Opinion

I grew up with lots of things, but one that struck me in the heart was a song Seven Minutes to Midnight that came out in the late 1970s (showing my age). What did the song mean? I discovered it related to the Doomsday Clock, the clock that measured the threats to our planet and…

There’s a big scandal in Britain. It’s been bubbling away for almost thirty years, but has only come into the mainstream today thanks to a TV drama about what happened. So, 2024 started with this TV dramatization of the true story of how the UK postal service bankrupted many of their franchise holders due to…

According to most pundits, 2024 looks like a great year for cryptocurrency. Analytics Insight predicts a resurgence, with the crypto market expected to surpass the US$3 trillion mark. Why? The main driver seems to be another bitcoin halving, but also Ethereum and altcoins seem to be big movers, alongside rising crypto adoption amongst mainstream institutions. Gemini,…

This blog often talks about Elon Musk,  but then it also looks at the activities of Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and more. They all share several things: billionaries, visionaries, autism and a yearning to open a bank or destroy banking. Just four months ago, I asked the question … Q: Can Elon Musk create PayPalX?…

Space … the final frontier … these are the voyages of the challenger bank Trekkie. Our mission: to boldly go where no bank has gone before. Today, we landed on planet Earth and decided to look at financial inclusion, and the role of banks in ensuring everyone has access to an account. In some countries,…

I’ve had a lot of thoughts recently about how much automation can go. In most banks, one or two people look over the shoulder of those doing the work to make sure they comply. If we could get rid of all those people checking the checkers, there would huge savings which made me beg the…

In a land known as Fed, there are two superheroes: AML and KYC. They fly around the world looking for villains attacking the financial markets and aim to zap them. It is a difficult task, and getting more and more difficult every day, but they try … and they fail. In 2009, the estimated annual…

No, this is not Swift, the global bank messaging network, but Taylor Swift who is now a unicorn, worth more than a billion dollars. Bloomberg reports that “the success of the Eras tour — a Super Bowl-sized event spanning numerous cities that has shattered records, sparked ticket frenzies and even caused the equivalent of a…

I’ve noticed many dislikable trends since Elon Musk took over twitter. First, the system is broken. Rebranded as X, which no-one likes, the whole interface has changed. My main access was via tweetdeck, which is now only available via premium subscription, and then it does not work as before. For example, before, I could have…

As a general rule, I try to avoid being too personal in blogging. Sure, this is an opinion-based platform, but it’s boring talking about me, isn’t it? But then, last week, it proved to be a pretty amazing and exceptional week, so I’m just going to park this here. The week began with a trip…