Digital Bank

Thirty years ago, I predicted the end of the intermediary. It’s the one prediction I got wrong as the intermediary – the middleman – is the key to good business. This is one thing I’ve learned after all these years. It’s not what you know. It’s who you know. The broker who can link the…

For many years now, we have been talking about digital identity. The core is how to prove you are you. You have to be identified, verified, authenticated and approved. You would think with so many layers of monitoring access that everyone online in the financial system could be trusted. So, how come there are criminals,…

It’s funny how things go around and come around again. For years, I’ve been bemused why banks cannot merge and be successful across borders. There have been almost zero European bank mergers of any size that are cross-border and the few that exist – Santander, Unicredit, Nordea to name a few – have all found…

Since I started in finance, there’s been an interesting debate around whether firms can grow through organic growth or acquisitive growth. Most banks have consolidated over time to become the behemoths they are today. By way of example, just look at the history of JPMorgan Chase: Source: The Brand Hopper Or, as it surprises many…

For a long time, I’ve had this chart that shows how banks can become digital banks by moving from the distribution of paper through buildings with humans to the distribution of data through software and servers. It’s a stable of my presentations and the argument is that the front, middle and back office needs to move…

I got a whole load of payments predictions for 2025 … just a shame that it was no one paying me! Seriously though, a lot of people shared a McKinsey report that focuses upon this area, released around Sibos 2024, that opens with: “The tantalizing vision for global payments has long been that they’d be safe,…

It’s interesting to see AI appearing more and more in financial conversations. A few examples just this week: AI’s Role in Banking: A Game Changer or Just Another Fad? How Artificial Intelligence is changing banking How AI is helping banks support sustainability transformation. The ability to quickly process large amounts of data makes AI models…

This was an interesting headline in The Wall Street Journal which made me open my eyes: Why the Coolest Job in Tech Might Actually Be in a Bank For tech and AI talent, jobs at financial services companies are more desirable than they have ever been. Banks have been working hard to make it happen….

Back in 2012 I argued that there would soon be mobile wallet wars. In 2014, I speculated that there would be mobile wallet wars but that it was early days. In 2020, I still noted that mobile wallets were pretty awful. Today, it is clear that the mobile wallet is the core of the customer relationship and competitive…

Last week, a report was released by the UK’s Parliamentary committee saying that the UK regulatory body for financial conduct – the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) – is “incompetent at best, dishonest at worst” and that it has a “toxic culture”. This is based upon an investigation of the FCA which took almost three years…