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I spotted an update from a colleague the other day, questioning the future of the big card processing companies. For me, they are a duopoly. Processing more than three-quarters of world card payments, and terminals and paypoints everywhere online and offline, I cannot see Visa or MasterCard (MasterChip?) disappearing in the near-term. That leaves a…

We’ve seen failures of systems in Zimbabwe, Venezuela and other nations. What if it was here? You think everything is stable, secure, reliable and resilient, and then suddenly it isn’t. Does this sound far-fetched? Well, it’s not. It could happen anywhere. I’ve been lucky enough to be in mostly positive worlds, where governments have ruled well…

I didn’t want to comment on the death of the Queen. It’s got nothing to do with FinTech, Banking, Technology or finance … but, in the last few years, I created a charity with my good friend Basia Hamilton, a world-leading portrait artist, to encourage children to paint and draw. The Portrait Foundation is now…

This week’s main blog discussions include: Skandal! starts tonight on Netflix: the story of Wirecard Skandal! starts tonight on Netflix What’s all that about? It’s all about Wirecard and the investigative journalism of one Dan McCrum, a friend who reported on the affair with The Financial Times. Over time, Dan’s work resulted in proving that…

Skandal! starts tonight on Netflix What’s all that about? It’s all about Wirecard and the investigative journalism of one Dan McCrum, a friend who reported on the affair with The Financial Times. Over time, Dan’s work resulted in proving that Wirecard was  a scam. Having said that, he was attacked by the company and its…

I stumbled over a detailed analysis of Goldman Sachs’ efforts to be a fintech the other day. Written by Mario Gabriele, Founder and Editor of The Generalist, the lengthy text is a great breakdown of how Goldman pivoted from an investment bank to launch a consumer bank over the past few years. I’ve picked a…

Back in January, I forecast a Big Regression in 2022, and it’s here and now. Layoffs at Klarna, concerns about cryptocurrency exchange viability after Luna and Celsisus, acquisitions of weaker fintechs by big banks and more are the things we see today. It’s a bleak picture for some. By way of example, the KPMG report…

Sometime today or tomorrow, a major moment in history will happen. No, not the Queen’s coffin arriving at Westminster Abbey, it’s The Merge! What’s The Merge? It’s when Ethereum merges with Beacon Chain and moves from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). It’s a major move called the Merge, and sets Ethereum apart from most other crypto…

Coindesk just ran a series of articles about the relationship between cryptocurrency and sins. The sins vary from money laundering to crime and porn and, in an interesting variant, the financial system has only ever progressed thanks to crime and sex, something I’ve written about a lot before. Here are a few key paragraphs from…

The week’s major blog discussions include … To centralise or decentralise: that is the question [Part One] In what seems to be a series of posts, I’m going to hone in on the centralised versus decentralised view of the world. Here’s Part One! Thanks to my friend Dharmesh, I watched this 25 minute video from…