Future

I took a contrarian view and said that FinTech investments worldwide would plateau in 2022. Interestingly, 2021 was a record year. Just looking at the figures from Innovate Finance, you can see things were still on fire: Sector bounces back from pandemic – 217% overall YoY investment increase in the UK Total capital invested in…

There has been a continual debate about the euro and the future of Europe. When the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, I was absolutely mortified. I didn’t think it would happen, but it has happened. It’s a messy divorce, but the divorce has taken place. Now, the debate moves on to the…

In the final part of my welcome to 2022 series, here are the big trends in technology in general (not just FinTech). According to the World Economic Forum, there are ten key technologies to watch including 3D printing houses, tracking humans through the network and getting drugs through apps. That’s only ten things, so Forbes goes…

Focusing just on the payments space, there are many folks making forecasts for 2022. Here are the highlights. The Financial Brand lists seven major trends for 2022: The ‘P2P’ Wars Will Continue Unabated Despite All the New Stuff, Cards (and Cash) Roll On BNPL: The Payments Wild Card It’s A Wallet! It’s a Platform! It’s Super…

Banking in 2022 has a number of forecasters. Deloitte claim that banks are at a make-or-break moment. I agree. My feeling is that banks are dealing with digital transformation – a thing they should have dealt with a decade ago. For the next decade, they need to deal with investment transformation. Why? Because of the link…

I used to make predictions to start the year. I’m not doing that anymore, as everyone else is doing them. I will add a few thoughts at the end of this week’s series of blog entries but, for the moment, here’s my selection of what’s going to happen in 2022. You had one job ……

“When I was a lad, I got four shillings and sixpence every week for pocket money.” “Luxury! I was whipped in two by my dad and lived in a shoebox by the motorway!” says my friend. OK, enough revival of old Monty Python sketches, but the point is that children do need to know about…

I’ve seen a lot of discussions of adversaries. It’s FinTech versus Bank, central bank currencies versus decentralised currencies. The commentary makes it appear like a big battle. I disagree. It’s not a battle or a war. It’s a change to the system based upon progress, development and technology. For example, I don’t see FinTech replacing…

There was an old game called Scruples that asked what would you do in a particular situation. What would you do if you discovered your best friend was cheating on their partner? Would you tell the partner? What would you do if you knew your colleague was stealing from the company? Would you tell the…

I’m worried that the older I get, the more cynical I get. I watch developments of governments, regulators, banks and business, and keep thinking: these guys are corrupt. But corruption is part of our DNA it seems. It’s purely a matter of transparency that will change this. Then I think about our world today, and…