I received a bunch of interesting pings this week, but a few stood out. The main one was about the climate impact of crypto: Ethereum has managed to massively decrease its annual CO2 emissions as it has moved to a proof-of-stake blockchain. In 2021, it was creating a huge 21.95 million tons of CO2, which…
This week is Davos week when the mega-rich and powerful gather in a mountaintop miles away from any airport access, apart from private aircrafts of course. The theme of this week’s Davos is Co-operation in a Fragmented World “We see the manifold political, economic and social forces creating increased fragmentation on a global and national…
It’s pretty obvious that technology is changing how we relate to each other. From social media and trolling to creating avatars and the metaverse, our world is moving rapidly to one where we could feel more engaged with a hologram than with a real person sitting next to us. These things are illustrated by so…
I found it interesting to post that Société Générale is launching a new retail bank in France … “By 2025, the merged entity hopes to have 25,000 staff and operate 1,450 branches” … at the same time as another headline announces that bank branches are needed now more than ever … “The most popular reason for turning…
A preview of Michael Lewis’s FTX series: “A Fried Bankman” During the holiday season, I binge-watched Billions once more. It’s a great series, and up there with West Wing and House of Cards. But it is fiction based on fact. The fiction is the dramatisation of a hedge fund skating on thin ice against the…
Having covered the general economic outlook, let’s take a specific view of the banking sector. Not FinTech. Banking. According to Bloomberg, there will be six key trends emerging in the banking space: Big Banks Will Be Fine: big banks are well-positioned to weather what is expected to be a turbulent year. While capital levels are…
Welcome to 2023 and happy new year! Thanks for coming back and it is truly appreciated. As usual, we start the year with a range of predictions. We’ll talk through those this week, from what will happen to banking, fintech and cryptocurrencies. On first day however, let’s take a look at the general global and…
I don’t know about you, but 2022 was a weird year for me. It started with pandemic controls being loosened, and I assumed it would be business back to normal and a great year. Instead, everyone started striking and laying people off. There were redundancies everywhere, friends were struggling. Then there was a crypto meltdown,…
