Neobanks don’t need to be “real banks” to compete in banking
I wrote a piece recently about the challenges of being a challenger bank. It coincided with the news that my friends at solarisBank had just achieved a Series A funding round of €26 million. Neatly, co-founder of solarisBank Marko Wenthin spotted my post and decided to send a reply. Here is his thoughts on being a…
Western Union: is the future bright or dark?
I recently was hauled up over saying that Western Union (WU) was being disrupted by FinTech. The words that a reader took issue with are: The high fees of Western Union and other remittance providers were fairly punishing … until FinTech came along Western Union is being disrupted, to an extent, but this person was…
Turkish delights in innovation
I’ve been working closely with BKM, the Turkish retail payments clearing company, for a few years now. They manage the Fintech Istanbul program, and are the powerhouse behind many of the innovations we’ve seen in Turkey from mobile wallets to contactless payments. Their CEO, Soner Canko, will be presenting to the Financial Services Club on…
The largest payments company in the world that most people have never heard of
I blogged a year ago about TechFin, the incumbents’ view of applying technology to existing banking services, versus FinTech which seeks to transform the financial system. That has become one of the top search terms to find my blog, as it turns out, mainly because my blog entries are the first to be returned when searching…
Russians launder billions through British banks (who cares?)
I blogged recently that there is around $1.6 trillion of money laundering globally and less than 2% is caught by the financial system. That’s a stunning amount and makes you wonder why our system is so awful. Much of it is down to the fact that account openings depend upon physical documentation and human checks. …
The European banking system is flat-lining
There was an interesting article in The Independent last week about the big banks becoming bigger since the financial crisis hit. The article notes that the big American banks control 70% of all US assets, and that this figure has increased 40% since 2008. In the lead up to 2008, parallel to increasing debt levels,…
The Finanser’s Week: 13th March – 19th March 2017
This week’s main blog headlines are …. Will Apple Bank be the first new American #Fintech Bank? On Wednesday the American Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)* followed up on its promise last December to introduce a national bank charter for Fintech bank startups by issuing a white paper on how to apply…
Will Apple Bank be the first new American #Fintech Bank?
On Wednesday the American Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)* followed up on its promise last December to introduce a national bank charter for Fintech bank startups by issuing a white paper on how to apply for a licence, the evaluation process and what will be involved. It’s a massive move towards allowing…
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