Grid

The main blog headlines are … The failure of government (#coronavirus) I’m really frustrated between what the government is saying, the media is reporting, the behaviour of banks, the thrust of business and the reality of life. Governments worldwide are locking down and, at the same time, saying they’re going …

Looking back, the world should have locked down when China did in January. The reason we didn’t? Economics, business, commerce and the financial metrics. If we had? Well, we wouldn’t be suffering nearly as much now. But hey, hindsight is a great thing, isn’t it? One of the things that …

I’m really frustrated between what the government is saying, the media is reporting, the behaviour of banks, the thrust of business and the reality of life. Governments worldwide are locking down and, at the same time, saying they’re going to help citizens and business; media is telling everyone there’s help, …

Someone asked me what the coronavirus pandemic means for the future of FinTech. I’ve blogged a bit about that already, referring specifically to this great presentation by Finch Capital: But equally, you may think that times are dull and boring, locked in at home and nothing going on, but there’s …

For most of my adult life, we’ve been part of the European Union. The Brexit vote came as a shock, and the unravelling of Britain from Europe for the past four years has been a major stalemate in British life and politics. Now, the whole euro project might come tumbling …

A lot of things seem irrelevant right now, as we sit in the dark of a crisis, but life will go on and things do go on. It therefore intrigued me to see that Accenture has just performed a survey around purpose-driven banking. Purpose-driven banking is something I started writing …

The main blog headlines are … Will you avoid companies that put profit before people? I’ve been writing a lot about purpose-driven banking, a theme that resonates around the idea that business focus should be more than just making money. It should also focus upon doing good for society and …

I remember some years ago that Nikolas Sarkozy wanted to bring in a law that would force call centre operators to tell French citizens where they were located, due to the backlash over offshore call centres. I wonder what he would make of today’s world, where most French and European …

There’s a great write-up by one of my guest contributors Alex Johnson, about the bad sales culture of most banks. Admittedly, he says it’s partly inspired by my blog of last year about challenger banks, but his write-up takes it further and has a swipe at the whole bank culture …

I have a few favourite FinTech firms: Ripple, Prosper, Lending Club, SoFi, Zopa, Monzo, N26, TransferWise, Klarna, Stripe, Alipay, WeBank and more. A lot of it is because I knew these firms as fledglings and have enjoyed watching them grow up. One firm in this crew is Wirecard, the German …

We are all stuck indoors, and I wonder what you are doing? In my case, I’m learning a new language. What are you doing? One of they key things to do, and my other hobby, is keep up with ideas as, during this lockdown, there is still a lot of …

I’ve been writing a lot about purpose-driven banking, a theme that resonates around the idea that business focus should be more than just making money. It should also focus upon doing good for society and the planet. So, I was particularly struck by this quote from Satya Nadella, CEO of …

The main blog headlines are … How JPMorgan Chase, BBVA, ING, DBS and CMB are doing digital Today is the day that Doing Digital, my newest book, is finally live on Amazon and all good book stores. It’s the result of two years primary and secondary research and, to pay …

The non-stop coverage of coronavirus, global markets slumping, an economic armageddon, the end of the world due to a climate emergency, the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice, rising of the oceans, weather fatalities, a farce of a US election, the UK and EU in a stand-off over Brexit, …

As usual, during this period of pandemic, there’s been a rollercoaster of events for those of us involved in financial markets. We’ve seen global stock indices drop dramatically, cryptocurrency going up and down faster than Donald Trump’s spin doctoring, and everyone feeling there’s little joy out there economically, financially or …