Fintech

I just had a really interesting, off-the-record, discussion with a banker. Can’t give too much detail therefore, but here’s how the conversation went: “So, what’s it like working for MegaRetailBank?” “Shocking”, he said. “They are completely branch focused. Here’s an illustration. They launched a new retail bank subsidiary in a country in 2008. That country…

Those of you who know me, know that I hate the word channel and any adjunct that goes with it. This is because channel shows a lack of digital depth, as it’s just sticking something on top of the old architecture or lipstick on a pig if you prefer. It doesn’t work. I have other…

We had a fascinating chat about digital identities at the Innovate Finance Global Summit (#ifgs2016) today. It was a private roundtable with members of government, central banks, the banking and Fintech community and commentators/observers. Listening to the dialogue going to and fro, I realised that this is one nut that’s too tough to crack. Here’s…

As mentioned I’ve just attended #Money2020Europe where 4,000 folks gathered to listen to great speakers like me.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get long to stay at the show for various reasons, but did pick up a magazine about Copenhagen as a FinTech hub.  Everywhere wants to be a FinTech hub, now that the scene is so…

This week is #Money2020Europe week in Copenhagen.  Considering it’s the first time they’ve run Money2020 over here, it’s pretty impressive to have over 3,500 people attending.  I’m chairing a couple of plenary sessions tomorrow with Commerzbank, Tandem Bank and Western Union, and have been tracking events so far.  Lots of headlines, but the one really worth…

OK, I see weird things everywhere.  Last week in Japan … But even the Japanese cannot beat the guys in the Middle East.   A few days before I went to Tokyo I was in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at a conference called MEFTECH, where one exhibitor proudly showed me the Beam app. Beam…

I don’t always want to just repost other documents, but there are 428 pages of reports that came onto my desk this week and I think they’re worth sharing.  The first report is about Fintech trends (316 pages) and Money of the Future by Life.SREDA, INSEAD and Deloitte; the second is all about Digital Disruption:…

There are a number of hotbeds for innovation in finance – London, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley – may all spring to mind to begin with … but what about Berlin and Munich? Yes, Berlin is showing some interesting true colours with three standout start-ups: Fidor, NUMBER26 and solaris.  Two are full banks with banking…

I’ve talked about open sourcing banking and finance by converting everything to components (APIs) that can be plug and played into any front-end user experience (UX) through apps and devices, supported by data analytics, cloud and blockchain to reduce and automate the back office. All of this can be summed up as MoIP: the conversion…

I was reflecting on the demonstrations of Deep Mind against Go Champion Lee Se-Dol along with Watson at CeBIT and other artificial intelligence (AI) developments. It soon becomes apparent that we are evolving rapidly to a state where data learning through data analytics will be the battleground.  In fact, it is clear that the battle…