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This is my last blog of 2020, so I thought I would look back at the year with a personal view. A terrible year. A year of locked down loneliness for many. In my case, it’s been hard. I am used to being in a different country every other day, flying the world. Since February,…

I was chatting with a friend the other day, who pointed out my predictions. I don’t like to talk about them, as I’ve made so many, but he focused upon how accurate most of them have been. I was one of the first to talk about the impact of China and India on the future…

These are the top 11 most read blogs of 2020 … unsurprisingly, they are mainly about digital transformation and the biggest challengers out there: Monzo, Starling, Revolut, Ant and company; although this year’s #1 will surprise you as it’s nothing to do with finance and technology. Enjoy!   At #11 Forget about Monzo and Starling,…

The main blog discussions this week include … Can we change The System? Yes, we can … ish I woke up yesterday to find this story on Sifted, the Financial Times newish platform dedicated to innovation and FinTech: Fintechs to cosy up with politicians to counter ‘big bank lobby’ It’s interesting, especially for a guy…

This is the sixth in a series of blogs about the elephant, which represents the economy, and the bird, which represents the future. The bird was out of its cage, but it stayed in the room. We had talked a lot about the economy and, although the elephant had left the room, I knew it was…

One of my most popular blogs, which surprised me, was when I wrote about how redundancy was the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s true. I learned more from failure than I ever learned from success. I learn more from hardship than I ever learn from complacency. It’s not true for everyone. It’s…

I guess I’ll build on yesterday’s blog, about the python of regulation, by harking back to a comment I heard many years ago in Brussels. Talking with one of the key regulators, I asked why they had the regulation in place with so much interpretation. My point was that Italy was implementing the regulation in…

I woke up yesterday to find this story on Sifted, the Financial Times newish platform dedicated to innovation and FinTech: Fintechs to cosy up with politicians to counter ‘big bank lobby’ It’s interesting, especially for a guy like me who has hovered around all of the lobbies mentioned. The gist of the article is that…

Five years ago, I interviewed Niklas Adalberth, Co-Founder, Deputy CEO and Board Member at Klarna. He left the company shortly after, and is now a venture capitalist at Norrsken. At the time, Klarna was relatively unheard of, but the interview intrigued me at the time. It was all about an escrow style service, as people…

The main blog discussions this week include … The Omniaccess Future (Free Research Report) The new word of focus, as proven by research, is omniaccess. Forget omnichannel. We just performed a short survey about the views of banks and FinTechs regarding the pandemic, sponsored by Oracle. The results are out today and here’s the summary: 48%…