Grid

As the coronavirus gripped Europe and America in March and April, it was clear that banks had a number of issues to deal with. Suddenly shuttering branch doors, closing head office and asking staff to stay at home, became the modus operandi for all. This is something that no major financial institution had planned for,…

In any business, there are different movers and shakers. Some can create momentum; some can maintain momentum; some create ideas; some kill ideas; some run the business; some change the business; and so on and so on and so on. I’m an ideas guy. I could never run a business. I mean, I do run…

The main blog headlines are … Here’s what the new normal looks like There’s lots of talk about civil unrest, an unjust society, the need for a universal basic income, a change in attitude towards everything from capitalism to socialism to democracy to inclusion. Good discussions but hard to know how it plays out. In…

If you didn’t spot it the other day, there was a headline that caught my eye: Jamie Dimon says coronavirus crisis is ‘wake-up call’ for a more inclusive economy I smiled and seethed, as it was covered widely with the words above combined with says the billionaire. I smiled as it plays to my message…

I was relaxing watching a rock concert whilst self-isolating. It made me realise the way it was. 60,000 people sweating next to each other at an open venue, mingling each others juices together. Ah, those were the days. Nothing is going to be the same. My life was concerts, theatre, travel, airports … all those…

I’ve often questioned the valuations of unicorns in technology, whether it be Uber or Revolut. And here we are in lockdown world and the valuations of most unicorns are crashing overnight. Monzo’s value is down 40 percent, and FinTech funding is at a three year low. Some companies like Revolut were quite lucky. Raising $500…

There are lots of headlines and articles talking about the end of the office. You think about it, and it kind of makes sense. In a digital age, why do we have to go to a physical office? Why do we all cram ourselves into buses, cars and trains every morning and evening and commute?…

There’s lots of talk about civil unrest, an unjust society, the need for a universal basic income, a change in attitude towards everything from capitalism to socialism to democracy to inclusion. Good discussions but hard to know how it plays out. In many countries, people are suffering so much. They’re starving, they have no government…

The main blog headlines are … Dealing with a crisis: FinTech versus Bank The chasm between start-ups and incumbents is massively exposed by coronavirus. I realised this early on, when I saw that FinTech firms who were born on the internet were far more ready for working from home than traditional banks who depend on…

I just found three interesting management reports. One is a survey from Salt Edge on the lack of success of the use APIs and Open Banking, two years after the introduction of PSD2; the second is from the GSMA on the state of mobile financial services; and the third is a great white paper by…