Opinion

A final word on governments and politics after my Friday blog about corruption, and then I promise to leave this alone, as it’s not something I should talk about here.  But I am going to make one statement:  most people are inherently good. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, the majority of humans are raised…

I often make a keynote presentation – about two or three times a week – and try to change my presentation as frequently as possible so that those who see me two or three times in a month – and it does happen – aren’t bored but, more importantly, to ensure that I’m not bored…

I’ve just returned from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where there were a number of events.  Just a few weeks ago, I was in Bahrain, talking at a conference about FinTech as usual. What struck me is the interest and excitement about FinTech in both countries.  There’s also a lot of competition between different cities…

I wrote a piece recently about the challenges of being a challenger bank.  It coincided with the news that my friends at solarisBank had just achieved a Series A funding round of €26 million.  Neatly, co-founder of solarisBank Marko Wenthin spotted my post and decided to send a reply.  Here is his thoughts on being a…

I recently was hauled up over saying that Western Union (WU) was being disrupted by FinTech.  The words that a reader took issue with are: The high fees of Western Union and other remittance providers were fairly punishing … until FinTech came along Western Union is being disrupted, to an extent, but this person was…

On Wednesday the American Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)* followed up on its promise last December to introduce a national bank charter for Fintech bank startups by issuing a white paper on how to apply for a licence, the evaluation process and what will be involved.  It’s a massive move towards allowing…

I remember organising my first banking conferences in the 1990s and there was a regular mantra amongst the memes of the folks speaking on stage. There is more change coming and you’re going to be dead meat unless you change. It was a common theme to hear the word disintermediated being used in these speeches. …

I was asked this question at a recent conference and yes, banks do believe that the mass poor are just that: poor.  How do you make a profit out of the poor?  Well, truth be told, the poorest are the most profitable.  They’re the ones who need loans and go overdrawn, and therefore pay all…

Seven years ago, the first new retail bank in almost a century got its licence to open: Metro Bank.  Now, there are so many new banks starting up in Britain (and across Europe) that it’s sometimes hard to keep up with it all.  There are app-only start-up banks (Atom, Monzo, Starling, Tandem); foreign exchange payment cards (Revolut, SuperCard); personal…

I was reflecting on a friend of mine who runs a FinTech start-up.  Their company was on a funding round, and struggling.  They struggled so much that they ended up having to lay off a load of staff, cut budgets and defer income.  In fact, they reached the point where they would only survive another…