Opinion

Taking of moving from the concept of a Universal Basic Income to money without government to tokens to credits, I’ve been reading a fascinating book recently on Star Trek’s economics called Trekonomics. Released in 2016, I thought it would be some frivolous Trekkie’s drooling over the wonder of the Federation’s Galaxies but, instead, it is…

I seem to grapple daily with the same or similar questions: how to regulate things that don’t recognise boundaries; how to structure a world that is unstructured; the role of authorities in a democratised planet; is there such a thing as money without government? I haven’t answered these questions but because I am corporate and…

Despite there being many capable women in banking, finance and technology, it is surprising how few are at the top of the companies I talk about. Most FinTech start-ups I refer to are run by young men, whilst most banks are run by old men. Where are all the women? Funnily enough, this is a…

I sometimes feel like a really, sad person. I wake up every day wondering what’s new with tech, FinTech, the world. I go to conferences and, instead of delivering my keynote speech and disappearing, normally hang around to hear the other presentations, as I might learn something. Equally, I sometimes get invited to speak at…

I was at a presentation where Robin Speculand, Singapore-based author and speaker, asked: Is it better to have a great strategy implemented badly or a bad strategy implemented well? Most people – about 4 out of 5 – raised their hand for the latter option. I raised mine for the former. We had a bit…

For many years we have had discussions about bank branches and a branchless future. I personally don’t believe in a branchless future, but many do. And yes, there are many branches disappearing, much to the annoyance of those who lose that physical store. For example, America still has a large number of branches (32 per…

The world feels fairly surreal sometimes. I watch the relentless rise in price of bitcoin, ether, litecoin and brethren, and feel it’s just a truly weird moment we’re living in. I’ve never seen assets rising 1000% of, in ether’s case, 5000% in a year. It’s crazy. Alongside this, I see exchanges being hacked on a…

I have bias. I admit it. I have a certain proclivity to be nice to people who hire me, so this is an upfront statement of subjectivity. I am not objective. Nevertheless, there are certain companies who warm my heart. They tend to be young, dynamic and often founded in my lifetime. They are run…

There’s a constant buzz about disruption, which kind of sounds like destruction to me. We have to realize that no one is going to destruct or even possibly disrupt banks. No one. It has not happened in my lifetime of working with technology in banks, and I don’t think it will happen in the next…

OK, so I said earlier this week that I normally get asked about security by someone who is threatened by the onwards march of digitalisation. Sure, security is important, and the issue is that for every step of innovation we create a step of risk. We don’t know the risks until they are exposed and…