Fintech

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Just had a great discussion about data analytics and visualisation at the SWIFT Nordics Conference in Oslo.  During the discussion we talked a lot about data for risk management and how real-time tracking of payments could help identify suspicious activities from fraud and malware attacks to the possibility of AML …

I am surprised how many new start-up banks there are in Britain.  My list so far includes physical distribution players such as: Santander (a challenger?) that moved to the UK in 2004 with the acquisition of Abbey Banco Sabadell’s acquisition of Lloyds spin-off TSB the soon-to-launch RBS spin off William …

BBVA have made another bold move this week, acquiring Holvi. This follows hard on the heels of other significant moves, such as investing $60 million in digital first UK start-up bank Atom and the acquisition of Simple a couple of years ago.  From that acquisition, they now have re-hired Simple co-founder …

I had a few wake up calls in my years of working in financial services, and a couple of key ones gave me an insight into the mentality of major financial firms that have stayed pretty true ever since.  The first was working with a major bank on a process …

I find it interesting when you look at the Fintech start-up scene and the hotbed of interest now in the blockchain.  There are 100s of companies attempting to do something in these areas, and it amuses me that my Beer and Bordeaux clash is even more notable in this emerging …

We had a great debate at the Financial Services Club last night between digital money sage Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion, and all things bitcoin master Jon Matonis. The debate was about whether blockchain is faster and cheaper, and it was clear from the start that this was going to …