Some FinTech firms are quite old. Depending on how you call it PayPal, Zopa and others have been around for a couple of decades. They saw a downturn in 2008 with the financial crisis, and survived. But we are now in a different situation. 2022 is seeing the toughest times for all. Interest rates rising,…
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…
I just received an interesting report from Simon Kucher & Partners, a marketing strategy consulting firm, about Neobanks. It starts with some basic stats: There are 400 neobanks around the world with over a billion clients Over 50 neobanks launched in 2021 The main focus of Neobanking is UK, Sweden, USA, Brazil and South Korea The…
I’ve been looking at buying a small property using my crypto savings. Practically, this creates an interesting dilemma as the seller wants the money in his bank account, whereas I’m trying to persuade him to sell with a payment to a crypto wallet. He doesn’t trust crypto wallets, and has never used them. So, what’s…
During May, the floor fell out of the cryptocurrency markets with many losing their life savings. You can question why they had their life savings invested in cryptocurrencies in the first place, but what made the price fall so far, so fast? The answer is a combination of things, the core of which is a…
I noted that the FCA is holding the new UK banks to account for their mishaps over customer onboarding and, specifically, their lack of due diligence: Barclays’ fraud prevention team spotted a problem: some customers had handed over millions of pounds to a single, suspicious Monzo account in a matter of weeks. As I said a…
We all got excited a couple of years ago about the biggest FinTech IPO that would ever be listed. Ant Group would have listed with a valuation over $300 billion. They didn’t, because President Xi blocked it after Jack Ma messed up, but it was exciting whilst it lasted. Now there’s another big FinTech IPO…
As I posted analysis of the state of financial innovation in Ukraine the other day, I thought it only fair to get the other side of the story: what’s happening in Russia? I have many friends in both countries. In particular Daniel Gusev, Managing Partner & Founder at Gauss Ventures, has been a good Russia…
