Opinion

I often reflect on how quickly China is moving towards being cashless, as are parts of Africa and much of India. I then realised that it is a strong mix of simple infrastructure and strong incentive. In the case of M-PESA in Kenya, there was no method of making payments from city to village, except…

Name the company that strikes fear into everyone’s hearts in business? In the 1980s, it was IBM. You never get fired if you buy IBM, even though It’s a Bloody Mess. In the 1990s, it was Microsoft. Sure, Most Intelligent Creatures Realise Our Software Only Fools Teenagers, but yes, they were taking over the planet….

Yep, there’s a clickbaiting title if ever I saw one. But it seems to be true. Ten years ago, we had a global financial crisis. Now, ten years later, the banks are heavily regulated, their risk-capital ratios stabilised, their leverage reduced and the regulators breathing down their necks, promoting competition and supporting technology innovators. The…

One of the issues I have with financial services is that it’s frightening. You might not think so, but I grew up in a world of cushioned money. I didn’t know much about money at all. The most I knew about money is begging for more pocket money. The Bank of Mum and Dad was…

As usual, I began the year with a bunch of predictions. I always like to end the year by going back and reviewing them. My own predictions were a little bit off. I said the main four things that would happen this year were: Getting down to business with Artificial Intelligence (AI) Rationalising and cleansing…

As a professional conference goer, I have certain routines. My main focus is to learn and, although I won’t attend every session, I will attend many. Unfortunately these days, the wandering mind and desperate need to get to the next level of Candy Crush, means that most of the time is spent playing with the…

I present regularly to retail, commercial and investment banks, wealth managers and fund managers, insurance companies and more about how technology is transforming everything. I often can feel a sense of cynicism in the room. We’ve heard all this before and yes, I’ve pointed this out several times: The boy who cried wolf (FinTech style)…

I just got back from Russia recently where I was interviewed by one of their leading journals. The journalist had read Digital Human, and took a very Russian take on it. His first question was along the lines of: if we are automating so much, then the people who own the robots will get richer…

The United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking were released last Monday. The aim is to help any bank – whatever its starting point – to align its business strategy with society’s goals. It’s a nice idea, but is it practical? In a guest column James Vaccaro, Director of Corporate Strategy at Triodos Bank, walks us through…

Another theme that I talk about regularly, and that came up last week, is the FinTech relationship being like a parent and child. The parent wants safety and security and a nice stable home; the child wants to run around and kick and break everything, and challenge everything the parent thinks. That’s good, but it…