Fintech

I was thinking about whether we need another digital bank in Britain the other day. I know that’s UK-focused and am very aware of digital banking developments in other countries, but the UK kind of led the way with the launch of Monzo, Starling, Wise and Revolut a decade ago. They may be the headline…

I attended a meeting this week presenting a variety of startups and their ideas. All of them were great, but one stood out for me: Fairwill. Obviously playing on the word farewell, Fairwill provides an exit policy for humans … as in death specialists. It sounds morbid but there’s only two certainties in life: death…

It does amaze me how many people in banks and technology firms talk about Cloud, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, Blockchain, Apps, 5G, Analytics, APIs and more as though they are all buckets. They are buckets of technology, but in each bucket is a use case and, in many, hundreds or even thousands of use…

Whilst I was in South Africa, they couldn’t help talking about Rugby  (could they?). You may remember that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup last year* for the second time in a row – a rare feat – and are the top-ranked world rugby team right now. So, it’s not surprising they would talk about…

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the guys who create the Basel rules and control much of the way the global banking system works, released a paper the other day about the Finternet: “the financial system for the future”. The idea is that all of the financial world will connect through unified ledgers integrated by…

In discussion with other investors, we were talking about what’s hot and what’s not in fintech. What’s hot I discussed the other day. What’s not is today’s discussion. Our conclusion was that digital banking, neobanks and challengers, BaaS, payments, lending and other well trodden fintech fields are no longer hot. Been there, done that. These are the areas…

In a long strategy session yesterday, we were trying to list the things that are hot and what’s not in fintech. So, what’s hot? Obviously crypto and AI. However, those are the headline buckets, what’s the detail? The detail is the use cases of crypto and AI. This is something I say often, as you…

I’ve written a lot about how banks are dumb with data because they’re spread over so many systems with massive technical debt, and yet every bank is now saying to me that they are “data driven” with “digital at the core”. Really? Most of those banks, when I look under the hood, are bankensteins. These…

Presenting to a group of banking people the other day, the constant question was about risk, return, regulation and compliance. It actually became quite irritating until one person said: “how can we create an innovation transformation culture in a zero-risk company?” It then hit me: these guys cannot do this. It’s too hard. I’ve had…

Just had a wonderful time in South Africa, a country I love to visit. Going between Johannesburg and Cape Town, there were many great meetings and networking opportunities, and it made me realise how vibrant the African fintech scene is after my recent visit to Cairo. Cape Town is particularly noteworthy as one of the…