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We must automate humanity

Building on yesterday’s blog, there was another interesting debate about the risks of humans in the network.  Humans screw up.  Humans cause problems.  Humans have emotions.  Humans are not welcome here. A good example of why humans are not welcome is that it is typically human error that causes issue.  A self-driving car is likely…

You can never automate humanity

I was in a long conversation about machine learning yesterday that will probably inspire a lot of blogging.  One of the key parts of the conversation was the integration of robotics and artificial intelligence.  When you can make love with a human being that doesn’t talk back, why would you want a real one?  Let’s…

Who needs a financial centre?

For ten years, my friends cover at Z/Yen have been producing the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), on behalf of the City of London.  It’s a research program where people can answer the survey questionnaire and, from those participating, the different cities of the world vying to be financial hubs are ranked.  Around 2,500 people respond…

How banks are getting around open banking and PSD2

Banks are scared.  They’ve seen the rise of the new world of open APIs, apps and analytics and know that their organisations are not yet ready or fit to change to that world.  What to do? Well, the easiest thing to do is to block access to the bank’s data.  If third party FinTech firms…

The AML conundrum solved?

I outlined yesterday the fact that 98% of money laundering goes unchecked, allowing $1.6 trillion a year to be used for terrorist funding, drug dealers, sex traffickers and possibly worse.   This was prompted by a conversation about AML (Anti-Money Laundering) with the CEO and Co-Founder of I met Coinfirm, Pawel Kuskowski. So what’s the solution, is how…

Laundering-as-a-Service (a bank USP)

I was surprised the other day when I met Pawel Kuskowski, CEO and Co-founder of Coinfirm, a start-up firm offering Compliance-as-a-Service.  Pawel has been trained in compliance and AML, having worked with some of the world’s biggest financial institutions including AIG (Compliance Officer), UBS (Director of Compliance, Compliance and Operational Risk Officer) and RBS (Head…

11 FinTech trends you need to follow

The first few weeks of 2017 bombarded us with articles predicting the future of fintech and financial services.  I’ve now analysed them all and identified the top 11 trends that the leading banking and FinTech experts agree we should be following now.  Here’s the trend breakdown: Removing friction from the customer journey Rise of insurtech Rise of regtech…

Technology is key to banking future … really?

It’s intriguing to see how the world has now got the FinTech message.  The Telegraph ran a conference about it (I was there); The White House has published a report on it;  America’s Celebrity Apprentice has one of our own on it; and The Banker has run a magazine feature dedicated to it.There’s even a…

EU priorities for financial services regulations, 2017

We had a fun session of the Financial Services Club this week, in light of the lack of clarity on Brexit from the UK Gov.  The discussion was our regular New Year kick-off meeting with special guest David Doyle, sage of all EU regulations affecting Financial Services.  David provided us with great insight into the…

Two mainstream blockchain developments already

So one of my 2017 forecasts is coming true already: it is the year that blockchain moves out of proofs of concept and work and into the mainstream.  Two great examples broke out this week from skunk works to media. The first I spotted was the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group using bitcoin for various…

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