Digital Bank

It strikes to my digital nerve when I see forms that ask for a FAX number. What’s a FAX? Or someone said the other day that I should Xerox that. What’s Xerox? Watching a movie. Investigator is checking paperwork at a hotel and the guy says: “Hey man, are you done or do you need…

It’s a big moment when one of the most respected bankers in the world Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive of JPMorgan Chase which is one of the most highly valued banks in the world, says that he is “scared shitless” of FinTech. This is a $3.4 trillion banking goliath but, when asked his views…

I recently got involved in some research that Salesforce put together at the end of last year. They surveyed 2,800 financial services leaders in two waves just before and after the pandemic hit. The first was fielded from November 12 through December 12, 2019 that generated responses from 1,400 leaders in insurance, retail banking, and…

I saw this tweet the other day Finally set up @IFTTT and every time I like your tweet 25p goes into my ‘treat yourself’ Monzo pot and yes that means I just monetised us *both* but dammit let me live!!!! — Liz Ward 🇰🇳🇮🇪🌹 (@LizMaryWard) January 4, 2021 And it made me realise a number…

A year ago, I invested $1,000 in bitcoin. Today, that’s worth $10,000. OK, I made those figures up. I actually invested and have invested and keep investing in bitcoin and, more importantly, ether – the currency of Ethereum – in which I have more confidence for the future. I don’t sell them – HODL guys,…

There are lots and lots and lots of reports and predictions for 2021 in banking. The one I liked the best is the report from Standard & Poor’s (S&P, see end of blog) about the impact of the crisis in 2020 and the outlook for banking in 2021. It’s a difficult discussion, as the only…

I was struck by a comment made on LinkedIn that most media miss what’s going on in the rest of the world. In this case, it was a comment about Starling Bank getting plaudits for being the first challenger to be profitable. What it should have said is the first challenger to be profitable in the…

I wrote this the other day for Channel News Asia: FinTech firms may look like banks soon The gist of my thread is that, due to Ant Group offloading all of their risk to banks, the authorities are now stepping in to say that any innovator, even one as big as Ant, needs to be…

The lockdown pandemic has been interesting from a financial markets’ perspective. First, people withdrew as much cash as they could, worrying that things would be bad, and cash was king. It wasn’t. They didn’t need the cash. They didn’t spend it. In fact, I was particularly struck by this chart from McKinsey’s report on payments…

It’s 2020 and, since I was born in 19-whenever it was, I cannot think of a more challenging year. We are being forced to isolate, stay indoors, go nowhere and stay well. As I’ve blogged a few times, that’s good news for digital but bad news for humanity. I think this year has really brought…