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Africa’s blockchain transformation

ValueWeb makes the contention that you cannot have an internet of things without a real-time and cheap internet of value.  A core part of this is focused upon building a cheap shared ledger structure for digital identity and digital currencies and guess what?  That cheap shared ledger is most likely going to be built in Africa. …

The African Mobile Revolution, Part One

Last week I chaired the inaugural Dot Finance Live conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  It is Africa’s premier FinTech event, drawing people from all over the countries of sub-Sahara Africa.  What struck me as I listened to lots of keynotes about mobile innovation and mobile financial inclusion, is that Africa is actually leading the world in…

In the digital age, printed proof of identity is ludicrous

I remember being involved in a business process re-engineering project for an insurance firm some years ago.  We looked at how the underwriting process worked on complex insurance risks and discovered that in the middle of the process, the documentation would move to the overseas desk.  It would sit there for a day or two,…

Pussy Galore

OK, I see weird things everywhere.  Last week in Japan … But even the Japanese cannot beat the guys in the Middle East.   A few days before I went to Tokyo I was in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at a conference called MEFTECH, where one exhibitor proudly showed me the Beam app. Beam…

The Card and Payments Awards 2016: Here are the Winners

The Cards & Payments Awards 2016 took place the other day, so I thought I’d pick out the three Awards that interest me the most: Best Technology Initiative; Best Initiative in Mobile Payments; and Best Industry Innovation. BEST TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE Winner: Bottomline Technologies Bottomline’s Agency Services is a relatively new solution, and the interest it…

Mobile wallet wars? They haven’t even begun …

Looking back on 2015, it’s obvious that blockchain was the big focus as mentioned last week.  There were other things though, particularly the increasingly intriguing wallet wars.  Mobile wallet wars have been bubbling for a while, with stagnant attempts to achieve something from the likes of O2 and Orange. Let the mobile wallet wars begin,…

The complexity of correspondent banking

I love the idea of money without government but, having sat through a regulatory discussion of correspondent banking, I think this hope is possibly false placed.  However, for my banking fraternity, I think they’ll be very interested in two reports recently produced on correspondent banking by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) for…

How will Banks organise themselves to manage APIs built for PSD2 / XS2A?

The PSD2 is here.  For those who don't know what that is, it's the European update to the Payment Services Directive (PSD) of December 2007.  The original PSD aimed to harmonise the European payments markets and make the Eurozone behave as a Single Market.  It achieved some of those objectives, but the update goes much further…

#Money 2020 is to Fintech what #Sibos is to banking

Having attended Sibos since way back when, I was sad to miss it this year.  I got double-booked to be in Vegas at the Venetian to keynote with BAI RD2015.  Surprisingly, I’ve been back in Vegas (why is it always Vegas, and not Las Vegas?) to speak at Money2020 just 10 days later.  Money2020 is…

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The war on cash continues (according to McKinsey and Cap Gemini)

Being #SIBOS week, there’s a rush of new reports to push out.  McKinsey’s Global Payments Report and Cap Gemini’s World Payments Report being the two big one I noticed this week. A quick review of each. McKinsey’s report summary opens with the following: Global payments revenues have been growing at rates in excess of expectations….

McKinsey

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