Grid

Last October I wrote a piece on Revolut, questioning its valuation which, at that time, was estimated to be anything up to $10 billion: They claim to have 8M customers. Let’s assume *all* of them are active. If they are “valued” at $10Bn that’s a per customer lifetime value of $1,250 or £1,000. Their premium…

I was recently watching an online poll that asked the best way for a traditional bank to compete with the new digital banks. Should they build a new bank, buy a digital bank competitor, or transform the old bank? The vote was split fairly equally between all three choices after over 1,000 votes. #FinTech poll….

I’ve tracked Wirecard for some years, as they were the bank partner that allowed Ollie Purdue to drop out of university at 21 years old to launch a bank called Loot. Wirecard basically offer the platform of many other firms to offer full banking services across Europe. Based in Germany, their clients include many FinTech…

In the latest example of a bank that couldn’t hack the digital bank market, RBS gave up on Bó last week. It surprised me as the bank only launched last November, to a fanfare of £100 million investment and the acquisition of the start-up they had been co-funding, Loot. The bank had been brewing towards…

The main blog headlines are … What will the world be like when #coronavirus ends? (Part One) Most of the people around the world have savings that can last them less than a month. In the USA, 29% of households have less than $1,000 in savings; in the UK, 15% of Brits have no savings…

I hesitate to write that headline – after all, none of knows when or even if this pandemic will end – but what I do know is that, in this time of crisis, there are lots of things changing: our beliefs, our priorities, our views, our relationships. I sat down and thought about what’s good…

Most of the people around the world have savings that can last them less than a month. In the USA, 29% of households have less than $1,000 in savings; in the UK, 15% of Brits have no savings at all; and in most economies worldwide, a large tranche of society have only got enough to live…

What if we make money truly global, stable and secure? That’s Libra’s ambition and I’ve got to hand it to the guys at Libra. Having announced their idea to create a global currency last summer, and then see it ripped to pieces by regulators, they’re back. Yes, it’s Libra 2.0. What’s the difference between 1.0 and…

I grew up in a time that was not politically correct. We used to have names for people who did not fit with our thinking, that were often derogatory and rude. Then, as I grew up, the world globalised and inclusion became more the norm. We became connected by easy travel and low-cost airlines, and…

Britain’s Got Talent is running right now in the UK and I really enjoyed this comedic sketch by Baptist Minister Allan Finnegan. You may not be able to watch it in your country, so here’s the script: I’ve been married for thirty years, which means my love life is a bit like my bank card…