Blog Index

This week’s main blog discussions include … #HSBC’s two-face strikes again We had quite a few discussions around FinTech Week London and the line that seemed to catch people’s attention is: we must remove legacy thinking. There was debate about examples of legacy thinking. We need branches for advice; customers will always need cash (and…

This week’s main blog discussions include … FinTech Forces of the Future, Part One: Economics and Finance I worry sometimes that my writing these days about how finance, technology and ESG combine will alienate many in finance and technology. It shouldn’t, as these two industries hold the keys to the solutions, but it has moved…

This week’s main blog discussions included … The neobank era is just beginning Good friend Ron Shevlin sparked off a great debate about neobanks with his snarky column on Forbes the other day. His basic argument is that neobanks are over. A few choice passages: The 10 leading neobanks in the US grew by a little more than…

This week’s blog discussions include: Six years since #Brexit, where are we? I don’t talk about Brexit much. As a Remainer, I was gutted Britain voted to leave. That was six years ago. Today is the sixth anniversary of that 2016 vote. In 2018, I left Britain to live in Europe. My sympathies lie in…

The main blog discussions this week included … Welcome to (another) crypto meltdown As a guy who has invested a little in cryptocurrencies, I sat back a year ago in a warm glow. The investment had risen phantasmagorically, and was now worth a good pension. Today? It’s worth almost nothing. Source: Daily Mail What’s gone…

This week’s main blog discussions include … Is digital all it’s cracked up to be? I just sent a payment to a new company. They sent the details and it involved quite a lot of set-up. I then hit the button and bang! There goes $1,000. Thing is that, when you hit that button, you…

This week’s main blog discussions included … 70 facts about money to celebrate 70 years on the throne Today marks the day that celebrates the Queen being the monarch of Britain for the last 70 years, She was crowned on June 2 1952. To celebrate this event, the Daily Mail has published 70 facts about money…

This week’s main blog discussions include … Are FinTechs being valued as a financial or a tech? I was struck by a comment made by Chris Brendler, an analyst at D A Davidson, about FinTech Affirm (a US BNPL start-up): “These hybrid financial technology stocks trade like tech stocks, when they’re growing really fast and…

This week’s main blog discussions include … The rocky road of cryptocurrencies During May, the floor fell out of the cryptocurrency markets with many losing their life savings. You can question why they had their life savings invested in cryptocurrencies in the first place, but what made the price fall so far, so fast? The…

This week’s main blog discussions include … I just woke up to my cancelled culture Growing up, my brother used to try hard to persuade me to attend The Motor Show. He is a petrolhead and the show would be the highlight of his year. I went once. My lasting memory is almost every stand…