So by now, I think we all have heard of the blockchain, ethereum, bitcoin also known as the ‘crypto’ industry. It is growing big. It will grow even bigger, however, like with any growth story, there are crucial challenges that have to be overcome. One particular challenge is scaling. Fred Ehrsam in his post ‘Scaling Ethereum to Billions of Users’: “Everything will be tokenized and connected by a blockchain one day. Scalability is the crux of that journey at the moment. Ethereum is orders of magnitude off from being able to support applications with millions of users at the moment. Yet in true ..read more

AI has reached has finally reached its tipping point. “The technology has finally reached its tipping point, AI, and its close relative machine learning, have taken a variety of industries by storm, bringing self-driving Ubers to the streets of San Francisco (and then carting them away); robotic vacuum cleaners to dirty household floors; and natural language processing to chat bots and IVR communications. With AI already embedded into these industries, it’s easy to find examples of how the technology is shaping fintech.” – A Fintech Filter for Artificial Intelligence in 2017 by Julie ..read more

Cryptocurrency is becoming somewhat of a hot buzzword these days, however, I think it can go beyond the buzz and add real value (see the summaries below). There are many industries that it will impact directly, one great example would be law or peer-to-peer (P2P) industry. However, one thing we understand little of still is the second/third level impacts that it will bring, i.e. how a more modern/flexible law system will affect our lives or decentralised P2P system (i.e. Airbnb/Ebay/Uber) will transform the way we transact. Are people even going to own houses or a smart contract will manage th ..read more

It’s hard for big companies to innovate incrementally because the process often feels slow and, nearly, meaningless. There are no ‘big wins’, at least not done quickly. Repainting your house the same color it already was feels like a waste. It’s a lot of effort merely to keep things as they are. Minor updates feel like repainting your house but they matter because once you need a big update it may prove a mountain too high to climb. But if you don’t do it, time and entropy kick in and the house starts to fade. Thanks for reading; YOU are awesome! Just hit reply if you want ..read more

It’s very difficult for banks to change. There are many external factors to overcome – regulation, customer expectations, competition, internal complexity. However, the biggest factor is the mindset. Lack of leadership belief is the biggest break in the process. The reason it’s difficult to learn something new is that it will change you into someone who disagrees with the person you used to be. Changing direction requires admitting that you were going in off course in the first place. Thanks for reading; YOU are awesome! Have a wonderful week, Alex   The power of banking with purpose ..read more

Ever increasing quantity of data provides us with more and more options to drive new insights. Companies are jumping on the big data bandwagon and, rightly so, trying to find new ways to improve their services and offerings. However, at a time when information is so abundant that we can get the answer to any question, the real responsibility becomes asking the right question. Thanks for reading; YOU are awesome! Just hit reply if you want to get in touch Have a wonderful week, Alex   Banking must move from mobile-first to AI-first By Jim Marous Technology continues to impact the ban ..read more

Fintech won’t challenge us. Jess Staley, CEO of Barclays, sees technology as driving globalisation and changing banking, but says there’ll always be a Barclays. It’s also worth understanding that there is no upside to saying stuff like this. Because more often than not, you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of history like so many of these CEOs. And then we’ll make slides to immortalise your cluelessness – “neither Redbox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition” once said Blockbuster CEO… Thanks for reading; YOU are awesome!   What’s happenin ..read more

The revolution that fintech has started has a significant impact on the way we will live our lives. From how we pay for our coffee to what kind of retirement we will get. However, these are only the first-order consequences of fintech revolution. There will, surely, be the second and third order of consequences. For example, the way we transact will eventually impact the way we hire sales staff, which in turn will impact how we structure our companies and how we allocate capital. These changes are still hard to predict but something we need to start thinking about. Thanks for reading; YOU are ..read more

This Monday we had our first Fintech dinner and I’m pleased to say that it was very successful. I was so impressed by the people attending, thank you very much for making it happen, and for reading fintech summary! We all learned something new, met someone fascinating and had fun in the process. While this was the first, it certainly won’t be the last fintech dinner. Just reply to this email if you want to join the list to attend any of the future ones. I’ll keep you in the loop Thanks for reading; YOU are awesome! Just hit reply if you want to get in touch Have a wonderful week, Alex ..read more

A true disruption of banking will only happen when startups find a way to blow up banking pricing models that used to sustain their business model. This is likely to come in a form of unbundling from the very core, such as deposit accounts. The reason it hasn’t happened yet is because banks are doing it better. There is an Achilles weakness, however, the lack of real-time transaction processing capability. Cracking that could provide a very real and serious edge over banking incumbents. Copying model app design is easy. Offering P2P loans is easy. Changing your core banking system is not. This ..read more