Innovation

I’ve talked for some time about component based banking but what about component based pricing? Bank pricing is the most opaque part of the industry, and the part that irritates customers the most.  Customers get charged high fees for unauthorised overdrafts as this funds free bank services for those who don’t go overdrawn.  Banks focus…

I’ve talked for some time about component based banking but what about component based pricing? Bank pricing is the most opaque part of the industry, and the part that irritates customers the most.  Customers get charged high fees for unauthorised overdrafts as this funds free bank services for those who don’t go overdrawn.  Banks focus…

I noted the disconnect between the bank community and the technology community sometime ago in my Red Pill moment, and as the year passes it becomes more and more obvious to me that we are going through a sea change in finance. Almost every day, I encounter a new start-up who wants to change some…

We had a revival of the Innotribe from SIBOS on Monday, by gathering the great and the good to discuss cryptocurrencies at the Escalator, an incubator for new fintech start-ups in East London run by Barclays Bank (if you want a primer on this, see Learn Cryptography). The session was led by Richard Brown, Executive…

I had a realisation over the past two weeks of conferences.  Having attended Finovate, SIBOS, Innotribe, a Financial Services Club meeting on cryptocurrencies and several dinners with bankers, we are at an impasse. It’s the meeting of two tribes, and the tribes do not mix well. One tribe is full of suits, fine wines, Michelin-star…

After years of indecision and procrastination, Apple finally announces what they are going to do in the payments space and the world goes wild. All the media I read seems far more consumed with Apple Pay discussions, than about the iWatch or iPhone 6 with the bigger, flatter screen. Even when PayPal announce far more…

I’m a fan of anything that makes life easier and, for me, PayPal is one of those things. PayPal allows me to make cross-border payments easily. Even better, it allows me to take cross-border payments easily. I’ve sold quite a lot of stuff using the PayPal widget, and it makes an SME’s life simpler (although…

I’m a fan of anything that makes life easier and, for me, PayPal is one of those things. PayPal allows me to make cross-border payments easily. Even better, it allows me to take cross-border payments easily. I’ve sold quite a lot of stuff using the PayPal widget, and it makes an SME’s life simpler (although…

I was reflecting on the number of new companies starting new ventures in financial services, and wanted to quantify the numbers somehow. This cropped up because almost everywhere I go, there’s a fintech start-up or start-up challenge. Barclays has The Accelerator, SWIFT has The Start-up Challenge, Finovate highlights the hot new guys, Sberbank and Santander…