I was lucky enough to be invited to a conference of the great and the good managing one of the large economies of Europe the other day. It was in a fine location, with lots of dignitaries, media coverage, security guards and German shepherds. On that last point, the dogs, not guys herding sheep. Anyways,…
The main blog headlines are … Alipay and Visa announce global QR code venture We all got hugely excited about Apple launching a credit card with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard last week. Whoopy-doo! This was a major lift for Mastercard in particular. As Wedbush’s Moshe Katri noted payments on the card … Time for a…
I find life interesting. Themes recur over and over and over again. Will big banks survive? When will we, will we be cashless? Oh when, will we, will be branchless? Can we really replace the City with a trading network of algorithms? And more. One of my favourite recurring themes is when will we have…
I was in conversation with a banker the other day and we got around to regulations and regulators, as many conversations with banks tend to do. There were some interesting reflections in that dialogue, however. I guess it falls into three categories: the way regulations used to be; the way they are; the way they…
I find it interesting when I read perspectives on FinTech, money and banking. Going digital, getting rid of branches, becoming cashless seem to be the main themes, and yet this ignores that every part of the world is different. It’s hard to go digital if the country has little infrastructure; it doesn’t make sense to…
For those fooled by yesterday’s spoof news about Alipay and Visa, did you notice it was April 1? If not, you should have clicked the link in the blog. Talking about spoof news, I think my blog Blockchain is dead upset a few blockchain enthusiasts. Don’t get me wrong, as it’s not me saying blockchain is…
UPDATE: THIS BLOG POST WAS AN APRIL FOOL! We all got hugely excited about Apple launching a credit card with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard last week. Whoopy-doo! This was a major lift for Mastercard in particular. As Wedbush’s Moshe Katri noted payments on the card will be processed by Mastercard using “Mastercard’s token and M-chip…
For many years, banks have talked about moving away from transactions and towards advice. The branch is for advice. We will become trusted advisors. We see the value-add of banking is the information we can analyse around your data to offer advice. Complete rubbish. I’m sorry, but I’ve towed that line for a long time…
