Articles

With so much noise about new market entrants in the SMB banking space, it’s easy to think your bank’s missed the boat and has to play catch-up. But that’s not necessarily the case.

In the past decade, the banking industry has seen an incredible amount of innovation and disruption. New entrants like Monzo in the UK and Nubank in Latin America are finally taking on the incumbents that, for decades, were impossible to challenge.

The UK’s digital-only challenger banks are currently engaged in something of an arms race to offer customers the broadest range of features and services. Hot on the heels of joint accounts, coming soon from both Monzo and Starling, came Monzo’s announcement that its customers can now use TransferWise within the bank’s app to send money abroad.

I’m sure that you’ve seen the same presentations that I have. An expert from a large consultancy stands up and his first slide says “API stands for Application Programming Interface”. He continues with a description of new regulations (PSDII / CMA) and describes the technology that will let customers give third parties to access their banking data and trigger new transactions. That’s all true, but it’s a mistake to start there, it leads in the wrong direction.

Fintechs can’t hire product marketers quick enough at the moment. If you’re new to the marketing game and looking to become a specialist rather than a generalist, then it’s probably one of the most interesting areas to specialise in right now.

Blockchain and DLT are in the labs of most large banks and have been useful from a PR perspective. But what next? What the hell should we actually be doing with this technology? Here are 11 things your CIO needs to know about blockchain / DLT so your organisation doesn’t get left behind.

For Season 2 of Connection Interrupted we’re kicking off in style with a super star of media, social media, podcasting and much much more: Gary Vaynerchuk! I had the pleasure of meeting Gary at the Vaynermedia offices in NYC with one mission: to try and get to know him, to find out who the real Gary is behind brand Gary V: the man who loves his family (and the Jets). Listen to the episode here or below and read on for my personal highlights.

In its final report, the Competition and Markets Authority has formally implemented reforms aimed at giving people more control of their money. By Q1 of 2018, European banks have to completely open up their data through full APIs. But some banks aren’t prepared to wait that long. Read on to see which ones have taken the lead.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has robo-advice on his mind. For him to be speaking about a nascent industry, he must believe that firms using technology to help manage people’s money will grow to become a significant part of the market. However, in his recent speech, he appears concerned about robo-advisors becoming a risk to our financial system, arguing they may lead to excess volatility or increase pro-cyclicality as a result of herding. Guest blogger Adam French, CEO of Scalable Capital, says this attack on robo-advice is misinformed for several reasons.

The challenges (and opportunities) ahead for enterprise applications of distributed ledger tech.

There’s a sad truth we have to accept around AI and Machine Learning (ML). Right now neither are going to end with the sci-fi films that we all know and love. Most people hear AI or ML and immediately have that in mind, but we’re a long way off from robot companions taking over the world. The global proliferation of Human-Like Intelligence is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The arrival of a new year is often a time for reflection and an opportunity to look ahead. In design it’s no different.

Lately I’ve noticed a few banks and fintechs wanting to “get started designing screens right away”. It seems great, but building the wrong thing is worse than building nothing at all.

Over the past eight years, as a fintech founder who happens to be gay, I’ve met with 100+ corporate and institutional investors around the world.

I was recently asked by a client: ‘how do I hire a design team?’