April 24, 2017
Digital + Currency + Local = Good. That is the summary of my last article. The concept is not totally new, WIR Bank in Switzerland has been doing this since 1934. Of course, you could skip the digital part of that equation; the town of Lewes in Southeast England has long ago done just that […]
April 24, 2017
Digital + Currency + Local = Good. That is the summary of my last article. The concept is not totally new, WIR Bank in Switzerland has been doing this since 1934. Of course, you could skip the digital part of that equation; the town of Lewes in Southeast England has long ago done just that […]
April 10, 2017
Local: where we are, where we live, where we spend our time. Something so close is something we are likely to care about quite a lot. Digital and perhaps Blockchain aka DLT could make a big difference to our experience. The services in our local village, just outside Zurich, are important to our family. We […]
March 22, 2017
This is the second in a series of thoughts on matters digital which were inspired by the trials & tribulations of my year-end tax filing. Millennials are supposed to be way more tech savvy than those of us of the older generation. If you are a fellow Boomer, you might share some of these views. […]
March 13, 2017
Digital, like Blockchain, is trendy with banks and FinTechs alike right now. Yesterday it was time for me to go through the annual chore of coordinating all my tax docs for filing here in Switzerland. And I had to log in for my Swiss flight to Stockholm this Monday morning. A dose of realpolitik and […]
March 8, 2017
$321 billion. That is how much banks have forked over to regulators since 2008. That is half the GDP and 1.75x the annual tax take of Switzerland. Wow. At the same time, the regulatory demands are increasing and the level of scrutiny is increasing. Suddenly, the quality of the Operational level controls really matters. A […]
February 14, 2017
Data quality is the root of all evil, or the fountain of all good. Each of us in the Financial Services industry have all spent hours juggling and sifting data in one form or another. We would all have our own tales to tell of how hard this can be. Many of us would have […]
January 30, 2017
Delays, strikes, chaos, misery. Four words that belong in any sentence that starts “Trains in Britain”. Air travel, French air traffic control, strikes, delays. Four words that anybody who travels by air in Europe will be familiar with. The impact of shortcomings in national infrastructure goes a long way beyond whether we get to work […]
January 15, 2017
“Is the Blockchain going to be useful? Discuss.” This would be a valid and great exam question. Good news; the good folks chez UBS have done some great research on this. Yes, big banks and useful in the same breath. “Cutting through the blockchain hype” is worth paying attention to for a number of reasons: […]
January 4, 2017
There is so much I don’t know and so much amazing innovation going on around us. How to find out about it? Holidays and reading; a time honoured and prized combination. Over Christmas I have been reading the latest edition of Wired magazine. The UK year end double issue is a veritable treasure trove of […]