pays you, can you trust that payment is true? If you let them take away your car or computer, can you be certain that the money they offered is real? More than this, in banking, most of what takes place is the bank providing credit. Can they…

When I wrote the Captain Cake series and pivoted to be a children’s author as well as a FinTech guy, a friend said that I should write a children’s book about FinTech, which I did. It’s not something aimed at publication as a book, but thought I would share with you what I came up…

I just saw someone talking to their challenger bank about paying in a cheque. The bank asked: what’s a cheque? I feel the same. In fact, these days, it’s kind of getting challenging to imagine: what’s cash? In fact, these days, it’s difficult to consider: what’s paper? You might say I’m being daft, but my…

In a conversation today, I started discussing digital transformation in depth and found we were talking about digital as though that was the point. It made me wake up, as digital is not the point. Business, connectivity, relationships is the point. When we discuss doing everything online, converting to open systems, transforming to be digital…