Future

I was reflecting, which is dangerous. I was reflecting on my antipathy towards bitcoin as, like most bankers, it appeared to be a bit of a scam with no asset behind it. Then I woke up to what the libertarians have been saying to me all along: any currency is a scam. The US dollar…

OK, I’m a Victor Meldrew and have several pet hates. In particular, people who use corporate-speak … Source: Forbes In banking, there are two terms I hate: channel (and all of its derivatives like omnichannel and mulitchannel) and, more recently, embedded. Folks who regularly read the blog know that I hate anyone and any article that…

Following on from why startups will fail if they compete head-to-head with a bank, I got this headline the other day saying that smaller banks have the happiest customers. The latest analysis of feedback and complaints data conducted by consumer website Fairer Finance shows that big brands such as Halifax, Nationwide, HSBC and NatWest have struggled…

WARNING: THIS IS WOKE (whatever that is) We talk a lot about diversity and LBTG+ and equality, but it’s still a long way off. In fact, I get annoyed when I see online forms with gender and title choices designed for the last century. Why is this irritating? Specifically, why is it irritating to an…

I’ve not talked much about bitcoin on the blog lately*, but I have tweeted a lot about it. The key take-away? It’s not going away. People have said bitcoin is dead thousands of times. In fact, there’s a website dedicated to the subject, tracking and tracing the death of bitcoin: Most Recent Death: Cryptocurrencies –…

I read Jamie Dimon’s shareholder letter with interest this week. His message does not read like a shareholder letter from a banker …   Banks “are facing extensive competition from Silicon Valley, both in the form of fintechs and Big Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and now Walmart), that is here to stay. As…

I blogged the other day about a $3 trillion spending spree, that I just didn’t see happening. The points I made were: it is the higher income families who have been most comfortable during this lockdown, along with essential workers who have seen no change in pay; but who has savings? most people have had…

Last year, I blogged about the view of Deutsche Bank regarding the future of payments. They produced three reports: Part I: Cash: The Dinosaur Will Survive… For Now Part II: Moving To Digital Wallets And The Extinction Of Plastic Cards Part III: Digital Currencies: The Ultimate Hard Power Tool … that were well worth a…

I am involved in a number of activities, one of which is a not-for-profit called The Portrait Foundation. This is a bit of a pivot, but it’s all about encouraging creativity in children, as it is the human and emotional skills that children should learn today. Children should not be taught all the things machines…

In a fascinating move Venezuela, which has been a basket-case economy ever since Hugo Chavez died in 2013, has dropped their national currency (the bolivar) and any ties to the US dollar, and decided to link their national currency to bitcoin instead. This follows years of hyperinflation where the bolivar – both the old and…