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Shaping the future of finance

Digital Bank

300 years and still going strong?

A final comment on leadership for digital transformation.  I was in a conversation with a bank yesterday when, half way through, the senior chap there said “look Chris, we’re a 300-year-old institution, things change but not that fast”. 300 years old. Wow. They were actually established in the 1600s. That was just after the Great…

Where is the bank’s digital vision?

It’s intriguing to find more and more banks creating digital heads.  I meet them regularly, I’m the digital head of retail banking; I’m the digital head of retail business banking; I’m the digital head of the investment bank; I’m the digital head of our transaction banking business; I’m the digital head of our commercial bank;…

Banks’ burning platform is obvious

My presentations change every day, but I got a great new slide to illustrate the burning platform that banks sit upon.  This is the one I was blogging about yesterday, and the one area I blog about incessantly (so much so that I bore myself). But there is a burning platform in all banks, and it’s…

The cynical bankers’ trick: show me the money

I’ve spent decades preaching transformation and the easiest way to shut me up is ask: Where’s the business case? This is the question normally asked by the mealy-mouthed cynical financial controlling banker in the audience … They want the spreadsheet showing the cost-benefit analysis and return on investment figures.  The problem is that, as anyone…

Who owns the customer in the internet of things?

I’ve been talking the internet of things for a while as, after all, The ValueWeb is the internet of value that underpins the internet of things. A key concept of the internet of value is how it supports your television, car, fridge, shoes, phone, computer and your partners’ and chidlrens’ things to buy and transact. …

If you want to convince the bank to change, read this blog

I was thinking about not sharing this info but hey, as you are good enough to read my blog … here’s the bottom-line on digital disruption (ed: oh no, Chris said the D-word!). There’s a slide that’s been doing the circuit for a while.  It comes from Visual Capitalist, and charts the change in the world’s…

Wouldn’t it be simpler just to launch a new bank?

One of the commonest questions I’m asked is whether the bank should just launch another bank, rather than trying to be digital and convert the existing bank.  The idea is that the new bank will have no legacy, no constraints, can develop from a clean sheet of paper and be the bank’s very own challenger…

Forget legacy systems; what about legacy vendors?

I’m always blogging about replacing core systems, open source the bank, change the leadership to one that gets it and just do it.  I’m saying it so much that I’m finding myself boring.  So let’s change tack.  Who’s the vendor? Not gonna name names, but I’ve had a few really fun discussions with banks in…

As traders leave, the developers arrive

I find it a little amusing to see the noise being made by banks about FinTech.  Lots of noise, not so much action.  And where there is action, it’s not necessarily real.  There are a few exceptions, but the majority seem to be tackling FinTech as more of a marketing requirement than an active cultural…

Banks are not dying

I was having a nice relaxing Sunday, when alerted to a tweetfest taking place between industry heavyweights Simon Taylor (an ex-banker) and Mariano Belinky (a banker).  It all started with: Fintech didn’t disrupt banks but banks are slowly dying. Creating an ever growing opportunity for #fintech — Simon Taylor (@sytaylor) September 18, 2016 @sytaylor low…

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