When a bank disappears from sight, can it still exist as a bank? The short answer is yes, in an invisible finance world. While I believe that banks and banking will not disappear, I do believe that most banks will. They won’t disappear completely, of course, they will just cease to be something we think…
I’ve seen so many updates about Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) lately that it’s obviously an inevitability. Maybe … Bear in mind we have CBDCs and cryptocurrencies. Are the two in competition or complimentary? I think that’s a really important question. The question is: which do you trust more? Trust in CBDCs is that, because…
I’ve had a few annoying digital instances recently. The first was a request to complete one-time password verfications … Just did an order online. First, my online retailer asked for a one-time password (OTP). Then my payment processor asked for another OTP. Then my bank asked for a third OTP. But, tbh, I don't mind….
This week’s main blog discussions include … Are we in another financial crisis? I claimed that the crisis of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Credit Suisse were isolated cases, specific to those institutions, and there is no financial contagion. Then we get all these headlines about Deutsche Bank being next. What’s going on? The decline and fall of the…
After all the turmoil in European markets and the global financial world after Silicon Valley Bank’s failure and the subsequent attack on Credit Suisse, a major German bank has been acquired by the Dutch today. The Netherland’s leading bank has acquired the largest German bank. The Deutsche becomes the Dutch. This transaction is valued at…
I was listening to a fascinating debate about identity authentication, and one of the speakers referenced the fact that it was only because Dutch jews registered their identities at the start of the Second World War that so many died. I had not heard about this and immediately started Googling. Sure enough 75 per cent…
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expected former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga to be elected president of the World Bank as nominations drew to a close. It is not surprising as, when nominations closed at 6pm in Washington yesterday, there were no other publicly declared candidates. Who is Mr. Banga? According to Wikipedia, Ajay…
FedNow is the faster payments service for America, backed by the US Government and delivered by the Federal Reserve banks. The thing is that you, like me, may be asking is this real? America is getting faster payments in 2023 when many other economies got them in the 2000s? Well, yes and no. The UK…
FIS with WorldPay just produced an interesting report about the state of global payments. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: THE STATE OF PAYMENTS TODAY In 2023, the Global Payments Report continues its core mission to detail the contours of consumer payment behaviour at checkout both in-store and online, and to offer merchants and the broader payments industry key…
