Opinion

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

My father was a teacher. His expertise focused upon economics. Does it show? I am an economics fan, and studied consumer economics as a specialist subject as part of my university course. The main thing I remember now – quite a few years later – is demand and supply. The more demand and less supply,…

Talking of politics and, after my piece last week about the possibility that Chinese infrastructure could replace our European (SWIFT) and American (Visa) operations Kathleen Tyson, a good friend and member of the Financial Services Club, piped up and said: Don’t give up on the American dollar that easily. She then pointed to a piece…

Some time ago, I mentioned that code is art and, if code is art, how do you attract great artists? Banks are not really seen as a place for an artist. It is like bringing maths and art together. The two don’t mix. Like science and religion, certain academic disciplines should always be kept apart. Yet…

Yes, we’re all doing stuff from our home offices. I don’t know what your office is like, but mine’s quite nice. I like it. Until I noticed a strange smell yesterday. Didn’t know what it was, so I had to look around the room a lot, then suddenly realised … … there was an elephant…