Fintech

We had a great debate at the Financial Services Club last night between digital money sage Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion, and all things bitcoin master Jon Matonis. The debate was about whether blockchain is faster and cheaper, and it was clear from the start that this was going to be difficult as the question…

So as I travel around these global conferences, startup challenges and Fintech daze, I often get asked: what does it take to be a Fintech centre?  This is because everyone wants to be one now that they’ve seen the buzz around the market.  London has vied to be that centre for some time, with Boris and…

Talking of start-ups, I’m often asked: how do you spot a successful start-up?   Not sure why they ask me, as I haven’t started a start-up, but I guess it’s because I’m seeing 100s of start-ups out there.  For example, there were 800 contenders on the shortlist for the Fintech50 this year, and that’s just the…

I seem to find myself travelling all over talking about innovation and meeting start-ups.  It’s the start-up economy, and there’s probably been no better time to be young, hopeful and visionary.  Thinking back to my younger days, leaving university, the idea of creating my own company was unheard of.  Everyone was encouraged to get a…

I had a realisation this week.  The realisation is that banks have always been hot on technology and innovation.  If you don’t think so, then just checkout this blog from April 2008 – eight years ago – where I talk about the rise of innovation in banking.  The context was talking about how banks had created a…

I just had an interesting discussion with a banking colleague who has been investing in start-ups.  He said that many of the firms begin with a belief that they will succeed because they are not a bank. A business strategy based upon attracting consumers by not being a bank, is not sustainable. Once they find…

There’s been a large number of white papers produced recently about Fintech and Blockchain, so I decided to collate the most notable ones here.  All links are to file downloads and if I’ve missed any, please let me know. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (9 pages, October 2008) The origins of the whole thing in…

I don’t get to use the word Kaleidoscope often, so finding this excellent Infographic that includes me and a few friends, gives me the chance to throw it into the blog for a change.  After all, this Infographic provides a veritable Kaleidoscope of Fintech. As we all know, Fintech is everywhere. Spanning everything from payments,…

I was going to write a long wordy reflection on this year’s Finovate, which took place over the last two days in London, but was beaten to it by Benjamin Ensor and Oliwia Berdak of Forrester so, rather than writing my own view, here’s theirs: Finovate 2016: Automation And Personalization Take Centre Stage By Benjamin…

I’ve been presenting the idea for a while now that banks are not being disrupted or unbundled, as so many claim. It’s a nice idea but completely misunderstood.  The disruption idea assumes that banks will let it happen, are not awake, will not respond, can’t respond, don’t care and couldn’t be bothered.  The unbundling idea…