Grid

A lot of things seem irrelevant right now, as we sit in the dark of a crisis, but life will go on and things do go on. It therefore intrigued me to see that Accenture has just performed a survey around purpose-driven banking. Purpose-driven banking is something I started writing about almost a year ago…

The main blog headlines are … Will you avoid companies that put profit before people? I’ve been writing a lot about purpose-driven banking, a theme that resonates around the idea that business focus should be more than just making money. It should also focus upon doing good for society and the planet. So, I was…

I remember some years ago that Nikolas Sarkozy wanted to bring in a law that would force call centre operators to tell French citizens where they were located, due to the backlash over offshore call centres. I wonder what he would make of today’s world, where most French and European banks have given all their…

There’s a great write-up by one of my guest contributors Alex Johnson, about the bad sales culture of most banks. Admittedly, he says it’s partly inspired by my blog of last year about challenger banks, but his write-up takes it further and has a swipe at the whole bank culture of cross-selling and being retailers…

I have a few favourite FinTech firms: Ripple, Prosper, Lending Club, SoFi, Zopa, Monzo, N26, TransferWise, Klarna, Stripe, Alipay, WeBank and more. A lot of it is because I knew these firms as fledglings and have enjoyed watching them grow up. One firm in this crew is Wirecard, the German bank behind many of Europe’s…

We are all stuck indoors, and I wonder what you are doing? In my case, I’m learning a new language. What are you doing? One of they key things to do, and my other hobby, is keep up with ideas as, during this lockdown, there is still a lot of on-going activity online. A number…

I’ve been writing a lot about purpose-driven banking, a theme that resonates around the idea that business focus should be more than just making money. It should also focus upon doing good for society and the planet. So, I was particularly struck by this quote from Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, in an interview with…

The main blog headlines are … How JPMorgan Chase, BBVA, ING, DBS and CMB are doing digital Today is the day that Doing Digital, my newest book, is finally live on Amazon and all good book stores. It’s the result of two years primary and secondary research and, to pay it its due, has been…

The non-stop coverage of coronavirus, global markets slumping, an economic armageddon, the end of the world due to a climate emergency, the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice, rising of the oceans, weather fatalities, a farce of a US election, the UK and EU in a stand-off over Brexit, the cancellation of the Olympics…

As usual, during this period of pandemic, there’s been a rollercoaster of events for those of us involved in financial markets. We’ve seen global stock indices drop dramatically, cryptocurrency going up and down faster than Donald Trump’s spin doctoring, and everyone feeling there’s little joy out there economically, financially or socially. That’s what a pandemic…