Future

The good thing about blogging is that I have a public record of my thinking. Hence, I can claim that Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is mine. That’s because I was presenting the idea ten years ago and blogged about it in February 2009. Now, no idea is unique, and the BaaS idea was purely based upon the…

I’ve got caught in a few discussions recently with people who tell me Ant Financial are Chinese. They’re not. Neither is Alibaba and, if you think they’re just Chinese, you’re going to miss a huge change in the next decade. Ant Financial is an open marketplace of apps, APIs and analytics, that I’ve been describing…

For those who know me they know that I travel a lot and, in those travels, it is fairly obvious that the world is not homogenous. Whilst the Chinese leapfrog the West and move to mobile banking, Europeans are seeing a surge of new banks trying to challenge the old, whilst the USA has megabanks…

I’ve used a statement for a while now about the competitive landscape of finance in the future. It goes something like: Banks have millions of customers, billions of capital and centuries of history, but are hampered by heritage; Start-ups have no customers, little capital and no history, but are driven by vision; whilst Tech giants…

I don’t know how generations think. I only know how my generation thinks, and they call my generation baby boomers. It’s a massive net that catches me, even though I feel like I’m Generation X – a punk and new romancer – but hey, marketing people need their categories. We have Gen X, Gen Y,…

I just listened to a presentation by Nick Thompson, editor-in-chief at Wired, about all things in the future of tech. A lot of it was focused upon Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning towards the end, but the first half was interesting as it focused upon why there is a backlash against Silicon Valley right now. He put…

I’ve been tempted for some time to write a book about how sex is at the heart of commerce, innovation and money. I’ve alluded to it a few times, and particularly noted that the right honourable Jeremy Clarkson sometimes says something intelligent. “Money and rumpy-pumpy (sex) are the twin engines powering everything we do”. He’s…

I just got a report from J Walter Thompson on the future of money and there’s some interesting facts and stats. Here are my headlines: 76% of millennials are looking for new forms of banking 40% of people in their twenties have downloaded a money management app 80% of millennials don’t invest in the stock…

I just completed one of those things that none of us like doing, making a will. I recently had a major change of circumstances in my life, and decided that I should make appropriate updates and provisions. After all, who gets my Batman and Spiderman comics? Anyways, it’s been bugging me for a while that…

I was super impressed by an article written by FinTech friend Bradley Leimer for International Banker the other day, and asked if I could share on the blog. Bradley kindly said yes, so here you are. Enjoy the read! The Invisible Hand of Financial Services by Bradley Leimer, Managing Director and Head of Fintech Strategy, Explorer Advisory…