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#KlarNAAA? Is #BNPL a good or bad thing?

Five years ago, I interviewed Niklas Adalberth, Co-Founder, Deputy CEO and Board Member at Klarna. He left the company shortly after, and is now a venture capitalist at Norrsken. At the time, Klarna was relatively unheard of, but the interview intrigued me at the time. It was all about an escrow style service, as people…

The People’s Republic of the Network

I’ve talked a lot about GloLo – the integration of local with global. This is where physical and digital come together, and has clearly been demonstrated during the pandemic. I’m local – locked in and not going anywhere – but I’m global – I’m video-calling every day to everywhere in the world. In the context…

Facebook’s Diem is a shadow of Libra

I guess that Facebook caused many central banks to realise that if they didn’t issue digital currencies then others would. Hence, why most central banks are issuing them. But it’s not an either-or scenario. “We will see in the not-too-distant future a sovereign digital currency coming out.” Michael Corbat, CEO of Citi “There is absolutely…

Friction-free commerce: what are you doing    

During this health crisis, everything has changed a lot. We are at home, home schooling, home learning, home entertaining, home working and more. Great. That’s all good. Yes and no. Mental health has become a big issue and is something everyone is talking about more as, after all, if you say at home for days,…

Are banks funding our extinction?

Readers of my blog may have realised that, over recent years, I’ve become a little bit passionate about saving the world. It’s our world. It’s the only one we’ve got. I’m quite keen to keep it here for that reason. Whilst coronavirus, disease and pandemics drive our thinking, we should not forget that there are…

As Treasury moves into cryptocurrencies, what’s your view?

It’s been interesting to see two major firms – admittedly FinTech firms – commit to crypto in the past month: PayPal and Square. The fact that such big processors are committing is a sign of the times and a move towards many organisations embracing the cryptocurrency world. If you didn’t see it: PayPal steps into…

The lakes, ponds, streams and brooks of finance

Jack Ma had a rant about the financial system ahead of Ant Group’s IPO. As reported in The Financial Times, he thinks the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) who issue the Basel Accords is like “an old people’s club” … “The Basel Accords are like an old people’s club . . . we can’t use yesterday’s methods to regulate the…

Europe’s flagship payments system died for 11 hours

Over a decade ago, I curated a book about Europe’s Singe Euro Payments Area (SEPA). I was quite boring ten years ago, before FinTech made me cool. However, I still watch SEPA, the PSD regs, MiFID and more. I’m still a bit boring underneath it all. I don’t blog about it, because the audience for…

Demanding from home means stores are dead?

One thing that is clear about demand and supply is, when you think about where we are today, there is little demand for anything. We are all staying at home – and so the only demand is what can be delivered to the home – that’s the issue. This came home to me when I…

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