Week 44 2023
The trial of the crypto golden boy
By: WSJ
Why: the spectacular rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Week 43 2023
Global Insurance Report 2023: Reimagining life insurance
By: McKinsey
Why: The global life insurance industry is facing an inflection point. A fundamental reimagination will usher in significant change.
Week 42 2023
The 2023 Insurance Value Creators Report
By: BCG
Why: Many reinsurers’ ability to continue to deliver superior TSR depends on the answers. Companies that have a clear strategic direction and portfolio allocation and can use capital-management tools flexibly are the likeliest to successfully navigate the dynamic and unpredictable market conditions ahead.
Week 41 2023
Nubank reaches over 90 million customers in Latin America
Source: Nubank Newsroom
Why: In Brazil, the company has around 85 million users; more than 40 new products were launched in 2023
Week 40 2023
Revolut vs. Traditional Banking: Why Fintech is the Future
By: Finance Magnates
Why: Traditional banking institutions are confronting a powerful competitor in the ever-changing world of finance: fintech. Revolut, a revolutionary fintech business that has shook the foundations of traditional banking, is at the forefront of this upheaval.
Week 39 2023
Banks to be fined for free cash access failure
By: Altfi
Why: concerns have been raised about access to cash, especially for poorer demographic groups and those living in rural areas. One aspect of the new consumer protections will mean the “vast majority of people and businesses” will be no further than three miles away from cash machines.
Week 38 2023
JPMorgan Chase to offer online payroll services as it steps up fight with Square, PayPal
By: CNBC
Why: JPMorgan Chase is stepping up its appeal to small business customers by planning to offer digital payroll processing. The bank has picked San Francisco-based fintech player Gusto to provide the underlying technology for the feature.
Week 37 2023
The Blockchain Bill That Doesn’t Mention Blockchain: U.K. Leads The Digital Space Race In Trade
By: Forbes
Why: The International Chamber of Commerce has estimated that digitalizing trade documents could generate $25 billion in new economic growth by 2024, and free up $250 billion in efficiency savings.
Week 36 2023
Polo Managing Agency partners with DXC Technology to enhance insurance services
By: Reinsurance News
Why: Reinvention of an end to end insurance platform
Week 35 2023
Chinese Banks Lend Billions to Russia Amid Western Sanctions
By: Bloomberg
Why: China’s biggest banks are extending billions of dollars to Russia as sanctions pressure western lenders to exit the country
Week 34 2023
Credit Bank Plans Kenya’s First IPO in Nine Years on NSE
By: Bloomberg
Why: Credit Bank Plc plans to raise one billion shillings ($6.89 million) on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, in what would be the bourse’s first initial public offering since 2014.
Week 33 2023
Ugandan fintech Asaak acquires FlexClub Mexico as it expands to Latin America
By: Techcabal
Why: Asaak joins Nigeria’s Paga as one of the few African tech companies to expand to Latin America
Week 32 2023
Reserve Bank of India launches innovative public tech platform for effortless credit
By: Business Today
Why: The rationale behind this initiative is that India has so far lacked a comprehensive and inclusive digital public infrastructure that can bring together all stakeholders involved.
Week 31 2023
HSBC profit more than doubles as interest rates rise
By: BBC
Why: What happened after HSBC purchased the UK operations of SVB Bank for £1?
Week 30 2023
UK Fintechs strike back
By: This week in Fintech
Why: With the announcement that a16z is opening an office in London and PM Rishi Sunakwelcoming them on Twitter (above) combined with a new Financial Services and Markets Bill which provides sensible crypto frameworks, as Simon Taylor said in his latest post in the long reads section, UK fintech is back!
Week 29 2023
UK Payments Market report 2022
By: UK Payments
Why: filled with all the key numbers for the 2022 period
Week 28 2023
E-money accounts outstrip bank current accounts in the UK
By: Finextra
Why: The UK has led the world in its use of e-money and payments to drive innovation and competition.
Week 27 2023
Revolutionizing Web3 identity with lessons from IBM and Amazon
By: Fintech Blueprint
Why: It is time to own our data and use it as we want
Week 26 2023
Sharing Our Field Notes: The State of Generative AI in Financial Services
By: Bain
Why: The BCV fintech partnership shares our comprehensive perspective on how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping the financial services industry
Week 25 2023
Visa to Acquire Core Banking Platform Pismo for $1 Billion
By: PYMNTS
Why: Visa is investing in one of the leading Latam core banking services to expand its offering on emerging economies
Week 24 2023
How MrBeast Became the Willy Wonka of YouTube
By: The New York Times
Why: An interesting story on social human experiments, money, algorithms and becoming the #1 streamer on YouTube's history.
