I realise I come across sometimes as a bit whiny, crotchety and grumpy, so decided to upgrade the dialogue with what is positive and what can be done. After critiquing all last week, I do like the challenger banks’ ways of providing more analytics and real-time updates to my way of spending. I like getting…
This week focused upon the challenges for challengers: [Monzo + Starling + Revolut] – Pandemic = The End? Over the past week or two, the neobank and challenger bank sector has been issuing financial reports. If you haven’t noticed: WHERE WERE YOU? Monzo got a particular hammering for warning that the coronavirus pandemic could impact…
I saw an article the other day: Top 10 startups offering ‘banking as a service’ in Europe by Silicon Canals. It’s an interesting article that completely misunderstands what Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is, as most of the firms listed are companies offering just an API or a few APIs. 11FS did a better job here, with their…
Carl Howard asked me to look at the challenger and neobanks we discuss today and those of twenty years ago … Have you ever done a piece comparing Smile, IF and FD with latest challenger banks. The cynic (cynic moi?) in me feels intuitively there’s an interesting story there. — Carl Howard (@carlfhoward) August 18,…
After the last two blogs, various comments highlight other questions, with the commonest one being: will any of these new banks make a profit? The answer to that is yes. Some already are, such as Shawbrook, OakNorth, Aldermore … the ones you hear less about. Monzo, Revolut, N26 and others are more sexy because they’re…
Someone asked me about the other challenger and neobanks after yesterday’s blog. I guess we focus upon Monzo, Starling and Revolut, because they are the front-runners. But there’s also Aldermore, Atom, Tide, Tandem, Lintel, Metro, Monese, OakNorth, Zopa and more. Well, I don’t have enough time to write about all of them and I know…
Over the past week or two, the neobank and challenger bank sector has been issuing financial reports. If you haven’t noticed: WHERE WERE YOU? Monzo got a particular hammering for warning that the coronavirus pandemic could impact the company as a going concern. Some argue this is just accounting and auditing speak to warn of…
The main blog headlines are … What’s next, after digital? I was invited to do a keynote for a Canadian conference the other day, but on a subject different to my normal digital stuff. The theme was sustainable finance. I decided to take a different tack and talk about my other big passion: purpose-driven banking….
So, the worst thing imaginable happened today. We had a power outage. I didn’t realise what that meant until it happened. I then realised that I was only maintaining my semblance of sanity during this lockdown thanks to having an oven, a laptop, the internet, power. When the power outage occurred, it suddenly dawned on…
