Grid

I had an interesting discussion about hiring technology people into banks the other day. The challenge of finding top coders is a big one, as there’s an awful lot of other firms to join out there. You could join a hot FinTech unicorn like Monzo, SoFi, Stripe, Ant Financial, Ping An or many of the…

When did FinTech become FinTech? When did technology in finance become cool? I guess the first thing is to define FinTech, which I did badly four years ago. I say badly because my definition back then was: FinTech [is] a new market that integrates finance and technology. This new market is a hybrid of the…

I was having a breakfast meeting with a banking friend who had recently been through a tortuous experience. His start-up had been acquired by a major traditional bank, and it ended with blood on the floor. The start-up got squeezed into the Empire, and it literally was like something from Star Wars with the start-up…

The main blog headlines are … Earth’s future is all down to the banks I’ve been struggling for a while now. My struggle is that I love flying around the world, seeing new places, meeting new people, finding new things … but I hate polluting the planet. This was brought to a head this week…

I’ve been struggling for a while now. My struggle is that I love flying around the world, seeing new places, meeting new people, finding new things … but I hate polluting the planet. This was brought to a head this week in a back-to-back meeting on sustainable finance that made it abundantly clear we’re screwing…

So my snarky little friend Ron Shevlin wrote a piece on Forbes claiming that Americans don’t want a digital bank. As the guy who wrote the book Digital Bank you might think I would take offence to such a statement, but no. I agree with his content, just not his headline. His content states: 10…

I feel sorry for Deutsche Bank. I’ve worked with the bank and they have some great people. It used to be that their investment banking services were one of the best in Europe, alongside UBS and Barclays Bank. That was before September 2008. Since then, it’s been like an old prize fighter swinging from one…

I write a lot about FinTech payments, lending, roboadvice and such like. But there’s been a strong bubbling trend underneath all this that has not gone unnoticed. I’ve just not blogged about it enough. SMALL BUSINESS FINANCE People talk a lot about finance for SMEs – small to medium enterprises – but there’s a lot…

The main blog headlines are … When will the FinTech bubble burst? Reading about FinTech unicorns and pizzas worth $80 million, you would think that the world was bubbling over with wealth. FinTech investments last year peaked at over $110 billion, more than double the year before, and IPOs for firms like Uber and WeWorks…

Reading about FinTech unicorns and pizzas worth $80 million, you would think that the world was bubbling over with wealth. FinTech investments last year peaked at over $110 billion, more than double the year before, and IPOs for firms like Uber and WeWorks are seeing valuations in the stratosphere. Everything is just yummy, yea? Nah….