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I’m a firm believer that banks rarely invest to drive revenue and elevate customer service. But I recently hosted a roundtable discussion in London with Appian, a process automation platform company, where leaders from mainstream and challenger banks in the UK gathered to discuss the challenges facing financial institutions when adopting new technology. One of…

This week’s main blog discussions include … Will Silicon Valley Bank kill the FinTech industry? “When you’re not working, what do you do to de-stress?” was the last question Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)*, took at an investor conference on Tuesday last week. “Cycling is my advice,” he replied. Three days later…

Welcome to this week’s FU, where we talked about the week that was, and what a week it was. Lots of bank failures and a possibility of some new banks. Bank of America were one of the winners this week whilst First Republic Bank were a possible loser, until they were thrown a last minute…

People fear banking collapses and, with five in a week, is this contagion? In the last few days Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic, Railsr and Credit Suisse have failed. Technically they are still alive but, realistically, they flat-lined. Is this a financial crisis? No. Each bank had different issues and so I thought…

A headline jumped out at me the other day: World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee calls crypto ‘dangerous’ and likens it to gambling The key points he made in an interview with CNBC are: Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, called cryptocurrency “dangerous” and likened it to gambling. Discussing the future of…

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange preferred by many, was interviewed by Bloomberg[1]. I’ve selected a number of key comments he made, as this feeds well into my arguments about DeFi (Decentralised Finance) versus CeFi (Centralised Finance). All commentary below is direct from Brian: … One in five households have used crypto, about 50…

I often return to a theme: where’s my guarantee? Where’s my backup? After the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank during the past week, it begs the question: where’s my guarantee? Where’s my backup? After losing money on MtGox ten years ago: where’s my guarantee? Where’s my backup? With the failure of FTX and Terra-Luna: where’s…

“When you’re not working, what do you do to de-stress?” was the last question Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)*, took at an investor conference on Tuesday last week. “Cycling is my advice,” he replied. Three days later he was on his bike as his bank went into receivership.  You’ve probably seen a…

This week’s main blog discussions include … What’s hot and what’s not in FinTech? I just picked up a long and fascinating article on TechCrunch this week. Unfortunately it’s behind a paywall, but they interview seven leading VC investors in FinTech and asked a whole variety of questions: Many people are calling this a downturn….

The news about Silicon Valley Bank is having an impact on banks and markets globally – and it wasn’t even the right answer to a question this week! The team spoke about N26, boiling frogs and Belgians (no, not boiling Belgians!!) and our singing quizmaster was back on form once again (or off-key, depending how…