Fintech

I joined a Clubhouse discussion the other day – Clubhouse? What? – and discussed Chinese FinTech and its impact on the rest of the world. I really enjoyed the conversation and it was nice that my friend Sophie Guibaud summarised it afterwards. I asked her if she would let me share it here on the…

I’d just written my two pieces last week about non fungible tokens (NFTs) … WTF is an NFT? NFTs show why banks must focus upon digital asset management … when I spotted a fellow blogger and colleague who I respect, Sebastien Meunier, had written about them too. In Sebastien’s case, he writes that they’re a…

I’ve noticed that Wal*Mart has recently been hiring bankers. Goldman Sachs’ bankers to be exact. Goldman Sachs Marcus’s bankers to be more specific. Bloomberg Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman’s consumer bank [Marcus], is making a surprise exit to the fintech, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The world’s largest retailer made a…

Twenty years ago, I remember being impressed when the late, great David Bowie launched a bank. Admittedly it was backed by USA Bankshares, a proper bank, but the idea of celebrity-branded banks was expected to become a thing. Funnily enough, it hasn’t (unless you count Will.i.am and Atom) yet, nevertheless, what has become a thing…

I blogged the other day about Singapore-on-the-Thames in anticipation of the Kalifa Review of UK FinTech. Today, the review is released so, here it is:  Executive Summary Over the past decade, the UK has been quietly undergoing a fintech revolution – in jobs, innovation, improvements to people’s lives and in increased opportunities in global…

I recently joined The Digital Growth podcast …   powered by Sounder … and they kindly transcribed the conversation, so I thought I would share it here. Chris Skinner: Traditional banks tend to push products through channels to get greater share of wallet and cross sell. Whereas, digital banks start with the customer journey and…

I haven’t commented much on bitcoin’s (BTC) recent surge, as I’ve been watching and waiting, but it is something. Just in case you didn’t notice, the value has moved from a low of under $5,000 per BTC in March 2020 to around $50,000 per BTC today. But it’s not just BTC: it’s Ether, Bitcoin Cash,…

I often feel bad for not having started a FinTech start-up myself. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it or had the ideas, it’s more to do with that I like to talk and write rather than do anything. Those who can’t, teach! Nevertheless, it’s not like I haven’t started businesses – the Financial…

In the midst of Brexit plans and a Covid pandemic, the UK Government launched a FinTech review chaired by Ron Kalifa. I’ve met Ron at a few conferences, when he was CEO and then Chairman of WorldPay and will find it interesting to see what he finds. “The intention of this review is to establish…

I was pretty surprised to find that many of Robinhood’s account holders are very young, with an average age of 31. It is probably why they pile into anti-Wall Street stock movements and they are not the only ones. See this from Reuters: Apex Clearing, which helps facilitate trades for brokerages, said the nearly 6…