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I had a fascinating conversation the other day, and shouldn’t share it here but hey, it’s my blog. I was talking about my understanding of SWIFT and how Yawar Shah, Chair of the Association, is killing it. I must admit, it had not occurred to me re the politics of SWIFT, until that discussion, as…

Is it just me, or is the world a scary place at the moment? For most of my life, the world has been harmonising, working together to create global trade and destroy barriers. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the opening of China to world trade and the growth of the United Nations sustainability goals,…

This week’s main blog discussions include: $2 trillion a year sits rotting in bank accounts This headline caught my attention the other day: Bank loyalty costs savers £1.6 billion a year in missed interest The detail: There’s £246.5 billion ($340 billion) languishing in accounts paying no interest at all … A survey of 2,000 adults…

I got a phone call from the Elephant. For those who read my blog regularly, you’ll remember that the elephant stayed with me last year. I guess, as it’s a year later, he was missing me. He moved out as Spring approached, because I couldn’t stand the smell, and his constant demands for curry, crisps…

Brett King dropped a tweet the other day. It was followed up with a further list from Matthew Van Buskirk: I am sure there are many others!6. Transaction speed isn't important7. Cloud-based fintechs are inherently less secure8. Face to face or phone interactions are necessary for effective fraud control9. People want all of their financial…

Jim Marous at The Financial Brand just published a survey of what his readers think the future of banking holds. Before you read the results, here are mine: Retail banking focuses upon integrating everything digital Commercial banking focuses upon digital currencies for global trade Investment banking focuses upon the tokenization of equities and trading Simples! What…

This headline caught my attention the other day: Bank loyalty costs savers £1.6 billion a year in missed interest The detail: There’s £246.5 billion ($340 billion) languishing in accounts paying no interest at all … A survey of 2,000 adults across the UK, with 42 percent of respondents stating that they didn’t think it was…

Building on my recent thoughts, I cannot for the life of me understand how a bank can spend so much on technology and yet be so inefficient. By way of example, let’s take a bank cost-income ratio. That’s the measure of how much a bank spends to operate, and the profit it then makes. In…

This week was COP26 and so the Finanser had a two-track week. The usual updates, but also the COP updates. Here’s the usual track … Why challenger banks find it hard to challenge I was thinking about this article in The Telegraph saying what a rotten job supermarkets have made of competing with banks. Tesco…

Mark Carney stood up at COP26, alongside Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock) and Jane Fraser (CEO of Citigroup). Together they announced that the financial industry has pledged $130 trillion of assets to solve climate challenges. Woo-hoo! Thanks. Trouble is that it’s a lie. Larry Fink and Jane Fraser run two companies leading the end of…