Digital Bank

So there are some clear lessons we can learn as base foundation principles when reimagining banking for the 21st century: Everything is peer-to-peer networked It’s all in real-time globally Commerce is not just person-to-person but more machine-to-machine We are looking at the exchange of value between machines and individuals, not just money Transactions are the…

As we start to reimagine the bank, it is obvious that focus on the platform design and user experience is key, as demonstrated by YouTube.  A second key factor is recognising that the world has changed thanks to the mobile network.  We probably go yea, yea, yea when we talk about mobile, as we’ve all…

I remember being involved in a business process re-engineering project for an insurance firm some years ago.  We looked at how the underwriting process worked on complex insurance risks and discovered that in the middle of the process, the documentation would move to the overseas desk.  It would sit there for a day or two,…

I just had a really interesting, off-the-record, discussion with a banker. Can’t give too much detail therefore, but here’s how the conversation went: “So, what’s it like working for MegaRetailBank?” “Shocking”, he said. “They are completely branch focused. Here’s an illustration. They launched a new retail bank subsidiary in a country in 2008. That country…

I guess my highlight of #Money2020Europe was moderating a discussion between Martin Blessing, CEO of Commerzbank, and Ricky Knox, CEO of UK digital-first start-up Tandem Bank. Really interesting back ‘n forth between ceos of Commerze Bank and Tandem Bank. #Money2020Europe pic.twitter.com/TsPmwXXUOd — Kristian Luoma (@kluoma) April 6, 2016 We had a fascinating dialogue before the…

There are a number of hotbeds for innovation in finance – London, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley – may all spring to mind to begin with … but what about Berlin and Munich? Yes, Berlin is showing some interesting true colours with three standout start-ups: Fidor, NUMBER26 and solaris.  Two are full banks with banking…

I’ve talked about open sourcing banking and finance by converting everything to components (APIs) that can be plug and played into any front-end user experience (UX) through apps and devices, supported by data analytics, cloud and blockchain to reduce and automate the back office. All of this can be summed up as MoIP: the conversion…

I am surprised how many new start-up banks there are in Britain.  My list so far includes physical distribution players such as: Santander (a challenger?) that moved to the UK in 2004 with the acquisition of Abbey Banco Sabadell’s acquisition of Lloyds spin-off TSB the soon-to-launch RBS spin off William & Glyn Vernon Hill’s Metro…

I spent a day working on a bank’s digital strategies the other day.  It was a fascinating day and, as is the norm with some of these offsites, a scribe artiste was scribbling my ramblings on a chart.  The summary I like so much that I thought it was worth sharing here. So what this…

  For the past year, there’s been lots of talk about Fintech Unicorns – start-up companies with over a billion dollar valuation launched since 2000.  Jim Bruene at Finovate – register for Finovate Europe with 20% discount using FSClub20 – wrote about so many Fintech unicorns in July 2015, showing the list increasing four-fold in just a…