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Fintech

UK regulator to crack down on Buy Now, Pay Later

It’s interesting that the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, came out with its review of the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) economy, and the media started comparing Klarna with Wonga. I’ve blogged in-depth about both in the past: Whatever you think, Wonga is doing well, July 2013 The Finanser Interviews: Niklas Adalberth, Co-Founder, Deputy…

Creating a level playing field for regulating FinTech

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) just released a paper on how governments and central banks should deal with FinTech upstarts. Here are the conclusions: Helping to achieve a level playing field in the provision of financial services is a desired outcome of the regulatory framework. This entails facilitating an orderly entry of new participants…

How getting a bank statement became a big deal

I have been involved in a number of small businesses that have started up over the past twenty years: The Financial Services Club, The Finanser, The Portrait Foundation; as well as some that are bigger: 11FS. Interestingly, every start-up I’ve been involved with has had a terrible time with opening a bank account. Forced to…

Breaking the stranglehold of banking

Someone asked me to elaborate on the links between banks, government, the economy and society, and this was well illustrated by the video I shared the other day of James Pierpont Morgan, who founded the JPMorgan empire (see end of this blog entry). That all began with learning the banking ropes in Europe; then enabling…

Jamie Dimon is scared sh*tless of FinTech

It’s a big moment when one of the most respected bankers in the world Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive of JPMorgan Chase which is one of the most highly valued banks in the world, says that he is “scared shitless” of FinTech. This is a $3.4 trillion banking goliath but, when asked his views…

FinTech 2021 and beyond

As regular readers will know, I quite like Global Processing Services (GPS), the payments processing firm behind many of the leading FinTechs I deal with. So, when they sent me their views of 2021 trends for FinTech and payments, how could I resist? Enjoy! Four Predictions for Fintech and Payments in 2021 by Richard Hodgson,…

The 2020 Fintech Year in Review

I said I was on holiday, which I am, but noticed a very nice round up of 2020’s biggest Fintech news stories by Abraham A. Tachjian, who writes at ATonFinTech.com. I felt it was a good way to end the year and Abraham kindly said yes, I can share it so … enjoy!   The…

Can we change The System? Yes, we can … ish

I woke up yesterday to find this story on Sifted, the Financial Times newish platform dedicated to innovation and FinTech: Fintechs to cosy up with politicians to counter ‘big bank lobby’ It’s interesting, especially for a guy like me who has hovered around all of the lobbies mentioned. The gist of the article is that…

Stripe: the Amazon of finance?

I hadn’t realised the significance of Stripe’s recent press release until I stumbled over the Stratechery write-up over the weekend. Stratechery points out that Stripe has gone from a simple merchant checkout API to a platform of platforms. The significance of that? Well, think of the Amazon of finance: that’s Stripe’s ambition. So, what was…

Is bitcoin becoming respectable?

As bitcoin’s pricing goes up and down as usual – almost $18,000 today (who bought a few for a $1?) – it seems like the world is moving towards cryptocurrencies, as they are now respectable. They’re not respectable in the eyes of governments and banks … Bitcoin has no role in institutional or retail investors…

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