Week 23 2023
Starling Bank enables abuse victims to 'hide' malicious payment references
By: Finextra
Why: Starling Bank has introduced a feature that enables abuse victims to switch off intimidating payment references that can accompany bank transfers
Week 22 2023
The Journal Podcast
By: WSJ
Why: Great at analysing one key business topic per day
Week 21 2023
Forbes’ Top 50 Fintech
By: Forbes
Why: The list has only 19 companies that have never made the Fintech 50 before, down from 25 newcomers last year, with focus on business to business banking
Week 20 2023
Goldman, Deutsche Börse, 30 firms join Canton Network for institutional blockchain interoperability
By: Ledger Insights
Why: The idea of the Canton Network is to create a neutral third party zone that’s easy to connect for interoperability. It lowers the interoperability barrier.
Week 19 2023
The Dollar’s Demise May Come Gradually, But Not Suddenly
By: Bloomberg
Why: Rumors of the death of the US currency are as exaggerated as they are frequently repeated
Week 18 2023
JPMorgan Chase boss Dimon hails 'groundbreaking' AI
By Finextra
Why: Very curious to see where these 300 AI use cases/experiments will take JP Morgan in the near future
Week 17 2023
Apple launches high-yield savings account with Goldman in payments push
By: Yahoo News
Why: 'Apple was the fourth most used online payment brand in 2022, now - banking on its 2B iPhone active devices - the company launches a high-yield savings accounts along Goldman Sachs. Apple’s foray into the payment space is seen as a key growth driver for services moving forward'
Week 16 2023
Open Banking and the Nigerian FinTech: Everything You Need to Know
By: HackerNoon
Why: My read of the week goes to Open Banking and the Nigerian FinTech. Another really interesting note on how Nigeria is taking advantage of digital to transform the way money moves. From how the Central Bank of Nigeria has delivered an Open Banking Framework to the countless fintechs adhering to it to continue disrupting banking.
Week 15 2023
Digital Currency Usage Soars in Nigeria on Cash Shortages
By: Bloomberg
Why: eNaira used to dispense welfare, bolstering its adoption
Week 14 2023
JPMorgan Chase doesn’t care about your deposits
By: Kunle
Why: Regulators simultaneously have to adapt to this new perception by the public, and develop tools to respond to the reality that 1) depositor sentiment can now collapse in a day, and 2) all deposits can now be liquidated in a day.
Week 13 2023
Lending and the Engineering of Chaos
By: Francisco Javier Arceo
Why: A bank’s attitude to risk is not passive and defensive; a bank actively and willingly takes on risk, because it seeks a return and this does not come without risk. Indeed risk management can be seen as the core competence of a bank.
Week 12 2023
The quantum revolution: The race to build a quantum computer
By: FT
Why: While everyone is talking about AI and Crypto, the quantum race has started and this podcast delves into actual use cases and the race to deliver this breathtaking technology.
Week 11 2023
Could BaaS prevent the next SVB?
By: WorkWeek
Why: An essay on how fintechs could spread risk and help prevent a large bank fallout
Week 10 2023
NGMI (Not gonna make it)
By: Alex Johnson
Why: The story of the week was around SVB and its dramatic fell. A Lehman Brothers playback
Week 9 2023
SoftBank's Arm aims to raise at least $8 billion in U.S. IPO, sources say
By: Reuters
Why: UK chip manufacturer is going for a large IPO to reached a £50B valuation
Week 8 2023
The Hindu Business Line
By: New Delhi Bureau
Why: The launch of cross-border connectivity between the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India and PayNow of Singapore on Tuesday allows for real time payments between these 2 countries
Week 7 2023
Crypto Island
By: PJ Vogt
Why: Former Reply All host PJ Vogt is back with Crypto Island, a new podcast that chronicles the wild west that is the cyrptocurrency space
Week 6 2023
The Fintech Formula: A Data-Driven Blueprint for Creating Enduring Value
By: Bain Capital Ventures
Why: Fintech was the darling of VC, accounting for $1 for every $5 of venture funding. This article describes 5 lessons we can take away from reviewing the public market’s treatment of fintech over the past 3 years.
Week 5 2023
Apple’s Push Into Next-Generation Financial Services Hits Delays
By: Bloomberg
Why: Under an initiative called Project Breakout, which I first described last March, the company is developing its own technology for handling interest calculations, rewards, credit checks, approvals and transaction histories — all things that are currently overseen by partners.
Week 4 2023
Drum Tower
By: The Economist
Why: A fresh look into what life in China is really like. Two of The Economist's China correspondents, Alice Su and David Rennie, analyse the stories at the heart of this vast country and examine its influence beyond its borders. They’ll be joined by our global network of correspondents and expert guests to
Week 3 2023
Why China Is So Bad at Doing Big Things
By: Bloomberg
Why: The country has a reputation for accomplishing impossible tasks. But its strengths only work in certain cases.
Week 2 2023
India as the bull case for Fintech
By: Fintech 🧠 Food
Why: The India stack presents homegrown solutions to problems at home. India doesn't have to copy + paste innovation from the rest of the world; increasingly, the opposite is true. The world is taking its lead from the India Stack.
Week 1 2023
Fintech: The Fourth Platform - Part One
By: Forbes
Why: Matt Harris at Bain Capital Ventures wrote the definitive piece on embedded finance back in 2019. In his two-part essay, he summarized the benefits of embedded finance
