Following our regular series of interviews, we turn this week to talk with Roberto Ferrari, the General Manager of CheBanca! and Board Member of Mediobanca Innovation Services. The bank, based in Milan Italy (where I’m speaking at the MegaTrends conference in May) has been recognized on many occasions as an innovator from flagship futuristic branches to award-winning…
Nicholas Carson of Business Insider interviews Silicon Valley entrepreneur Wences Casares. Here's why bitcoin will be bigger than the internet "In Spanish, we have a saying that when a genius points at the moon, a fool looks at the finger. I find that happens a lot with bitcoin." —Wences Casares Serial entrepreneur Wences Casares created Argentina's first internet…
Bitcoin still stirs up a huge debate about where it will go in the future; will it become institutionalised; what is the blockchain going to do to banking; and more. In order to clarify the debate, we interviewed Jon Matonis, a renowned expert on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, to find out what is the truth. Tell…
Following on with our regular weekly interview the Finanser talks this week with René Frijters, Founder and CEO of the Dutch digital bank Knab. Knab is the digital first bank funded by Aegon. In Aegon’s latest results summary, there are some interesting comments. Knab, Aegon's online bank in the Netherlands, has been recognized as…
Following on with our regular weekly interview, the Finanser talks this week with Soner Canko, CEO or BKM (Bankalararası Kart Merkezi), the ACH for Turkey. BKM was established in 1990 as a partnership of public and private banks. Today, all the banks that issue a card and own a POS are members of BKM. …
Starling Bank is the name of a new challenger bank being set up in London. The bank’s early days show how challenging the process of creating a new bank can be, as the Financial Times explains (see end of interview). Nevertheless, there is grand ambition to shake up the banking establishment, as outlined in this…
Metro Bank launched into mainstream UK retail banking in July 2010 and has been growing rapidly. As the first new retail bank for over a century, how is it fairing? In the second of The Finanser Interviews we talk to Craig Donaldson, CEO of Metro Bank, to find out. You’ve been on this roller coast ride with Metro…
I’ve recently been interviewing a series of innovators and challengers in the banking system, and will publish an interview here on a regular basis with these visionaries. In the first of The Finanser Interviews we talk to Mark Mullen, CEO and Co-Founder of Atom Bank and former CEO of First Direct. Atom Bank is a…
There’s one bank I regularly visit, which have their values emblazoned over their reception. These values are: Respect Integrity Service Excellence Stewardship … or RISES for short. It’s nice, but I always have this cynical little buddy on my shoulder, shouting in my ear: “do you think they mean it?” The problem with the things…
I was going to keep quiet during this holiday week but, in the spirit of selfishness, I’m going to post a few blog entries about the Ukraine. Ukraine is a country I’ve not visited before, but was invited to fly over just before Christmas to run a discussion with Privatbank, the largest retail and commercial…
