Grid

15% of the world’s population has a disability. According to the Return on Disability Group, this consumer population is bigger than China and accounts for $1.9 trillion in disposable income. That makes me wonder why banks and companies don’t focus upon them more. Interestingly, seeing the Paralympics coming up, disabilities like losing a leg are…

I was thinking about things that are not being dealt with by banks or fintechs. Surprisingly, there are many things that come to mind: real-time proof of identity to avoid freezing of accounts multiple verifications of a payment to ensure you send to the right person’s account better use of FaceID and similar biometrics to…

This week’s main blog discussions include … Welcome to the Finverse Am I the only one fed up with catchphrases in tech to create the Next Big Thing (NBT)? Cloud, Big Data, Platform, Ecosystem, Kubernetes and more are regularly catching an ember to try to spark a fire. Sometimes it works – Digital and Banking-as-a-Service (I’m biased…

This is a guest post by Matthias Kroener, a Bavarian who created Fidor Bank and then disappeared into the depths of gaming. Banking on the game The difference between gaming and gamification in banking Back in 1994, when I founded Direkt Anlage Bank (the first European discount broker) with a number of colleagues, it was…

Building on the Finverse, I always remember the big trading scandals of the 2000s with Jérôme Kerviel of Société Générale and Kweku Adoboli of UBS. In fact, it probably applies to all rogue traders of notoriety, including the most infamous one, Nick Leeson of Barings Bank. What did they all have in common? Gaming. You…

Am I the only one fed up with catchphrases in tech to create the Next Big Thing (NBT)? Cloud, Big Data, Platform, Ecosystem, Kubernetes and more are regularly catching an ember to try to spark a fire. Sometimes it works – Digital and Banking-as-a-Service (I’m biased as I was there first) – but some just seem silly. Take…

The core of money is risk. When someone pays you, can you trust that payment is true? If you let them take away your car or computer, can you be certain that the money they offered is real? More than this, in banking, most of what takes place is the bank providing credit. Can they…

The world is getting interesting. Circle announces plans to become a fully registered bank; Lending Club buys a credit union; Credijusto (Mexico) buys a bank; Raisin (Germany) acquires a bank … the list has, is and will go on. Meantime, JPMorgan snaps up OpenInvest; US Bank buys Bento; Lloyds (UK) acquire Embark Group; Visa eats…

This week’s blog launched FinTech4Kids FinTech4kids, Part 1, Demand and Supply FinTech4kids, Part 2, Banking and FinTech FinTech4kids, Part 3, Cloud and the Network Effect FinTech4kids, Part 4, Remittances and Blockchain FinTech4kids, Part 5, Biometrics and Identity   This week’s top reading includes (via Citadel Advantage): Banks delay return to office as delta variant surges Insider…

When I wrote the Captain Cake series and pivoted to be a children’s author as well as a FinTech guy, a friend said that I should write a children’s book about FinTech, which I did. It’s not something aimed at publication as a book, but thought I would share with you what I came up…