Digital Bank
When you realise that finance is science
In recent days, I’ve discovered a lot of theorems and ideas in digital areas where, when you integrate finance and technology, you realise that you are living in a world of rocket science thinking. For example, I am spending a lot of time talking with experts about digital identity and trust, as that’s the theme…

Can you think of any business that gives you a hug?
I often meet CxO executives in financial institutions and fintechs who talk about the importance of the customer journey, but I wonder what they mean by this. After all, we all know that hold the line and the computer says no is the general experience these days. Most of this is caused by underfunding and…

The story of Jack Zhang and Airwallex
I stumble across a lot of stories online about fintech start-ups successes and failures, and really enjoyed reading the story of Airwallex by Thomas Yeddou on the Fintech Society newsfeed (worth subscribing). It’s a lengthy story of one Jack Zhang. Who is Jack? Well, you need to read the whole thing to find out, but here’s…

I live at Buckingham Palace but am secretly a Russian launderer
Building on yesterday’s blog about onboarding me as a client based in Buckingham Palace – or was that 10 Downing Street? – there is some interesting reporting about Revolut. Why haven’t they got their UK credit license sorted? After several years of discussion with the regulators, they finally got the green light to launch a…

Monzo suffer a stumble after opening fake accounts for 10 Downing Street and more
Monzo allowed customers to open accounts from everywhere including Buckingham Palace … with no authentication Digital bank Monzo has just been fined £21 million by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), after onboarding customers claiming to live at 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and even its own premises. A lack of address verification…

The future of money movement is not just APIs and open banking … it’s agentic finance
I just received an interesting report by Deloitte about API Banking and Banking-as-a-Service … the things I talked about back in the 2000s. The report is called the future of money movement, although I would argue it is the present of money movement along with embedded finance and open banking, which are also mentioned in…

The Finanser’s Week: 30th June – 6th July 2025
This week’s main blog discussions include … Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace? The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential…

























