I was invited to address a commercial bank this week, and they wanted me to make it specific to their strategy. In reading their strategy, I saw something that jumped off the page: new branches. Why, in the digital age, would any bank be opening more branches? I asked them this question and they said…
A month ago, I blogged about the problems at TSB when implementing the change-over of their core systems. Yes, core systems replacements are challenging, but they’re not risky when done right. Unfortunately, TSB’s change-over shows all the marks of how to get it wrong. Not only has it been highly public, with the CEO Paul…
I’ve used a statement for a while now about the competitive landscape of finance in the future. It goes something like: Banks have millions of customers, billions of capital and centuries of history, but are hampered by heritage; Start-ups have no customers, little capital and no history, but are driven by vision; whilst Tech giants…
Quite a few people talk about invisible banking today. The idea is that banking transactions and services should be invisible as if they are noticeable, as in visible, then that means you have pain and friction which should have been removed. A good example of invisible banking is the iTunes store where I can download…
So, I’m presenting at a Corporate Treasury event, and we get into talking about distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain. Comments are made around so many tests and proofs of work and concept, but so little production. At this point, someone made the comment that it will happen from the ground up, as corporates start…
I was asked at a conference the other day: “so what do you think about a banks’ Innovation Department?” The question threw me a little, so I asked what they meant. “Well, do you think banks should have an Innovation Division?” I replied that divisions divide, and that innovation should be encouraged everywhere. “Ah, so…
Back in the 1980s, Walter Wriston, the then Chief Executive and Chairman of Citibank, said that “information about money is becoming more important than money itself”. His successor, John Reed, said that “banking is just becoming bits and bytes”. A quarter century later, this vision of the future of finance has come true. By way…
The main blog headlines are … Big bank thinking and the danger of the technology testing hole Building on Friday’s blog about small bank thinking, there’s another anomaly that occurs with big banks which is their usual response to technology is to test it. The problem with testing technology is that it is just a…
