Digital Bank

For some time now, I’ve been reflecting on a conversation about Monzo. It relates to my write-up the other day on new bank thinking, and that Monzo are clever with data. Using Google Map APIs and other services, they enrich my transaction statement so I know when, where and what I was doing when I…

There’s lots of friction around these days.  Banks that get digital and banks that don’t; fintechs that want to change everything and fintechs that don’t; digital currencies to replace fiat currencies and fiat currencies that are going digital; destruction, disruption and disappointment; and more. It just shows the world of massive change we are going…

I sometimes think I’m too harsh on the financial community, with my continual banter about core systems change, lack of digital leadership, inability to see how critical digital is to their future and the impact FinTech is making on global financial structures. I sound like a broken record and rarely post praise of banks. But…

We know that there are lots of new bank start-ups out there, particularly in Europe where names like N26, Bunq, Fidor and Monzo stand out. In particular, the UK’s Monzo bank is notable. It is notable for a variety of reasons – the fastest crowdfunding of a new bank, the achievement of over half a…

Last week, our good friend Dave Birch posted a great blog about the Amazonisation of Banking, most of which I agreed with. So I asked Dave if I could repost it here and he said “yes, of course”. Thanks Dave. Enjoy! The Amazonisation of Banking… …is very different from Amazon being a bank A while back, the…

It’s interesting to hear bank CEOs talking about the threat of technology to their business, and the fact that more and more CEOs are talking about it. Jamie Dimon and Francisco Gonzalez of JPMorgan and BBVA were the first to start the call to action five years ago. Jamie talked about Silicon Valley eating the…

I was listening to a group of CIOs talking about legacy systems change the other day. One said that it doesn’t matter how old the systems are; it’s all about whether they are maintainable and fit-for purpose. I kind of agreed with that, although I cannot think of any silo-based, product-focused, fifty-year-old, batch-based system that…

There was an interesting discussion at #Money2020 about Business Reincarnation. It’s a rather dramatic term, especially if you don’t believe in reincarnation, but it does help visualise the idea. Like a Phoenix from the ashes, a bank needs to die and reincarnate itself to survive this digital revolution. This theme came up several times. In…

I just found a really interesting analysis of the state of mobile banking in the UK which, if you bear in mind has lots of new challenger banks, makes for interesting reading about features and functionality of Monzo versus N26 versus Starling versus Atom and so on. It’s almost as good as 11FS’s Pulse, where…

I met a Washington insider this week. During the banter, I mentioned how much better the European authorities are at beating up the US tech giants than the Americans. This is illustrated well by the recent New York Times feature on Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition commissioner. Ms. Vestager, 50 and a native of Denmark, is…