Opinion

I realised the other day that financial markets are confused.  On the one hand, we spend all of our time criticising banks for being slow to change, inflexible, lacking customer focus and being greedy and, in some cases, fraudulent; on the other, many reckon that challenger banks are not that at all – they’re just…

I guess I’m an optimist and, in a world of pessimism, it’s an interesting place to be.  I say a world of pessimism as all I’ve seen since the Brexit vote and Donald Trump being President-elect is negativity.  A constant stream of we are screwed appears in my Facebook feed, and everyone seems to think…

There are lots of predictions being made for 2017.  After all, it’s that time of year.  So, having reviewed whether mine were right or wrong at the end of 2016, my first blog for 2017 is to make 10 predictions for 2017. Rather than making this a long and detailed blog update, it’s just 10…

I’ve written a bit about space this year, because it’s getting really interesting.  It’s also because I’m a frequent flyer and can see how our world of transport has changed so, so much. When I was little, my grandparents lived in a small village in North Devon.  They had lived there their whole lives, except…

It’s amazing how you can feel glee and anger in the same moment or, as I call it, glanger.  I have this so often with technology.  The glee of finding a new app that solves a major pain in your life; the anger when that app freezes and you have to restart your phone to…

I’m relaxing and thinking.  A bad combination.  Just had several sessions with different conferences on Brexit, Open API’s, PSD2, Open Sourcing, Open Banking, Innovation and more … and it all seems like such drivel.  One of the sessions was asking the question: is it time to drop the curtain on innovation theatre?  Yes, for gawds…

When I was growing up, America was the superpower that we followed and Russia was in a Cold War.  Today, there are two superpowers – America and China – and Russia is still in a bit of a Cold War that might be thawed by Donald Trump. So when it comes to Fintech, there’s two…

I’ve recently been wowed by series such as House of Cards (Netflix) and The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), and am really blown away by The Crown (Netflix) and The Grand Tour (Amazon).   I’m blown away not because these are good internet shows, which they are, but by the budgets being spent on them….

As I look back on my travels this year, it’s interesting to see where I have and haven’t been.  Spent a lot of time in Singapore, Istanbul, London (obviously), New York and Washington.  I count these as my hotbeds of fintech innovation.  I’ve also briefly dropped in to Hong Kong, Berlin and Bangkok.  These are…