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Digital Bank

What’s low-code all about? An interview with Mike Heffner, Appian

I don’t do many interviews on The Finanser, but had been planning a massive book launch over the next month, touring the world and spending $1000s on media engagement. Ah well. That’s all on hold until this coronavirus thing ends … Meantime, one of the major sponsors of the book launch is Appian. If you google Appian…

The rush to digitalisation post-pandemic

I’m getting a lot of people asking questions about what I think the coronavirus will mean long-term in the financial markets, so I’ve tried to jump forward to look back. Obviously, the big thing about a pandemic is that people are being told to stop meeting each other. Conferences, events, gatherings, office work, packed trains…

“Are you willing to take the risk of investing in bullshit?”

“Are you willing to take the risk of investing in bullshit?” Interesting headline. It’s not mine btw. It’s a question from a leading banker. The question, in this case, related to investing in data mining … but you will probably find it’s a question asked about any major project. It’s the skeptic’s question. I’ve been asked…

The end of cards and cash … not yet, according to Deutsche Bank Research

I just found that Deutsche Bank Research issued three in-depth reports in January looking at the future of payments: Part I: Cash: The Dinosaur Will Survive… For Now Cash will survive. But digital currencies’ potential could re-balance global economic power. Part II: Moving To Digital Wallets And The Extinction Of Plastic Cards As changes in…

What does ‘digital transformation’ really mean?

Buzzwords. We have a lot of them. Artificial, autonomous, augmented. Big data, blockchain, bilateral. Crypto, currency, consensus. Distributed, decentralised, democratised. I’m tempted to write the ABC of technology buzzwords, but know there cannot be any that start with X or Z*. However, I’m writing this one today because the word digital is becoming overly used…

If you’re API and you know it, block aggregators

I bumped into a real API marketplace the other day. Just what I’ve been looking for … … but not sure why they’re opening physical stores pic.twitter.com/NaUUiyQ4lK — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) February 17, 2020 It gained a few nice comments like: “So people could stock up on spaghetti code and sandbox toys” from Alex Kuznetsov;…

Bank Wars, Episode XX: The Rise of FinTech

Over the years, a few people have likened me to the Yoda of banking. Yoda is one of the most likable characters in the Star Wars franchise, but I’m not sure if I like the comparison. Yoda is seriously old, speaks in riddles and is tiny and wrinkled. Nevertheless, I always take it in good…

Banking is what we do and technology is how we do it

A decade ago, we talked about the financial crisis, technology, regulations and compliance. A decade later, we still talk about regulations and compliance, but the discussion has changed thanks to the explosion of thousands of start-up firms around the world, in every constituency, doing things differently with technology that is now known as the FinTech…

The true meaning of BaaS

Just spent a day chairing a payments stream at a conference. We talked about AI, biometrics, central bank digital currencies or CBDCs as everyone calls them, infrastructure, pipes, plumbing … you name it … but the bit that intrigued me was the views of Kristian Luoma from OP Bank, a member of the Nordic Finance…

Q: Do investors believe bank digital transformations are succeeding? A: No.

Anyone who’s read this blog since 2007 or my books since 2014 will know that I have a regular rallying call: replace core systems; refresh the bank’s technology stack to an open architecture; embrace APIs, apps and analytics; deep dive on data; transform to be digital and not industrial; rethink the culture and organisation; replace…

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