I’ve heard a lot of talk this morning about Big Data at a conference here in Barcelona, and had a realisation half way through. The conversation was all about the move from mass markets and customer segmentation to the market of one and peer-to-peer personalisation. In other words the deep data mining demanded by Don…
I’ve written a lot about incumbents versus startups lately and noted with interest that Jamie Dimon’s annual letter to JPMorgan shareholders picks up on this theme (not as a direct result I’m sure?). He talks about “hundreds of startups with a lot of brains and money working on various alternatives to traditional banking” and that “the…
I’m intrigued by how often I hear the line: “banks are stuck in the past”. Most upstarts and startups are saying that banks have their heads up their rears, aren’t focused upon the future, don’t think out of the box, cannot change, blah blah blah. Do they really believe this? Apparently yes. Such arrogance is…
Whilst debating whether new fintech startups would eat the banker's lunch yesterday, I stumbled across a really interesting read by Philippe Gelis, co-founder and CEO of FX firm Kantox. It was so good that I asked Philippe if I could put it on the blog and he kindly agreed. Read and enjoy … Why Fintech…
The smartphone revolution has radically restructured every industry from booking a trip (TripAdvisor), a room (Airbnb) or a taxi (Uber), but where’s the Uber of banking? There isn’t one yet and consumers will soon defect to new players unless high street banks wake up, says Chris Skinner, chairman of the Financial Services Club Technology is…
A brainstorming session with a group of banks raised this question: are we going through a Kodak moment in banking? Are we seeing a Nokia change? Will banks miss the tipping point and die from the reformation of the internet, or will we respond and change in time? As it's Friday the Thirteenth, it's a…
I was asked this question today and, after thinking about it a while, I think banks are moving towards being lifestyle choices rather than payments processors. Historically, we chose a bank because it was physically local to our home. It didn’t matter what they charged or how they priced, as all banks are the same. …
