Future

Jan 2, 2015

The future for the Ukraine?

No one knows how this will work out. The sanctions are hurting Russia but Putin won't back down easily, as it would be a serious loss of face. In recent talks with Angela Merkel, it is clear that he will not back down in fact. Meanwhile, the Americans are conflicted about the Ukraine and pretty…

Dec 16, 2014

The Banking Paradox: even bankers want to move to fintech

This post is stolen from Philippe Gelis's (CEO of Kantox) blog on LinkedIn, as it adds more insight to my similar post last week: Last week I was in Madrid where Actualidad Economica and CaixaBank awarded Kantox with a best start-up prize. It is paradoxical when I think back to 4 years ago. When I was looking for…

Nov 18, 2014

Wrappers, replacers and reformers are all targeting banks

I’ve been talking about the hot new start-ups targeting the banking markets for a while. There are literally 1000’s of them – the Fintech Awards had over 750 firms to review this year alone – and sifting the wheat from the chaff is hard. There are a few standouts however, and these are the ones…

Nov 10, 2014

What will happen when China implodes?

I just took part in a panel debate about the shape of the global economy. As a renowned economist (?), I was honoured to be invited and gave my views alongside Shah Gilani, editor of Money Morning and The Money Map Report, and chaired by Andrew J. Barden, Bloomberg’s managing editor for international government in Europe and…

Nov 10, 2014

What will happen when China implodes?

Oct 31, 2014

Ryanair Bank or Private Bank? Your choice!

I’ve talked for some time about component based banking but what about component based pricing? Bank pricing is the most opaque part of the industry, and the part that irritates customers the most. Customers get charged high fees for unauthorised overdrafts as this funds free bank services for those who don’t go overdrawn. Banks focus…

Oct 31, 2014

Ryanair Bank or Private Bank? Your choice!

Oct 29, 2014

Banking is going through a sea change … can the tanker turn around?

I noted the disconnect between the bank community and the technology community sometime ago in my Red Pill moment, and as the year passes it becomes more and more obvious to me that we are going through a sea change in finance. Almost every day, I encounter a new start-up who wants to change some…

Jul 15, 2014

Welcome to your relationship machine, how can I help?

I engaged in a lengthy debate yesterday about digital banking (for a change). The core of the discussion is whether humans are needed in a digital bank. Not humans to program the bank, as they’re obviously needed, but humans to service the customer. It was somewhat of a null debate, as you will definitely have…

Jun 24, 2014

Earth 2.0: a world ruled by the people, for the people?

I presented this morning the vision of 2035. It’s too long and too much to go into (I had 2 hours to present and got through half my slides!), but the core of the presentation went along the lines of defining Earth 2.0. I actually don’t like the term 2.0 or 3.0, but it’s well…