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Shaping the future of finance

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Innovation? Humbug!

Bill Gates said in the early 1990s that “we need banking but we don’t need banks anymore”. He was wrong. I hosted a banking seminar in the late 1990s where David Llewellyn, a Professor of Money, stood up and stated that “there will be more change in the next five years in banking than we’ve…

Do you have a savings goal?

I got an interesting graphic from RBS/NatWest who surveyed their customers about what they’re saving for. The interesting result is the dichotomy between the regions, where it shows that Southern British are saving to buy a house whilst Northerners, Scots, Welsh and Irish are all taking holidays. Something about how unaffordable homes are in the…

The key to IoT is identity

The term The Internet of Things (IoT) was first used twenty years ago. Twenty years later, IoT is emerging rapidly. We have our cars and homes networked but, more than this, we have gadgets like Google Home, Siri and Alexa. Amazon has taken this even further with services like Key for Garage, a smart door…

Are these FinTech unicorns worth it?

There’s a regular itch that I feel in the back of my neck. I scratch it, but it won’t go away. The itch is an alarm call really, and it’s asking whether all this FinTech investment is worth it. Last year, $111.8 billion was invested in over 12,000 start-up FinTech firms worldwide, according to KPMG….

Things worth reading: 11th July 2019

Things we’re reading today include … Digital banks seek to turn popularity into profits At a Grim Moment for Banking Jobs, Citigroup Says It’s Hiring HSBC urged to apologise after boss praised Chinese regime Kids empty their parents’ bank account trying to buy Lionel Messi on FIFA 19 Making banking boring again: the decline of…

Things worth reading: 10th July 2019

Things we’re reading today include … What’s the point of a bank if it won’t accept cash? Piper Jaffray buys rival investment bank Sandler O’Neill for $485m Critics round on Deutsche Bank for golden parachutes Deutsche Bank bosses fitted for £1,200 suits as thousands lose their jobs Christine Lagarde’s arrival would be ideal time for…

Things worth reading: 9th July 2019

Things we’re reading today include … Big ax falls as Deutsche Bank to lay off 18,000 in $8.3 billion ‘reinvention’ What went wrong at Deutsche Bank? Deutsche Bank shares rise as 18,000 global job cuts begin One-fifth of sole traders close down within a year – study Half of UK retail sales will be online…

Technology is business

Another interesting nuance of the FinTech Bank is the integration of business and technology. I’ve referenced this a few times, but wanted to be explicit that these banks think technology is business and business is technology. This is clearly demonstrated in their microservices team structures and agile thinking. Auditors, compliance, financial and marketing people sit…

Is the bank talking or walking digital?

I’ve been blogging about digital transformation and one commentator asked me to qualify what I actually meant by a bank ‘transforming’ versus the others. This is something I intended to blog about but Bill Streeter over at The Financial Brand beat me to it in his reporting of research by BDO, the American assurance, tax, and…

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