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Shaping the future of finance

Digital Bank

When an app replaces 1200 bank branches …

I was invited to address a commercial bank this week, and they wanted me to make it specific to their strategy. In reading their strategy, I saw something that jumped off the page: new branches. Why, in the digital age, would any bank be opening more branches? I asked them this question and they said…

The long-term banking future: who are the winners?

I’ve used a statement for a while now about the competitive landscape of finance in the future. It goes something like: Banks have millions of customers, billions of capital and centuries of history, but are hampered by heritage; Start-ups have no customers, little capital and no history, but are driven by vision; whilst Tech giants…

Do customers really want ‘invisible banking’?

Quite a few people talk about invisible banking today. The idea is that banking transactions and services should be invisible as if they are noticeable, as in visible, then that means you have pain and friction which should have been removed. A good example of invisible banking is the iTunes store where I can download…

Some day my DLT will come

So, I’m presenting at a Corporate Treasury event, and we get into talking about distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain. Comments are made around so many tests and proofs of work and concept, but so little production. At this point, someone made the comment that it will happen from the ground up, as corporates start…

What is the preference: human or digital relationships?

I’ve often been hired to run a workshop or presentation at a bank’s boardroom meeting. Usually, I’m hired by the frustrated digital guy who wants to convince the rest of the leadership team that it’s important. They don’t get digital, he or she will tell me, so you must make them understand, they plead. Wow….

Why investment banks have the digital edge

For some years, I’ve been heavily involved in high frequency trading and quantitative trading, areas that are highly automated and pretty complex. I don’t blog about it much here, as it’s not appealing to the everyday person. It involves too much dialogue explaining acronyms used in investment markets and acronyms used in technology. In other…

Small bank thinking

I just presented at a conference focused upon smaller banks. How can they respond to the digital change? Many of them came up with a whole load of barriers to change. Here are the things that cropped up: We have too much to do Yep, small financial firms are busy bees, with lots on their…

Tech firms will be regulated like banks in future

I just listened to a presentation by Nick Thompson, editor-in-chief at Wired, about all things in the future of tech. A lot of it was focused upon Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning towards the end, but the first half was interesting as it focused upon why there is a backlash against Silicon Valley right now. He put…

Two minutes on the future life of digital humans

Today marks the day, finally, when Digital Human is available globally through Amazon, Google and all other online outlets. It was slightly delayed for release in Europe and America whilst the publishers were switched, but today it is finally online for all to order and receive within a day or two. I’ve been surprised that, even…

Challenging DBS: how do you measure digital innovation?

My friend Emmanuel Daniel, founder and Chairman of The Asian Banker, ran an interesting video dialogue recently, in a near hour long interview with Chng Sok Hui, chief financial officer of DBS. The whole video, audio and transcript of the interview can be found over here, but I liked this edited abstract of the core…

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