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During my karaoke lockdown challenge, I’ve been surprised how engaged my audience is, from those who encouraged me to do JaJa Ding Dong to a trans-Atlantic duet with Barb MacLean of Islands in the Stream. However, I’ve never been as challenged as I was this week. I got an email from Oriol Ros of Latinia…

This week continued the focus upon the challenges for challengers: [Monzo + Starling + Revolut] – Pandemic = The End? Over the past week or two, the neobank and challenger bank sector has been issuing financial reports. If you haven’t noticed: WHERE WERE YOU? Monzo got a particular hammering for warning that the coronavirus pandemic…

WARNING: LONG READ During the last week, I had a chat with a friend about lockdown. I always start conversations with how’s lockdown been for you? For him, it’s been particularly bad. Based in downtown New York City (NYC), USA, he described how hordes of homeless people, evicted by landlords, have started to create camps…

As someone who’s followed Alibaba, Alipay and Ant Financial – now Ant Group, btw – for a long time, I cannot let their IPO appear without comment. If you haven’t spotted it, here’s coverage in The Wall Street Journal: Ant Group Co., the Chinese financial-technology giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, revealed how highly profitable…

I’m going to shut up about challenger banks soon, but noted that even the regulator is getting worried about them. After Monzo’s admittance that it may not continue as a going concern if the pandemic continues through 2021, N26 admitting that profit is not their focus, Revolut’s tripling of losses, and more issues out there,…

I realise I come across sometimes as a bit whiny, crotchety and grumpy, so decided to upgrade the dialogue with what is positive and what can be done. After critiquing all last week, I do like the challenger banks’ ways of providing more analytics and real-time updates to my way of spending. I like getting…

There are some iconic lines in films. Stop the world, I want to get off. I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore. Do you want to take the red or the blue pill? I’ll have what she’s having. And, right now, during these lockdown no travel times, it often…

This week focused upon the challenges for challengers: [Monzo + Starling + Revolut] – Pandemic = The End? Over the past week or two, the neobank and challenger bank sector has been issuing financial reports. If you haven’t noticed: WHERE WERE YOU? Monzo got a particular hammering for warning that the coronavirus pandemic could impact…

I saw an article the other day: Top 10 startups offering ‘banking as a service’ in Europe by Silicon Canals. It’s an interesting article that completely misunderstands what Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is, as most of the firms listed are companies offering just an API or a few APIs. 11FS did a better job here, with their…

Carl Howard asked me to look at the challenger and neobanks we discuss today and those of twenty years ago … Have you ever done a piece comparing Smile, IF and FD with latest challenger banks. The cynic (cynic moi?) in me feels intuitively there’s an interesting story there. — Carl Howard (@carlfhoward) August 18,…