As usual, the Financial Services Club was delighted to host David Doyle as our starting speaker for 2018, and he presented a fine overview of all the things bubbling as top of the agenda in the European Union’s regulatory plans for 2018. Led by the Bulgarian presidency, the agenda focuses …
Read More »Much to learn, you still have
I seem to grapple daily with the same or similar questions: how to regulate things that don’t recognise boundaries; how to structure a world that is unstructured; the role of authorities in a democratised planet; is there such a thing as money without government? I haven’t answered these questions but …
Read More »Rwanda: Africa’s first cashless economy?
Another presentation that was enlightening was delivered by Jean Claude Gaga, CEO of RSwitch Ltd, the national e-payment switch of Rwanda. Jean Claude gave an overview of how Rwanda is moving towards a cashless economy and I was particularly interested as I chair Dot Finance in Kigali each year, and …
Read More »How difficult is financial inclusion?
There were lots and lots and lots, literally, of focus upon mobile and financial inclusion in my Sudan conference. I guess because only 4% of the adults who live there are banked. You heard me, just four percent. There are over 20 million people of working or retirement age in …
Read More »The best research into Open Banking
I’ve recently noted a number of reports about Open Banking, with many published recently due to its imminent arrival on January 13, 2018. Source: IBM As can be seen, we have several different groups working on Open Banking. There’s the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) with Open APIs for payments, …
Read More »The Circle of Crypto
The world feels fairly surreal sometimes. I watch the relentless rise in price of bitcoin, ether, litecoin and brethren, and feel it’s just a truly weird moment we’re living in. I’ve never seen assets rising 1000% of, in ether’s case, 5000% in a year. It’s crazy. Alongside this, I see …
Read More »The long and winding road … to the blockchain
I still talk a lot about blockchain, distributed ledgers, cryptocurrencies and more, but often feel it’s falling on deaf ears. The price of bitcoin flies around in the $7,000 a coin bracket, having risen from a tenth of that amount a year ago; and many people talk about blockchain and …
Read More »The compelling case of Alipay and Christmas
We hosted ePassi at our recent launch of Nordic Finance Innovate (NFI) in Helsinki, Finland. ePassi are the partner firm of Alipay, bringing the app to Finland to allow Chinese tourists to pay easily when travelling via Finland to Europe. It’s been very successful as it was initially launched to …
Read More »Will Sweden be the first cashless country?
As Sweden was the first European country to use cash for payments back in 1661, it’s unsurprising that it’s the first European country that wants to be cashless. This is why, for several years, I’ve been watching the regular speeches by Lars Nyberg, Deputy Governor of the Sweden’s central bank, …
Read More »Survival of the most adaptable
Wrapping up thoughts on #Money2020, the Vegas show is by far the biggest of this monster event organising company. I’m guessing there were around 15,000 folks there this year, and everything but everything was being covered: AI, machine learning, mobile wallets, core banking, distributed ledger, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and just about …
Read More »The latest on Apple Pay (#Money2020)
I just attended the Money2020 opening session where Jennifer Bailey, who heads up Apple Pay, made a series of statements and announcements about the three-year anniversary of Apple Pay. Released on October 20, 2014, the wallet is now used extensively in the USA and 19 other countries, including newly added …
Read More »A global currency is coming, whether you like it or not
Continuing yesterday’s discussions about a big bank’s conference, I was intrigued at how often the subject of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin came up. But there again, it’s a topical thing at the moment with the price of bitcoins surging past the $4,000 mark and Goldman Sachs going against JP Morgan, and saying that …
Read More »Why bankers only see horses and technologists are creating cars
I was at a large bank’s wealth management conference recently, where the CEO was being quizzed about various areas including a lot about technology and FinTech. He made several statements that I noted with interest: “Roboadvisory services improves our speed-to-market and human productivity, but does not replace humans. In particular, …
Read More »The truth about bitcoin
It’s been an interesting few weeks, watching bitcoin’s rollercoaster ride as it rises to valuations over $4,000 and then dives to almost $2,000 before rising again to near $6,000. This is for an asset that just a year ago you could have purchased for a few hundred dollars. The rise …
Read More »If you’re getting something for free, you are the product
This quote If you’re getting something for free, you are the product has been floating around for a while, and normally is related to Facebook and Google. It’s all about the fact that these companies are selling you to advertisers as clickbait. Facebook, Google, Twitter and others are not free …
Read More »