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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…

I hadn’t really noticed the rise and rise of crypto firms sponsoring sport until recently. There are quite a number from Bedford to Crawley to Watford. Then there were the Super Bowl ads, such as that wonderful one from FTX last year. A year later, FTX has disappeared, as has many of its counterparts and dependents….

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? Well, I still claim it is not contagion, but there is lots of FUD (Fear,…

This week’s main blog discussions include … Invisible banking is the place to be A couple of headlines hit me recently. The first is that twitter is going to create a payments system: Twitter has begun applying for regulatory licences across the US and designing the software required to introduce payments across the social media…

Analysts, investors, industry commentators, finfluencers and pretty much anyone with a social media account has had something to say about the global financial system and the events of the last few weeks – but as far as we know, our quizmaster is the only one that SANG about it – but now he may be “WANTED,…

I was reflecting on the idea of embedded finance and invisible banking yesterday. It’s a great idea. We can use tech to make the world a place where you can pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. Sounds good, but is it? Some people – many who are not in our cocooned world of salaries and…

This week, Bill Gates has written a long essay on the impact AI (Artificial Intelligence) will have on the world. Paraphrasing his essay, these are the highlights for me: I was so excited about their work [OpenAI/ChatGPT] that I gave them a challenge: train an artificial intelligence to pass an Advanced Placement biology exam. Make…

A key to invisible finance is a digital identity and this is the hardest thing to crack. It’s been tried many times and failed often. Equally, there are many companies and institutions trying to solve this, but no-one seems to have succeeded. Having said that, Digiwatch estimate that governments will have issued about 5 billion digital IDs globally…

A couple of headlines hit me recently. The first is that twitter is going to create a payments system: Twitter has begun applying for regulatory licences across the US and designing the software required to introduce payments across the social media platform and then, more interestingly, is that Microsoft is going to do the same, but…

After a tumultuous week and weekend, everyone seems to be asking: is this another global financial meltdown? Bank runs, bailouts, rescues: are the ghosts of 2008 rising again? The Guardian Global banking is now inside Schrödinger’s box, The Financial Times What’s wrong with the banks, The Economist Megan Greene discusses the idea, in The Financial…