Fintech

My newest book comes out in June. The theme is the integration of finance, technology and ESG. It’s a subject that has been in the ascendancy for years, but became in vogue in the late 2010s. Now it is a thing. I worry some will therefore think I only came to think about it in…

I’m not sure if anyone noticed but yesterday was the day that Europe voted not to ban bitcoin. It’s been bubbling for a while, as the EU developed a new Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework to protect EU citizens who invest in such assets. In many ways, it’s a good thing as, once a…

This BBC article … The remarkable items that have been used as currency … got me thinking about tokenisation. The article discusses the use of shells, specifically the seasnail shell called a cowrie, and how it became a global currency by around 1200BC. Although the cowrie is mainly found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans,…

Thinking about process redesign, I remember when the ATM was invented. I wasn’t there – I’m not that old – but I remember reading about the great debate they had as banks didn’t believe people would be able to remember a PIN. The BBC reports that “Mr. Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea when he realized…

Years ago, I was writing about the role of an infomediary. The idea was that there should be a broker between customer’s data and their service providers. Unfortunately, that role has become four companies for those in the Americas and two for those in Asia: Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Google (Alphabet), Twitter (Block), Tencent and Alibaba….

So I blog about money laundering and state versus individual, and find two interesting threads that relate to both. First, if you’re a libertarian then think again. The state is going to crackdown. From ZDNet: Cybercriminals managed to launder at least $8.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency in 2021, according to a new report from blockchain…

The Financial Brand published an interesting piece challenging the use of the word bank in a brand. It got me thinking, and agreeing with their summation, which is yes. Sure, you can have Chime, Chase, Citizens and Truist, but is that the right thing. In fact, on the last point, the use of the word…

I picked up an article talking about 16 Ways Banks Will Need To Change To Survive Advances In Fintech in Forbes. It’s a survey of an expert panel that cites that banks must do the following action points: Become Nimble And Decentralized Incentivize Culture Change Combine Security With Blockchain Technology Lean Into People-Centric Customer Service Provide…

The Federal Reserve issued a paper about stablecoins at the end of January. There’s lots of good content there, but I particularly liked the way in which they opened the discussion which I have copied here (for full report click here). The basics of stablecoins Stablecoins are digital currencies recorded on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs),…

During the lockdown, banks moved rapidly to sign cloud contracts. Thing is they were signing with the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft, but these are all American firms. Where are the European ones? I raised this issue two years ago, but it is now coming to a head as new rules require banks to…