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According to latest stats, China’s FinTech markets are booming in 2016. Over $10 billion went into FinTech firms in China in the first half of 2016, although half of that was Ant Financial followed closely by Lu and JD Finance. China’s Fintech 50 by KPMG (download the full report here) What intrigues is that this…

I’ve blogged a few times about GAFA – Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon – as the worrisome Gang of Four.  Sure, we can worry about them, but the thing is to stop worrying and do something.  Australian banks decide to stop Apple by taking them to court; British banks would rather partner with all of them;…

The main blog posts this week were … Next generation insurance and the future of humanity Building on yesterday’s InsurTech theme, I remember being taught the principles of insurance some years ago.  A key difference between insurance and any other business is that it is seller beware rather than buyer beware.  This is why the…

Building on yesterday’s InsurTech theme, I remember being taught the principles of insurance some years ago.  A key difference between insurance and any other business is that it is seller beware rather than buyer beware.  This is why the industry is built with a principle called uberrima fides rather than caveat emptor.   Uberrima fides is…

I haven’t blogged about InsurTech much, as this is a banking blog, but having started life in the insurance industry I guess it’s time to shine a light on this corner of the financial world. My first hearing about InsurTech, or InsTech if you prefer, was in a US conference a couple of years ago…

During recent months, I’ve enjoyed a real ding-dong of conversations between Europeans, Asians, Americans and Brits about FinTech and, to be more specific, RegTech. RegTech is a couple of years in catch-up with FinTech, and is all about how to use technologies to make regulations more efficient and effective. The claim is that the UK…

Many of the people I meet believe that bitcoin is bad and will fail.  It’s rare to meet anyone who says that it could change the world and will succeed.  But I’ve found one and he happens to have written a very good blog about it: Akin Fernandez, Entrepreneur Developer of Azteco. It’s a long read,…

I was having a nice relaxing Sunday, when alerted to a tweetfest taking place between industry heavyweights Simon Taylor (an ex-banker) and Mariano Belinky (a banker).  It all started with: Fintech didn’t disrupt banks but banks are slowly dying. Creating an ever growing opportunity for #fintech — Simon Taylor (@sytaylor) September 18, 2016 @sytaylor low…

Here are our key posts for the past week … Do banks need a CIO? I was talking with a technology firm the other day.  They offer everything from cloud to core systems.  Their issue is that the competition wins every time.  Not IBM.  Not Accenture.  Not TCS.  Not FIS.  Not SAP.  Not any of…

I got into a conference this week (for a change) where the presenter of a roboadvising wealth manager got into a bit of a Q&A scuffle with an audience member.  Felix Niederer, founder and CEO of Zurich-based start-up True Wealth showed the stats for their customers. Most of them are over 30, and the real…