Grid

I just got the latest Finch Capital report on The State of Fintech 2024. Many of us think that fintech valuations and investments have gone through the floor, and this reports make clear that it depends where you are. The UK is doing well, as is the Netherlands, whilst Ireland has seen a 90% drop…

Someone asked me the other day whether banking mergers in Europe would be a big trend or just wishful thinking. I guess this is because of the imminent acquisition of Commerzbank by Unicredit. Their real point was that the major European banks will need to merge to survive. After all, if American banks can spend…

For over half a century, post the second World War, Europe has been integrating. From a few nations in the 1950s, led by France and Germany, the Eurozone grew to 28 countries. Then, with Brexit, 27. Now, after Brexit, there are rumours the alliance could shrink further as many countries have issues with the ECB’s…

This week’s main blog discussions include … US banks invest three times more in tech than European banks I got an interesting question in my recent banking presentation: US banks have spent far more on technology than banks in Europe – will European banks ever be able to catch-up? It is true that American banks…

I got an interesting question in my recent banking presentation: US banks have spent far more on technology than banks in Europe – will European banks ever be able to catch-up? It is true that American banks have spent far more on tech. To illustrate the point: JPMorgan spent over $15 billion last year, and is…

I just spotted a blog by Alan Stapelberg, who is Group Product Manager for Google Wallet. Here’s his opening para: “Imagine starting a vacation like this: You arrive at the airport and breeze through security by tapping your phone to a reader, scanning your boarding pass and ID. While waiting to board, you grab a…

I recently did a workshop with a major bank and asked them to send questions beforehand. This is a great way for me to develop a Q&A stream as they asked me lots of questions. The first big question was: What do banks need to do to be successful in the future? Well, if I…

For the past decade, I’ve written a lot about platforms, ecosystems, digital transformation and connected structures so, when someone asked me the other day what’s hot today, my answer narrowed down to AI, APIs, no-code and Quantum. Why? Because these areas are the most exciting today. But what’s hot tomorrow? I wrote a blog the…

For years, we have talked about digital identities and how to make them work. The fact is that most countries are lagging behind whilst a few are leading, such as India with Aadhaar. Where it is working, it is totally transformative. For example, India moved from only 35% of the population able to access bank…

The main blog discussions this week include … Everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers There’s a quote I often use from John Oliver that cryptocurrency is “everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers”. That was 2018. It’s now 2024, and…