Future

A dreadful question I know, but one that comes up regularly in discussions about work/life balance and, more importantly, money/happiness debates. The question is at the heart of where you prioritise: family and community or work and wealth. It came up again during the last few weeks of scandal in the City, and the conversation…

With all this talk of greed and corruption in the City (more on that later too), everyone is demanding a return to basic banking. I’ve heard this several times in the past week and over the past few years. Just yesterday, over lunch, my colleague was recalling the days when you needed credit from the…

We had a great discussion at the Financial Services Club Central & Eastern Europe (FSClub CEE) this week.  Now in its fourth year of operation, the Club meets regularly at the residence of the British Ambassador in Vienna, Austria (see postnote if you want a laugh).  The theme of the meeting was: “the future of…

We recently entertained Laurens Vis, Managing Director of KAS Bank London, to address the Financial Services Club.  Here’s a manuscript of his speech which, to say the least, has some very key messages for the future of the Eurozone: “The Eurozone – the road to nowhere?” Introduction ‘The European Union or the Tragedy of the…

A controversial title I know, but one that summarises well the conversation I was having with one senior European banker about the crisis we have today. He turned to me and said: “the problem with Europe and many other economies is a lack of growth and this is not the crisis today, but the one…

In case you didn’t see it, Wired magazine ran an article about Jack Dorsey and Square this month.  Throughout the article, they compare Jack Dorsey to Steve Jobs and Square with Apple. In a long opening – the first page is just about pouring tea! – they finally get to the crunch so here’s my shorter,…

I’ve already given some reflections on last week’s innotribe meeting in my write ups of Metro Bank and Fidor Bank. Now, for a more general write-up, I’ve taken the inputs of Kosta Peric, the SWIFT innovation group leader who runs innotribe; the innotribe start-up details; and the input of participating company Allevo; to put together my own summary…

Talking with a friend this week, they said that they had found my blog entries a little over the top lately.  “Calm down”, she said, “and stop being a rebel without a cause.” But that’s where she’s wrong. I am a rebel (?) with a cause: the disruption of banking as we know it. Now…

We talk a lot about the threat of mobile carriers and telecom firms moving into banking and eating our lunch.  We cite examples such as NTT DoCoMo buying a credit card firm or Safaricom becoming the biggest financial transactor in Kenya, and what that will mean to banking in the future.  We see O2 and…