I’ve talked a lot on this blog about P2P or social lending, mainly because I’ve been involved with Zopa since its launch and followed its siblings: Boober, Smava, Prosper, Lending Club, Ratesetter, Cashare, Loanio … Suffice to say there is a world of direct social lending out there and it’s …
Read More »The Future Bank: Augmented, Social and Mobile
We had a great discussion at the Financial Services Club Central & Eastern Europe (FSClub CEE) this week. Now in its fourth year of operation, the Club meets regularly at the residence of the British Ambassador in Vienna, Austria (see postnote if you want a laugh). The theme of the …
Read More »Square: the Apple of finance
In case you didn’t see it, Wired magazine ran an article about Jack Dorsey and Square this month. Throughout the article, they compare Jack Dorsey to Steve Jobs and Square with Apple. In a long opening – the first page is just about pouring tea! – they finally get to the …
Read More »Innovating on a sinking ship
I’ve already given some reflections on last week’s innotribe meeting in my write ups of Metro Bank and Fidor Bank. Now, for a more general write-up, I’ve taken the inputs of Kosta Peric, the SWIFT innovation group leader who runs innotribe; the innotribe start-up details; and the input of participating company Allevo; to …
Read More »Fidor Bank: the most innovative bank concept out there
After discussing Metro Bank yesterday, the other presentation that caught my attention at innotribe Belfast was from Fidor Bank. The two presentations are like going from one extreme to another however – Metro with their branch based focus compared with Fidor with their GLoSoMo (Global-Local, Social Mobile) approach. I interviewed …
Read More »Waiting for the PayPal of mobile payments
I had an interesting dialogue over lunch yesterday. One of my colleagues had just got his iZettle dongle. iZettle is a Square for Europe, offering Chip & Signature payments on smartphones (Square reads the mag stripe). It was originally going to be Chip & PIN, but the PIN terminal detail …
Read More »Dropping guano on the Angry Banker
Whilst in Russia last week, I was lucky enough to be there when good friend Daniel Gusev launched a new bank initiative for OJSC Promsvyazbank (PSB). PSB is a privately-owned universal commercial bank. Founded in 1995, PSB currently ranks 10th by assets among Russian banks and Daniel is innovation advisor …
Read More »Dropping guano on the Angry Banker
Whilst in Russia last week, I was lucky enough to be there when good friend Daniel Gusev launched a new bank initiative for OJSC Promsvyazbank (PSB). PSB is a privately-owned universal commercial bank. Founded in 1995, PSB currently ranks 10th by assets among Russian banks and Daniel is innovation advisor …
Read More »Why the branch vs branchless debate is futile
I’ve been struck by many nuances of culture and creed lately. There are many examples, but it all comes down to dealing with the customer as a unique entity, not some mass market. For example, why does Spain have so many bank branches? Spain has around 43,000 bank branches, about …
Read More »Social media platforms are not the same as social media
Everyone’s now talking about mobile payments and mobile banking. I was talking about that effectively as a core strategic area back in 2004. So it took about five years to become the mainstream bank conversation. Now, I talk about social payments and social banking. I’ve been talking about this as …
Read More »Case Study: Barclays Pingit for Consumers and Corporates
There’s a strong dialogue about why new services such as PayPal and Square take off so fast, and the answer is a combination of usability and accessibility. If something is easy and it works, then it can gain critical mass fast. That’s true of Facebook, Twitter and other social media. …
Read More »Facebook’s IPO makes Wall Street redundant
I’ve spent my life working with banks and technology firms, trying to align technology with business strategy and vice versa. And yet it was only yesterday that I realised that these two industries are ripping each other apart. The fact is that banking was managed in a risk averse way …
Read More »Facebook’s IPO makes Wall Street redundant
I’ve spent my life working with banks and technology firms, trying to align technology with business strategy and vice versa. And yet it was only yesterday that I realised that these two industries are ripping each other apart. The fact is that banking was managed in a risk averse way …
Read More »Innovation has to be driven top-down
I did a webinar on innovation yesterday. It's a one-hour session, which you're welcome to watch if you have the time: Alternatively or, in addition, here are the slides I presented if you want a quick view of the info provided. Innovation in financial services View more presentations from …
Read More »Innovation has to be driven top-down
I did a webinar on innovation yesterday. It's a one-hour session, which you're welcome to watch if you have the time: Alternatively or, in addition, here are the slides I presented if you want a quick view of the info provided. Innovation in financial services View more presentations from …
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