I had a realisation this week. The realisation is that banks have always been hot on technology and innovation. If you don’t think so, then just checkout this blog from April 2008 – eight years ago – where I talk about the rise of innovation in banking. The context was talking about how banks had created a…
I just had an interesting discussion with a banking colleague who has been investing in start-ups. He said that many of the firms begin with a belief that they will succeed because they are not a bank. A business strategy based upon attracting consumers by not being a bank, is not sustainable. Once they find…
There’s been a large number of white papers produced recently about Fintech and Blockchain, so I decided to collate the most notable ones here. All links are to file downloads and if I’ve missed any, please let me know. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (9 pages, October 2008) The origins of the whole thing in…
I don’t get to use the word Kaleidoscope often, so finding this excellent Infographic that includes me and a few friends, gives me the chance to throw it into the blog for a change. After all, this Infographic provides a veritable Kaleidoscope of Fintech. As we all know, Fintech is everywhere. Spanning everything from payments,…
I was going to write a long wordy reflection on this year’s Finovate, which took place over the last two days in London, but was beaten to it by Benjamin Ensor and Oliwia Berdak of Forrester so, rather than writing my own view, here’s theirs: Finovate 2016: Automation And Personalization Take Centre Stage By Benjamin…
I’ve been presenting the idea for a while now that banks are not being disrupted or unbundled, as so many claim. It’s a nice idea but completely misunderstood. The disruption idea assumes that banks will let it happen, are not awake, will not respond, can’t respond, don’t care and couldn’t be bothered. The unbundling idea…
In part one, I talked about the views of the Fintech start-ups who begin with thinking: how can I transform this financial process using technology? Banks think differently and begin with thinking: how can I apply technology to this financial process? The core difference is that banks think Techfin rather than Fintech. They begin with…
In conversation with bankers and start-ups, it is clear that there is a differing view of the world. It is not as clear-cut as nimble innovator versus dinosaur incumbent, which is how many portray this chasm of difference of thinking, but there is a difference in thinking. It is a radical difference in thinking, and…
I blogged a short while ago about Roboadvisors, and with the recent stock market meltdown due to China’s economy slowdown, it’s interesting to see today’s Financial Times talking about the impact on these fledgling firms. According to the FT, the emergent roboadvisor market that includes Personal Capital, Betterment and Wealthfront, and now managing a combined $100…
There’s lots of discussions about financial markets and their different structures. Retail and commercial banking are likened to farms, whilst investment banking is a jungle. Retail and commercial banking have dull products likened to chickens. Look after them and they produce regular and predictable results. Investment banking is just full of testosterone fueled animals that…
