Technology

I had a realisation over the past two weeks of conferences.  Having attended Finovate, SIBOS, Innotribe, a Financial Services Club meeting on cryptocurrencies and several dinners with bankers, we are at an impasse. It’s the meeting of two tribes, and the tribes do not mix well. One tribe is full of suits, fine wines, Michelin-star…

Like many of you, I’m an Apple user in some form.  In my case, my telephone as well as a mini iPad. The iPhone5S (must upgrade to 6!) is an essential in my life. “Who’s the actress who starred in that film?”  IMDB app on my iPhone. “How long has Switzerland been called Switzerland, and…

After years of indecision and procrastination, Apple finally announces what they are going to do in the payments space and the world goes wild. All the media I read seems far more consumed with Apple Pay discussions, than about the iWatch or iPhone 6 with the bigger, flatter screen. Even when PayPal announce far more…

We’re talking wallets. Digital wallets. They’ve been talked about for a long time. Google Wallet was perhaps the first big launch but, since then, there have been many. Two years ago, I showed this slide from O2 on the state of mobile wallets, and said let the wallet wars begin: Two years later, the war…

Talking of how fast things change, here are a few Friday facts to make you smile (or feel ill). The UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) run regular surveys on our digital lifestyles. This year the impact of smartphone and tablet computing hits the radar and shows how things have changed fast. For example, this year’s survey…

Talking of how fast things change, here are a few Friday facts to make you smile (or feel ill). The UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) run regular surveys on our digital lifestyles. This year the impact of smartphone and tablet computing hits the radar and shows how things have changed fast. For example, this year’s survey…

The times we live in are confusing. Just as we think we have clarity of direction, the direction changes. Take Facebook.  That mighty social network, that links over a billion people in a massively sharing global hive.  Facebook almost died.  Yep, it missed a beat and almost died. Facebook almost missed mobile and, if they…

I was reflecting on the number of new companies starting new ventures in financial services, and wanted to quantify the numbers somehow. This cropped up because almost everywhere I go, there’s a fintech start-up or start-up challenge. Barclays has The Accelerator, SWIFT has The Start-up Challenge, Finovate highlights the hot new guys, Sberbank and Santander…