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Fintech

Alibaba’s secret sauce

I saw a fascinating presentation by Porter Erisman, author of Alibaba’s World, last week.  Porter was involved in the early days of Alibaba, having lived in China since 1994.  As an American in China it must have been a fascinating experience, and Porter talked about how Alibaba was formed and how it differs to Amazon…

Jack Ma quote

What is the real mindset of millennials about banks and money?

There’s been a lot of debate about millennials and their likes and dislikes.  I myself cite regular surveys that millennials would rather go to the dentist than visit their bank, and that surveys of millennials find no bank brands are desired.  In some ways this gives a false impression, as we have to think that…

Bank choice factors

Banks struggle to get the right talent … easy to see why

So I was listening to a couple of banking folks discussing the search for new talent.  I didn’t know until I heard the discussion, how tough it is these days.  I mean I knew that MBA students had moved away from banking in their droves to seek careers with consultancies, but generally thought banks were doing…

Modest

Why are Fintech start-ups avoiding the core of banking?

In that same dialogue about when banks should act to block, buy or beat new competition, I realised that the new competition is doing something quite clever.  Unsurprisingly, Fintech firms look at banking and realise that it’s pretty dull and onerous stuff.  AML, KYC, compliance, audit, regulatory reporting, rules and oversight of business are the…

Where is the banks’ tipping point?

I had an interesting discussion about change in the banking markets again the other day.  We were citing emerging new players like Square, Stripe, Klarna and Lending Club, as well as players that have already emerged like PayPal and Apple Pay.  In all of these cases, my colleague felt that these players have all added…

Are bankers just rearranging deckchairs?

I had a really interesting evening this week, moderating an industry roundtable with panel participants including: Cliff Moyce, Strategic Adviser, DataArt Chris Barker, Managing Director, Global Head of Digital & Engineering Services, RBS, Mike Powell, Managing Director for enterprise capabilities, Financial & Risk, Thomson Reuters Scott Eblen, Chief Product Officer, Nutmeg Frank Neumann (COO, Quantstore)…

Armourers Hall

The end of a ‘bank account’ as the digital me takes over

I had a really interesting conversation with Chris Barker, Head of Digital and Engineering for Royal Bank of Scotland.  As usual, the conversation moved around data analytics, deep learning, artificial intelligence, building enterprise data systems, separating content from processing, re-platforming the back-end infrastructure and core systems and more.  I’ll write more about that stuff tomorrow,…

What happens if your Digital Identity is compromised?

I’ve been asked the same question twice this week in two separate conferences (one in Vienna, the other in San Francisco): “how will we deal with the corruptive forces when we are all on the net?” The second questioner clarified what she meant by referencing the film Enemy of the State, where Will Smith gets…

IoT

Trust me, I’m a robo-advisor

We always want to complete things, and it makes everything interesting when it comes to the psychology of money.  It is the reason why all the offers you get are for 9.99 or 99.99.  It makes you feel it’s cheaper than 10 or 100.  It is also why we stand at the gas station filling…

We need banking and yes, we also need banks

I realised recently that my course of opinion is rather different to several other commentators and felt it worth noting where we agree and disagree.  Where I agree with most FinTech people is that: Digital replaces physical FinTech is changing banking forever Mobile is getting rid of cash You can have money without borders Where…

Zombieshark

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