Digital Bank

I launched the new book Digital for Good in London the other day, and was joined by many friends in my network. The main highlight of the event was a panel discussion on where we are going with four panellists: Gail Bradbrook, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion Gihan A.M. Hyde, Founder & CEO, CommUnique Tram Anh Nguyen,…

We had a great session in Oslo last week focused upon: what is money? The question comes up more and more in my thinking, especially when you look at cryptocurrencies, CBDCs, stablecoins and such like. We had many good presentations from MasterCard, the Norwegian Central Bank, Handelsbanken and even cameo Zoom appearances from Dave Birch…

I am regularly asked: what’s the next big thing? Answer: there isn’t one. There are just all the things we can see today that are building to the next big thing. What’s out there today? Web3; the metaverse; cryptocurrencies, digital currencies and CBDCs; artificial intelligence plus; blockchain, smart contracts and distributed ledger technologies in reality;…

Some years ago, as an April Fool, a firm offered a free download of a game as long as, in the terms and conditions, you agreed that they could now own your soul. It was silly, but most people agreed to the download with that condition, because they don’t read the terms and conditions. Luckily…

There’s a regular debate about whether BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) is a good or bad thing. There’s a big call for it to be regulated and comparisons with payday loans are made often. Nevertheless, it makes sense as many companies are now grabbing a slice of this space. The latest one is Apple. It amused…

I have another concern about digitalisation, which is what happens if you’re knocked off the grid? What happens if you lose your password? What happens if the company does not recognise you? What happens when someone takes over your persona? What happens when your balance of six figures is suddenly zero? OK, sure. These things…

I just sent a payment to a new company. They sent the details and it involved quite a lot of set-up. I then hit the button and bang! There goes $1,000. Thing is that, when you hit that button, you worry whether it will get there. Are you paying the person you think you are…

There are lies, darned lies and statistics. This came to my mind when I saw a headline that 70% of the $1 trillion transacted by mobile telephones globally were taking place in Africa, according to the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association). I know that this is not true as trillions are being transacted…

I was struck by a comment made by Chris Brendler, an analyst at D A Davidson, about FinTech Affirm (a US BNPL start-up): “These hybrid financial technology stocks trade like tech stocks, when they’re growing really fast and the financial side of their business doesn’t cause any problems but, if you start having higher losses…

JPMorgan had their investors briefing on Monday. It was interesting, with lots of content (you can download all of the presentations here). I took a look at their briefing, and it is pretty mind-blowing tbh. A bank with 60 million active digital customers, processing USD$10 trillion a day with 40 billion security events a day….