Identity and security: The price we must pay to keep our information safe – and the companies helping us do it May 17, 2016 In ancient Roman mythology, Janus, the god of boundaries, is usually depicted as having two faces. Skip a few thousand years to today’s modern world, and many of us still wear more than one mask: there’s the one we present at work, one we wear in front of family, and others we wear in front [...]
How traditional banks can keep ahead of their fintech noisy neighbours in innovation race May 16, 2016 There have been plenty of reports about fintechs being bad news for banks, but in actual fact they may be the best thing to happen to traditional banks and the banking sector for a long time. No, really. Many have warned that the introduction of digitally savvy options into the retail banking sector will prove [...]
Lystable’s Peter Johnston talks brutal camps, moving to San Francisco and building the IDs of the future May 16, 2016 Imagine what it would feel like to make your housemate a millionaire within in a year. Your startup’s software enables companies to onboard, resource and pay their contract workers. It’s specific, but sticking to this underserved niche has allowed you to grow very fast. You have 4,500 contractors on your system and you recently had a [...]
How new London mayor Sadiq Khan can solve London’s startup funding crisis May 12, 2016 I would like to congratulate Sadiq Khan on becoming London’s new mayor and it is encouraging that he claims he will be “the most pro-business mayor London has ever had”. There is a booming startup scene in the capital which, if supported, will benefit our City for generations to come. But success is by no [...]
The storm is here: This is what you should expect to happen to P2P following the Lending Club catastrophe May 11, 2016 It's been a rather dark few days for the alternative lending industry. On Monday, news broke that the chief executive of US giant Lending Club, Renauld Laplanche, had been forced to resign by his board. First, the platform disclosed that it sold near-prime loans to a bank (Bloomberg reported that it was Jefferies) which it knew [...]
Ryan Bertrand’s secret second career as a fintech entrepreneur – and John Terry is backing his latest venture May 11, 2016 The history of football’s relationship with technology is a chequered one, from the game’s long resistance to implementing goal-line gadgetry to the tale of former Aston Villa striker Darius Vassell taking a power drill to his toenail in the misguided belief that it would relieve pain. Ryan Bertrand hopes to change that perception. When he is [...]
How financial services Goliaths can survive the threat of fintech Davids May 11, 2016 Fintech disrupters versus traditional financial services incumbents. To some, this supposed rivalry resembles that of the battle where the smaller and more agile David slays the large and mighty Goliath. But is this necessarily the fate that lies ahead for the big banks? It’s easy to understand how this rivalry has been built up, with fintech [...]
Visa Europe records three billion contactless payments over the last 12 months May 10, 2016 Card company Visa has recorded three billion contactless transactions in Europe over the past year. In April alone, European consumers used their cards 360m times, clocking in at almost 140 transactions per second. Contactless now accounts for one in every five Visa card payments in Europe, up from one in 60 in 2013. In the [...]
A Decentralised Autonomous Organisation – “DAO” – has already raised a staggering $33m. What does that mean? May 9, 2016 The first Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) fund has now raised over $33m, making it the second-largest crowdfunding project of all time. DAOs enable people to buy tokens in Ether, the cryptocurrency of Ethereum. Token-holders (who are a bit like shareholders) are then able to invest in smart-contract projects that run on the Ethereum blockchain – operating [...]
Calling all startups: The FCA’s fintech accelerator is open for business May 9, 2016 Fintech startups will now be able to test out their ideas without fear of getting on the wrong side of regulators. A so-called sandbox has been launched by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today offering a tech accelerator environment for young firms looking to disrupt finance. "Supporting innovation is an essential part of our role in promoting competition [...]