Category: Analysis
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Inflation: Should You Actually Care?
As you might expect, the short answer is yes… but there is obviously a longer explanation. You should care about inflation as an individual, and same goes if you are a business. And notably a fintech one. There is a lot that is being said about inflation these days, with a certain degree of truth.…
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Having a great fintech idea doesn’t matter…
That’s not a click-bait headline. Maybe just a little to get your attention. But it’s true: having a great idea doesn’t matter so much in the business world. Even though, actually, it is a bit more nuanced. Having an idea indeed matters, but much less than its execution. What that really means is that you…
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The UK Fintech Landscape
The UK fintech scene is truly thriving. There are a few big fintech hubs around the world… and obviously London is on the list. It has been a major financial centre for quite some time now. That actually predates the modern financial system. And you could very much argue that it even predates the United…
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Credit Suisse, time for some real digital transformation?
In case you have missed it, Credit Suisse recently lost a lot of money on a bet that turned sour. Actually, on several bets that happened to all go in the wrong direction, at roughly the same time. What is really going on at the Swiss bank? Isn’t an old incumbent bank inherently good at…
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Business Economics: Traditional Banks vs Neobanks
Maths do not lie. That’s not a new song by Shakira. Maybe you are not a big fan of numbers, but they tend to be truthful. To a certain extent. If you have done a bit of financial modelling, you know that it all comes down to the assumptions… Nonetheless, crunching the numbers is usually…
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The rise and fall of Greensill, the fintech that wasn’t
The financial service industry tends to have its fair share of dramas and scandals. That what makes it entertaining somehow. Some are really out of a Hollywood film. Like the Credit Suisse spying scandal. Was Greensill ever a fintech? Only to ask yourself this is quite surprising given the hype surrounding the startup. What is…
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Cybersecurity: Should Fintechs Care?
As the fintech industry matures, it starts to worry about the same things as the big old banks. The focus is slowly shifting away from building the coolest customer-facing apps to address more ‘boring‘ problems. Nonetheless, crucial in financial services. Things like regulatory compliance, with or without the help of RegTech. Or cybersecurity, and notably…
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Kodak Moment in Financial Services
Business leaders want to avoid their Kodak moment. That is true for the executive teams of traditional financial institutions. Actually, of any established company. A Kodak moment used to signify “an occasion suitable for memorializing with a photograph“. How cute. And that is how big Kodak was. Now it means missing an industry shift in…
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Back to Basics: What is a Bank?
Maybe that sounds like a silly question to ask. You know what a bank is, you use their products and services almost every day. Most people have a bank account. Unfortunately not everybody. Nonetheless, it’s probably worth breaking it down for a minute. If you want to understand what fintechs are trying to disrupt, it’s…
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What’s going on with fintech startup exits?
All the SPAC activity around fintechs is kind of normal. If you have not followed this new craze, here is a good recap from CB Insights. The huge amount of money going into fintechs needed an exit of some sort. When VCs give you some cash to build a business, they expect a return. As…