Proving digital transformation works for shareholder returns

I wrote about the fact that digital transformation does not create greater shareholder value … yet … and then DBS announce that they are the first bank in the world to demonstrate the link between digitization and shareholder value creation on November 17. Interesting, as I blogged about this on November 16, inspired by an article…

The Finanser’s Week: 20th November – 26th November 2017

This week’s main blog headlines are … Banks could be dinosaurs and some of them know it I have bias. I admit it. I have a certain proclivity to be nice to people who hire me, so this is an upfront statement of subjectivity. I am not objective. Nevertheless, there are certain companies who warm…

Banks could be dinosaurs and some of them know it

I have bias. I admit it. I have a certain proclivity to be nice to people who hire me, so this is an upfront statement of subjectivity. I am not objective. Nevertheless, there are certain companies who warm my heart. They tend to be young, dynamic and often founded in my lifetime. They are run…

Data is the new currency

There’s a constant buzz about disruption, which kind of sounds like destruction to me. We have to realize that no one is going to destruct or even possibly disrupt banks. No one. It has not happened in my lifetime of working with technology in banks, and I don’t think it will happen in the next…

Why distributed ledgers aren’t working (yet)

I spent a day facilitating a series of roundtable discussions focused upon distributed ledger technologies (DLT). I realised that there’s a lot of confusion around the subject. Hell, even I’m confused most of the time even after dedicating hours to the subject. When is a distributed ledger needed? What’s the difference between a distributed and…

The long and winding road … to the blockchain

I still talk a lot about blockchain, distributed ledgers, cryptocurrencies and more, but often feel it’s falling on deaf ears. The price of bitcoin flies around in the $7,000 a coin bracket, having risen from a tenth of that amount a year ago; and many people talk about blockchain and distributed ledger interchangeably, as did…

Why Nations Fail

I was recently at a Capital Markets conference in Turkey where the main first day keynote speaker is Professor James A. Robinson from the University of Chicago and co-author of Why Nations Fail, a book that changed thinking about what makes for successful countries and what makes them fail. I had assumed that James was going…

The Finanser’s Week: 13th November – 19th November 2017

This week’s main blog headlines are … Old John Cryan had some code, AI, AI, Oh! There are two big tech topics in banking these days, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain. These two tech titans are changing the back office of banks into intelligent shared structures that will be mind-blowing a decade from now….

Old John Cryan had some code, AI, AI, Oh!

There are two big tech topics in banking these days, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain. These two tech titans are changing the back office of banks into intelligent shared structures that will be mind-blowing a decade from now. In fact, they’re not far off that today. I’ve written a lot about Blockchain, and feel…

Does digital transformation actually matter?

I regularly talk about BBVA (Spain) and DBS (Singapore) as banks that are doing the right things for digital transformation. They both started early, have a leadership team who are committed and have been driving down this road with results. Results in terms of awards and recognition within the technology community, but what about in…