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Following on from the discussions of The Wizard of Oz being a political allegory and rally cry against Wall Street and capitalism, did you realise that the boardgame Monopoly is the same, as in a game meant to illustrate the evils of capitalism? If not, then this article by Kate Raworth, sums it up well: Monopoly…

I was surprised to make a chance discovery about The Wizard of Oz.  The film with Judy Garland is firmly embedded in modern culture as a classic, but did you know that it was a rally call against the financial system when the book was originally written? It as a political, economic and monetary allegory…

I was in a conversation with a bank executive talking about innovation.   We all know the Catch-22 in a bank: you want to be innovative, but only as long as there’s no risk but, with any innovation, there has to be risk.  You can play in the sandbox like little kids but, if you try…

This week’s main blog headlines are … How often does your bank refresh its apps and architecture? I was talking with a few FinTech firms the other day. They are all fully licensed banks, and are less than 15 years old. They all seem to have one thing in common: refreshment. What I mean by…

I was talking with a few FinTech firms the other day. They are all fully licensed banks, and are less than 15 years old. They all seem to have one thing in common: refreshment. What I mean by this is that they talk about technology in a very different way to traditional banks.  Traditional banks,…

I keep trying to define and delineate more and more of this FinTech Wave. It is no longer FinTech, but PayTech, IDTech, InsurTech, WealthTech, RegTech, GulfTech and more. The thing that strikes me the most is that there are two fundamentally different FinTech camps: those attacking existing business structures and those creating new structures. For…

I received an email the other day pointing my attention to a report from the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI), a think tank that engages and challenges the industry to better serve, protect and empower for financial inclusion. I had not heard of CFI before, but their website and content is interesting, especially their new…

I enjoyed this article in the Evening Standard by Melanie McDonagh and thought I would share it here, to see what reaction it gets. The loss of our high-street banks will make us all poorer — but not financially If you have tears, reader, prepare to shed them now. My bank in Berkeley Square is closing. From November,…

Last week marked ten years since the financial crisis hit. On August 9 2007, BNP Paribas froze three of its American funds, the first in a chain of events which would lead to the biggest recession since the Great Depression. These funds were tied to American subprime mortgages and the freeze was the first public…

This week’s main blog headlines are … Banks are failing digital due to legacy and leadership (Harvard research) Just found an interesting document from Harvard Business Review with the title: How financial services views the digital agenda. It is the result of research conducted by the Harvard Business Review with the Genpact Research Institute, looking…