Uncategorized

You can now subscribe to Disruptive Finance!

I know it’s crazy, I’ve had the blog for years, and never gave the option for readers to receive the new posts by email (shows that Disruptive Finance is clearly an amateur blog!). This has been solved now! You can now subscribe to the blog by entering your email address on the right column. Good(…)

Calendar of Fintech Events in London

If you’re like me, you would get to know about Fintech events in very random ways – from emails, Twitter, chatting to friends, etc. I’m pretty much sure that there is at least one Fintech event per day – from hackathons to conferences, from demo days to meetups – but it’s just impossible to keep(…)

What lessons can we learn from Bondcube? [CEO Interview]

The growth in Fintech has been phenomenal during the last few years: 10 times more startups in London in 3 years, dozens of Fintech companies valued at more than $1bn, record breaking VC investments year after year. On the one hand, it is totally justifiable. Finance will be drastically different in 10 years, and the(…)

15 Fintech blogs for the summer… [Updated]

If you want a bit of reading for the summer, here is a list of Fintech blogs I particularly like. This is totally biased and non-objective and I’m sure I missed many interesting blogs*. Since Disruptive Finance and Fintech is my “night job” and not my “day job”, getting interesting and relevant information through Twitter and blogs(…)

Fintech startups: compete or collaborate with traditional finance?

Consider these two statements : “The party’s over, for the banks at least” (Transferwise) “Today we are announcing an exciting new partnership with Santander UK, …” (Funding Circle) These statements were made by Transferwise and Funding Circle, two very well known Fintech startups. Both were created a few years ago, both are Unicorns (i.e.valued more than(…)

Bitcoin, what are the REAL opportunities today and tomorrow? (Correspondence with Ryan Selkis)

Star VC Marc Andreessen is betting big on Bitcoin. Ex JP Morgan Superstar Blythe Master joins Digital Assets to revolutionise the world of settlements through blockchain. Even Goldman Sachs thinks that Bitcoin is a megatrend that will define the future of finance. All these big names see Bitcoin as a major revolution that will have(…)

If you can’t beat them, join them: Goldman Sachs enters Fintech.

If you liked “Invest in the Disruptors”, you will love “Disrupt the Disruptors”… Goldman Sachs has been a very active investor in Fintech (and Tech in general), with the latest investment in Circle (Bitcoin), but also CompareAsiaGroup (Comparison website for financial services), Oscar (Challenger Insurance) or Kensho (Data analytics for finance) for example. But what(…)

Follow 100 Fintech Twitter accounts in one click

If you don’t feel like adding the 107 Fintech people listed by Marc Bernegger one by one in Twitter, I have done it for you ! (if you really want to thank me, send me 0.01 Bitcoin which I’ll gladly retrieve once I remember my password!). Once you have added all these people, you will have(…)

Who to follow in Fintech: Singapore, HK, France, NY, Holland. And Italy!

I love these lists from Marc Bernegger who does an incredible job of referencing some great Fintech accounts to follow. I don’t know how he finds the time (and I can assure you he is not a bot…) but his posts are a great starting point for anyone who’d like to start following Fintech. After the UK, Germany,(…)

6 Reasons why Artificial Intelligence is skyrocketing – and will grow even faster

I was talking to a bot. And I didn’t realise it. I thought it was a real person. We all experience these defining moments, where there was a “before” and there is an “after”. This was such a moment for me, when I realised that AI has gone very far indeed. Of course, we(…)

1 2 3 4

We both caught the Coronavirus

My wife and I were both ill with the symptoms of COVID-19. While we were ill, we were looking for information about other people’s experience of COVID to understand how our symptoms could evolve. This is our experience, and this blog is written both by Tram Anh and me. The context We live in London, and are co-founders of(…)
How can bankers think like entrepreneurs?

2 weeks ago, I was chairing the stream about “How can banks innovate” at Money 20/20 Singapore. The audience was mainly professionals in banks and Fintech entrepreneurs, and I asked them the following question : “What is the biggest challenge for bank innovation?” What would be your answer ? Have a think then see below how(…)
What will be the most successful bank in a Fintech world?

A few years ago, many banks were not convinced that Fintech* would impact them. Or rather, many banks were convinced that Fintech would NOT impact the industry, because of regulations, customer behaviour, etc. Fast forward to today, and this sentiment has totally shifted. From new challenger banks acquiring 8,000 new customers per day to Alibaba having(…)
How has Fintech transformed finance?

The “Fintech” trend started 5 years ago.* Since then, we’ve heard about new startups, the emergence of tech competitors in finance, and also banks investing in technology. But what has been exactly the impact of technology in finance? Is there a real impact, is it too early to say, or is it just hype? My(…)
Alibaba becomes Top 10 Global Bank

A few years ago, I wrote about the inexorable rise of Google and Amazon in finance. The conclusion from the piece was “if you prefer fast action and major Fintech disruption from tech powerhouses, then forget Amazon, Google or Apple, and watch Alibaba or Tencent…. Ant Financial, the finance arm of Alibaba, is valued $50bn.” This was 2.5 years ago, and(…)
Why SME Banking is a huge untapped market

When I started The Disruptive Group last year, one of my first tasks – like any entrepreneur – was to open a bank account. Being a fervent proponent of Fintech, I looked at the different options available in the UK, including the different Fintech startups. My requirements for the ideal bank? – Easy onboarding. We(…)
What are the skills for Finance 2.0? At the Singapore Fintech Festival

Skills for finance are changing. And this is happening today already: “NAB will make 6,000 job cuts over then next 3 years with its digital banking revamp… NAB is hiring 2,000 people with different capabilities” says Banking Technology. After a very fast paced trip in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Vietnam (more on this later, but(…)