The Finanser’s Week: 18th April – 24th April 2016

Our main stories of this week includes …

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 …

Are banks really challenged by Fintech, or is this just more of the same?

I regularly attend conferences where several themes crop up around disruption – that word we hate – disintermediation, and the end of banking as we know it.  The problem is I’ve heard it for 30 years and it hasn’t happened … yet.  Will it?  Let’s …

Open sourcing finance: you cannot delegate this project

Talking about transformation at conferences every day gets you into a mantra.  My mantra is leadership and how banks lack technological leadership.  The pushback is that you have too many technologists without banking knowledge.  We need banks run by people who understand money, and they …

Are we in danger of creating faster horses?

I’m often talking about Victorian visions of the future to illustrate the issue we have today. The Victorian vision of the future was dealing with a number of problems, one of which was horse shit. Manure. Manure was a massive issue.   Victorian Britain had too …

The $100m start-up blockchain fund

I know many of my twitter followers have seen this news already, but here’s the official announcement of the partnership we are creating with Life.SREDA in Singapore. SINGAPORE-BASED LIFE.SREDA LAUNCHES $100 MILLION BLOCKCHAIN INVESTMENT FUND LONDON, APRIL 18 2016 Life.SREDA, a venture capital fund based …

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Lloyds to axe 625 jobs and shut 21 branches amid cost-cutting - Guardian
Banking group will move some roles to India as it continues process of shedding 9,000 posts as announced in 2014 Lloyds Banking Group is cutting 625 jobs and closing 21 branches as part of ongoing efforts by the bailed-out bank to cut costs. The job losses – which include moving

TSB calls for competition authority to help challenger banks - Guardian
Chief executive says authority can break stranglehold of big four banks – HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS TSB has renewed its calls for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to take action to make it easier for challenger banks to take on the established players. Paul Pester, chief executive of

How money has been made over the years - BBC
A brief history of currency in five objects

Finance leaders call for fintech forum - Financial Times
Executives urge action to ensure financial technology does not become a risk to ‘systemic stability’

Plans to stop collecting data on wealthiest 1% in UK criticised by IFS - Guardian
Institute for Fiscal Studies warns about accumulation of wealth by top 1% and says HMRC proposals to stop collecting data would create misleading picture Proposals by the UK government to stop collecting information showing how the wealthy pass on their assets from one generation to another have been condemned by

Carney feels 'duty' to speak on Brexit - BBC
Bank of England governor Mark Carney says it is not politics but duty that makes him speak out over the risks of the EU referendum.

Dan Wagner and the fall of 'unicorn' startup Powa Technologies - Guardian
Company praised by David Cameron went into administration in February, providing a lesson in how not to manage potential The technology entrepreneur Dan Wagner , once one of the highest-profile entrepreneurs of the dotcom era, appeared on television on Monday discussing the future of the high street and why it

The bad smell hovering over the global economy - Guardian
Attempts at economic stimulus have left a bad smell. Central banks are starting to think the unthinkable – helicopter money All is calm. All is still. Share prices are going up. Oil prices are rising. China has stabilised. The eurozone is over the worst. After a panicky start to 2016,

The dark side of Uber: why the sharing economy needs tougher rules | Greg Jericho - Guardian
The last thing governments can afford to do is ignore the boom in peer-to-peer services and their impact on the economy A report released last week by the Grattan Institute on services like Uber and Airbnb finds that such peer-to-peer services can provide large benefits to the economy, but that

Ed Miliband: Panama Papers show that wealth doesn’t trickle down. It gets stashed - Guardian
As former Labour leader Ed Miliband offers his support to a new documentary, The Divide, he is as committed as ever to campaigning on inequality Google “ Ed Miliband ” and the fourth suggestion offered by the search engine – behind “Ed Miliband brother”, “Ed Miliband beard” and “Ed Miliband