Opinion

I was not amused to hear that a UK council is bankrupt. The council blamed an IT system that cost the earth. The IT system was meant to cost £19 million, but exploded over time to a cost of over £100 million. This is nicknamed the Oracle disaster by The Register, but it runs deeper…

Building on yesterday’s idea of the future world, where our brains are connected 24*7 in real-time to the network, what would that mean for financial services? Well, I’ve blogged about this a few times already: Invisible banking is the place to be Nobody wants embedded finance Specifically, if we think of money as part of…

My typical day is spent with news channels in the background. It makes me feel like I’m in an office. The non-stop chat and talk of people about the problems of our world. Thing is that, the more you hear global news, the more you get depressed. Good news is not news. The celeb gossip,…

As the Nigel Farage affair rolls on, with resignations and regulations flowing fast, I was struck by one comment in The Financial Times, where a financial analyst said that these changes could prove challenging. “How does it work if a bank is being told ‘we’ll rip your arms if you process money for the wrong people’,…

Seven years after the vote and Britain still feels European whilst not being in European Union. What’s the point of that? In particular, there’s a fair dilemma about regulations in banking in Britain. Should they stay aligned with the EU or go their own way? I guess the more telling question is: what was the…

From The Times: ‘Until last summer, Nigel Farage had dealt with the same relationship manager at Coutts for years. Then Mark Pierce left for the rival private bank Arbuthnot Latham, and responsibility for the outspoken Brexiteer’s accounts passed to a Coutts executive named Min Fung. The former Ukip leader’s first conversation with Fung was also his…

I spotted a comment the other day that no matter how rich you are, you can never be satisfied. That’s humanity for you. It led to asking the question: why do multimillionaires still bother working? The answer is that, as a human, we always have to have something to do. We are a species that…

I read a lot about consultancies and how they screw their clients and screw them up too. Really? If this is true, why would you hire a consultant? Answer: to blame someone externally if things go wrong internally. The main company accused of these misdemeanours appears to be McKinsey. I guess that’s because McKinsey is…

I noted to a friend the other day that, when I was young, I was quite left wing. Back then, my belief was everyone should be included; everyone was equal; no-one should be treated as lesser than me; society should ensure everyone had a minimum wage and support them. Then I grew up. I became…