Opinion

One of my good friends is Felix Hamilton, who is based in Hong Kong. This is the city that recently had a meltdown, due to government regulation removing many citizen’s rights. It is also a city that is meant to be a global financial and FinTech hub, but this does not seem so likely as…

Back in 2015, I interviewed Nikolas Adalberth, a co-founder of Swedish FinTech unicorn Klarna. Little did I know back then that they would be of the biggest stars of FinTech and the creators of BNPL, the Buy Now Pay Later, revolution Is it a revolution? Not really. It’s just another form of credit, but people like…

I haven’t written much about Facebook’s digital currency Diem, as there’s not much to write about. A dead duck from day one, it would never succeed. I said so back when it launched in 2019: The bottom-line is that Facebook may have developed a stablecoin using blockchain to enable global payments within Messenger, Instagram and…

Recently, Dr. Gail Bradbrook of Extinction Rebellion allowed The Finanser to publish a guest piece, which was generally well received. However, one letter stood out as a rebuttal. Gail determined to reply to this view, and so the dialogue carries on below… When economics and investments are led by our better selves Dear Anonymous Banker, I…

I don’t like posting twice a day but, at a time of ‘peace-keeping’, it seems worthwhile because it’s interesting. It’s interesting that when there’s a war somewhere else, it doesn’t matter. I always remember hosting  Jaz and Nils O’Hara of the Worldwide Tribe at the Financial Services Club in 2016 talking about the Calais Jungle. Do you…

During the weekend, there was some real action against Russia and specifically Vladimir Putin. The aim is to freeze Russia’s assets, worth around $630 billion, around the world. ‘A global financial pariah’: how central bank sanctions could hobble Russia The ban on Moscow’s use of its roughly $630bn of foreign reserves will harm [the country’s]…

I stumbled across an interesting report by Clarivate who, using a statistical analysis, have identified the 100 most innovative companies in the world. Technology advancement is a complex composition of talent, of competition and of need. New ideas emanate from everywhere scientists, engineers and developers reside. What is the methodology? They basically take the inventiveness…

I have waste in my life. I have a lot of things I could throw away. Old toys, broken computers, screens with cracks, lawnmowers that don’t work, Lego with bits missing, cables that I cannot remember what they’re for … the list goes on. This is my debt. My debt of waste. A house full…

We are all probably aware of the furore over Novax Djocavic and the Australian Open tennis championship. The issue is to vax or not to vax. Now, some people can’t get a vaccination due to their health conditions but, other than this, governments are telling us you must get vaccinated. France mandates “a vaccine pass that…

NatWest, formerly Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is a good example of a bank with rubbish IT. This was illustrated when I spotted the headline: NatWest fined $300 million for money laundering. They didn’t do the money laundering, but a number of accounts – specifically a jeweller, Fowler Oldfield – did. How did this happen?…