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I recently posted a whine about HSBC charging 40 percent on overdrafts: Treating Customers Unfairly The fact I wrote this about HSBC gave the impression it was they who were the target. They are, but so are any banks who treat customers unfairly and the blog was meant to be more about the fact that…

I said you’re probably sick of Davos but one last update. On Friday a major announcement affecting all of banking and finance globally seeped out under the radar. I spotted it. Did you? Here it is … World Economic Forum Announces Global Consortium for Digital Currency Governance Today, the World Economic Forum announces the first…

You’ve probably heard all you need to hear about Davos by now, so I won’t bore you with it much further … except for this. Much of the dialogue for the past year has been about climate change or climate emergency or climate action or whatever you want to call it. Between David Attenborough, Greta…

I’ve watched Davos from afar for years now and often wondered what it would be like to be there so, when I got an invite this year, I took it straight away. The United Nations Media Group asked if I could join them and talk about sustainable finance, which I did. A short clip here:…

The main blog headlines are … Survey: Banks just aren’t ready for digital I’ve just been reading Jim Marous’s Digital Banking Report which ties in nicely with my new book Doing Digital, as the themes are similar. In Jim’s 70+ page report, Jim concludes that: “While there is an almost universal awareness of what needs to…

Although most businesses fail in their first year, it is quite incredible just how many start-ups there are around the world doing something interesting with technology. According to Embroker: In 2016, 69% of U.S. entrepreneurs started their business at home. In 2018, there were 145 “active unicorns” in the U.S. collectively worth $555.9 billion. Unicorns are…

I’ve just been reading Jim Marous’s Digital Banking Report which ties in nicely with my new book Doing Digital, as the themes are similar. In Jim’s 70+ page report, Jim concludes that: “While there is an almost universal awareness of what needs to be done to digitally transform financial institutions, the progress is still slow to…

Another useful person in my online network is Steve McLaughlin of @FTPartners, who I spotted sent a tweet last week saying they had produced a challenger bank report. FT Partners’ in-depth report, “The Rise of Challenger Banks” now features an exclusive interview with Brandon Krieg, Co-Founder and CEO of @Stash – view the full report…

Varun Mittal, Associate Partner with EY, recently posted a couple of interesting slides about the launch of virtual banking licences to encourage challenger banks in Asia. If you’re not aware, there’s a great deal of digital banking activity across Asia. It’s not just in China, but there are notable things happening in Hong Kong, Malaysia,…

When The Financial Times does what they’re good at – covering financial markets and not technology – then they do produce some fascinating content. Case in point is the latest coverage of JPMorgan Chase’s (JPMC) 2019 results. The bank’s latest results are stunning, with the fourth-quarter profit soaring to $8.52 billion or $2.57 a share….