The Finanser Week: July 8 – July 14, 2024

This week’s top blog discussions include…

The CIO manages a budget of $17 billion and $10 trillion in transactions PER DAY

I just discovered a great article about the CIO of JPMorgan who manages a budget of $17 billion (last time I checked it was $11 billion). That kind of budget makes most fintechs look like small fish. Still, how much budget goes to innovation versus ongoing operations? How much goes to development versus salaries? How much…

People who buy Bitcoins are psychos

I was pretty surprised to find an article on my desk last week with the headline: Cryptocurrency Investors Are More Likely to Be Psychopaths. Seriously? The headline is based on a report on a survey published in the journal Plos One, which surveyed over 2,000 Americans, 30 percent of whom said they owned…

I bet you don’t reject challenger banks now

I remember ten years ago when fintech was just emerging from nowhere and “challenger banks” were a new term. Most bankers I spoke to back then said they would never be truly challenging. Ten years later, the situation is very different. Revolut has over 40 million customers and is profitable; Monzo has…

Debanked? The regulator forced us to do this (sorry)

I recently met the bank whose account I closed. They apologized to me as they knew I was talking about them during my presentation and stated, “We cannot serve our customers due to regulators.” This got me thinking as the reason I closed their account is their questioning about my cryptocurrency dealings. It made…

Evolve Bank & Trust + Synapse = a perfect storm

I recently received an email about a data breach at Evolve Bank. Who? I have nothing to do with Evolve Bank. What’s going on? The email came from Wise and reads as follows: There has been a data breach at Evolve Bank & Trust. Evolve Bank & Trust is a regulated bank that we have worked with…