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Another day, another conference, another meeting. This time we’re chatting and talking with a group of people from banks, and I’m wearing one of my favourite new t-shirts, emblazed with the message: Just hodl it! Before taking stage, someone asked me what hodl meant. I was surprised. I thought everyone …

Over the years, a few people have likened me to the Yoda of banking. Yoda is one of the most likable characters in the Star Wars franchise, but I’m not sure if I like the comparison. Yoda is seriously old, speaks in riddles and is tiny and wrinkled. Nevertheless, I …

The main blog headlines are … Banking is what we do and technology is how we do it A decade ago, we talked about the financial crisis, technology, regulations and compliance. A decade later, we still talk about regulations and compliance, but the discussion has changed thanks to the explosion …

A decade ago, we talked about the financial crisis, technology, regulations and compliance. A decade later, we still talk about regulations and compliance, but the discussion has changed thanks to the explosion of thousands of start-up firms around the world, in every constituency, doing things differently with technology that is …

Just spent a day chairing a payments stream at a conference. We talked about AI, biometrics, central bank digital currencies or CBDCs as everyone calls them, infrastructure, pipes, plumbing … you name it … but the bit that intrigued me was the views of Kristian Luoma from OP Bank, a …

Anyone who’s read this blog since 2007 or my books since 2014 will know that I have a regular rallying call: replace core systems; refresh the bank’s technology stack to an open architecture; embrace APIs, apps and analytics; deep dive on data; transform to be digital and not industrial; rethink …

I recently spotted a great write-up on Open Banking by Alex Johnson, who has kindly agreed I can republish it. So, here we go … The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Open Banking Distinguishing between what’s true and what we want to be true. Alex Johnson  Source: FicoFinTech The trouble …

One report you may have missed was this one: CyberRisk and the U.S. Financial System: A Pre-Mortem Analysis from The New York Fed and released in January. The paper focuses upon a co-ordinated cyberattack on the wholesale payment systems of America and can be summarised as: We (the Federal Reserve …

The main blog headlines are … RegTech versus TechReg I often talk about how banks have five times more regulation than technology firms. That stat comes from Bank of America Merrill Lynch who published this chart a while ago: This is confirmed by similar charts, such as this one from …

I often talk about how banks have five times more regulation than technology firms. That stat comes from Bank of America Merrill Lynch who published this chart a while ago: This is confirmed by similar charts, such as this one from Benedict Evans, a Partner at the firm Andreessen Horowitz, …

Following yesterday’s discussion of Brexit and it’s implications on financial services, there’s a little more to be said on this. For example, every year at The Financial Services Club, we are delighted to host our friend David Doyle who, with precision-based analysis, talks us through the implications of EU Regulations on …

I was going to give up writing anything further on Brexit as it’s now done and dusted. Britain’s out of Europe. There was no major celebration however. I was in London last Friday night, and this is what I saw out of my hotel window as we exited. EU Day …

I was taken in by an article on the BBC yesterday due to the headline: ‘I wasn’t allowed to buy my burrito with cash’ The article recounts the story of Nicholas Duggan, a construction worker, who tried to buy his lunch with cash, but the store refused and demanded payment …

I write a lot about purpose-driven banking, and many folks came back to me saying that what I had written sounded a lot like community banking. Community banks stand for something, they have a purpose and much of it is directed towards their members’ interests and the local community. And …

The main blog headlines are … A Davos Day I’ve watched Davos from afar for years now and often wondered what it would be like to be there so, when I got an invite this year, I took it straight away. The United Nations Media Group asked if I could …