Opinion

As you all know now, this week sees the release of my new book ValueWeb.  Yes, you can buy it from today on Amazon or any of the other services you use.  It’s released in UK from March 15, and USA from April 7 (this is due to publisher getting hard copies to distributors before it…

I had a few wake up calls in my years of working in financial services, and a couple of key ones gave me an insight into the mentality of major financial firms that have stayed pretty true ever since.  The first was working with a major bank on a process re-engineering project.  We had narrowed…

I was talking with some friends and realised suddenly that we had not talked about branches or branch automation for a long time.  In fact, and this was the dawning, we haven’t talked about branch of the future for a long time. Branch of the future. It’s almost laughable writing that down today, and yet…

I was asked the other day about what’s on the CEO’s agenda?  Revenue, restructuring, regulations, share price, bonus, wife, mistress … whoops, sorry, I digress. In fact the four key areas top of mind with most bank CEOs are: Competition: and that’s not just interbank competition, but also new competitors in the form of challenger…

So Apple Pay finally launched in the USA on October 20 and there’s been mixed reviews.  Some people couldn’t make payments, whilst some found they were double-charged.  However, these are just teething issues and the overwhelming reports are positive.  Even former Apple CEO and Financial Services Club keynote speaker John Sculley: I think Apple Pay…

Another presentation that surprised me in Oslo came from Tor Jacobsen, CEO of TSM Nordic. It surprised me as I had no idea about TSM, a mobile wallet provider owned by Telenor and DNB – Norway’s biggest mobile network operator (MNO) and biggest bank – and will launch in the Norwegian market later this year…

I recently had an epiphany.  It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…

I recently had an epiphany.  It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…