So one of my 2017 forecasts is coming true already: it is the year that blockchain moves out of proofs of concept and work and into the mainstream. Two great examples broke out this week from skunk works to media. The first I spotted was the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group using bitcoin for various…
Things we’re reading today include … Reported fraud in UK financial services falls The City issues Brexit deal demands Silicon Valley start-ups suffer fall in VC funding What Wall Street wants from Trump From the end of globalisation to ‘weaponised’ gadgets: the five biggest risks facing the global economy Perils of the Icarus Trade as…
I guess I’m an optimist and, in a world of pessimism, it’s an interesting place to be. I say a world of pessimism as all I’ve seen since the Brexit vote and Donald Trump being President-elect is negativity. A constant stream of we are screwed appears in my Facebook feed, and everyone seems to think…
I kept Tuesday’s blog entry short because I knew that everyone was making predictions and writing much more in-depth pieces. Today’s guest blog entry is from Finanser friend David Horton. David wrote a great piece on LinkedIn over the holidays providing his five banking technology predictions for 2017 and has kindly allowed me to replicate it here….
I kept yesterday’s blog entry short because I knew that today’s was long, and it’s a guest blog entry from my good friend Jim Marous. Jim produces a great report each year, curating the thoughts of 100 industry leaders including myself, on what is going to happen in the year ahead. Summarizing this year’s report,…
I was looking through Google Analytics to see which of my blog entries had been most read in 2016. Here’s the list and, as you will see, it’s mostly people reading about blockchain news, although how to change the bank, fintech and innovation all get high rankings too. The top ten trends in banking innovation…
Earlier this year, I summarised some of the best research papers that had been released on FinTech and Blockchain in three parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Thanks to Oliver Bussmann’s blog, I can now provide you with a list of the best research released on Fintech this year. Enjoy! 2016-12 Digital Asset Holding Non Technical…
So we finished the Financial Services Club season with a discussion of the implications of Brexit on the City of London and Fintech London, with a panel debate amongst four stellar people: Sharon Bowles, former MEP and now Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted; Lawrence Wintermeyer, CEO, Innovate Finance; Jeremy Light, Managing Director, Accenture Payment Services; and…
I’ve recently been wowed by series such as House of Cards (Netflix) and The Man in the High Castle (Amazon), and am really blown away by The Crown (Netflix) and The Grand Tour (Amazon). I’m blown away not because these are good internet shows, which they are, but by the budgets being spent on them….
It was almost December 25, Christmas, and Jimmy Diamond was a happy man for a change. Just this week his bank had opened 100,000 new customer accounts (even though only 25,000 people had visited the bank); they had managed to sneak an extra 1% onto credit card holders balances (without informing most cardholders explicitly of…
