Digital Bank

I was piqued by Victor Matarranz’s [SEVP Head of Group Strategy and Chairman’s Office, Banco Santander] presentation at MoneyConf last week, mainly because he began by talking about Fintech 1.0 versus Fintech 2.0. Fintech 1.0 he defined as the emergence of peer-to-peer lenders and new payments companies between 2010 and 2014.  During this time everyone…

I got caught up in a conversation about building a new digital bank the other day, and being asked how I would organise the project.  I’m a simple guy and go back to basics, and the basics are people, process and product. People – customers and employees – are where it all starts.  Happy staff…

I get all sorts of crappy press releases from public relations managers who are eager to see me prostitute my blog for them. Rarely would I post their stuff here unless it was seriously interesting or I feel very lazy or both. You can decide which category this fits into: first direct identifies the factors…

Not sure how many of you spotted the announcement last month that Goldman Sachs is launching a retail bank, but it’s been interesting to monitor such developments. First there was a raft of press reviews of the announcement: Goldman Sachs gets into retail banking Goldman Sachs Enters Retail Banking Market with GS Bank Here’s How Goldman Sachs Plans to Go After the…

I caught sight of a report by Deloitte over the weekend that says the marketplace lenders like Zopa and Lending Club are no serious threat to banks.  This follows the report by Goldman Sachs a year ago, that said 20% of bank lending will move to these platforms over the next decade.  Who’s right and…

I’ve been presenting a summary of Digital Bank and ValueWeb for a few months now.  It is the story of the origins of moneykind and, as many have now heard the story, I thought it’s about time to share this on the blog. If you have half an hour free, then you can watch the presentation.  It’s been filmed…

I was just sent a press pre-release copy of The Pulse of Fintech, the quarterly global report on Fintech VC trends published jointly by KPMG International and CB Insights.  The findings are quite interesting this quarter and show that, after a significant pullback in funding in Q4 2015, mega funding rounds have lifted quarterly investment…

I’m often asked whether banks should be afraid of the threat of Fintech.  My answer is that most Fintech is enhancing what banks do, rather than threatening their core business.  I sum this up as wrappers, replacers and reformers, and that the only Fintech firms we should really fear are those that replace core bank…

ValueWeb makes the contention that you cannot have an internet of things without a real-time and cheap internet of value.  A core part of this is focused upon building a cheap shared ledger structure for digital identity and digital currencies and guess what?  That cheap shared ledger is most likely going to be built in Africa. …

I got an interesting research report this week about consumer attitudes towards banks in Europe: More than a third of European consumers would move bank if they didn’t offer up-to-date technology to aid interaction Nearly a third are already embracing mobile payments, while a fifth are already using wearables and crypto-currency to pay Almost a…