Top ten fintech opinion pieces in 2016
Look back at some of the most interesting and thought-provoking opinion pieces on all matters fintech published by Banking Technology in 2016.
A sea of penguins
By Ghela Boscovich, founder of FemTechGlobal
I am blind as a bat, and there are times when it’s an advantage to be blind, or deaf, or even dumb to certain insults, certain situations, certain obstacles. Clearly it’s a double-edged sword because being deaf, dumb, and blind to impediments, pitfalls, and danger zones is just asking for disaster…
Weapons of mass distraction: worrying about the wrong fintech revolution
By Mark Cotter, consultant, Altus
Reading the technology news these days you could be forgiven for thinking that some seismic revolution is occurring almost every day! Stories abound of Airbnb, Facebook, Uber, Alibaba taking over the world and demolishing our traditional business models – ushering in a new age where the “interface is king”…
Banks, stop thinking about branches as a place to transact
By Will Weidman, senior vice-president, APT
How would you respond if someone were to ask you: “What is the purpose of the bank branch?” For decades, the first answer may have been: “To allow customers to conveniently transact with the bank and manage their accounts”. Branches have always been a driver of sales as well, but service, particularly deposits and withdrawals, had been their primary use. This model has now changed drastically, and banks that still operate as they used to will very quickly yield to more forward-thinking competitors…
Banking on collaboration
By Daniel Gonzalez, strategist at SapientNitro
The disruptive forces of technology and legislation are forcing banks to become open and collaborative, things which they historically found challenging…
The switch from analog to digital banking is not just about new tech
By Art Gillis, banking technology consultant
Digital technology evangelists, read it at your peril…
Why it’ll be Visa and MasterCard – not tech start-ups – that truly disrupt banking
By Alexander Vityaz, CEO, Corezoid
A true disruption probably won’t stem from a tech start-up that gets hot and rides the wave to a new normal in banking. No, it’ll actually be those old card-issuing behemoths, Visa and MasterCard, which will lead the revolution and upend the traditional banking industry…
Using technology in the Age of Emotion
By Dennis Fois, CEO of Rant & Rave
How can the use of technology in the banking sector motivate and drive employees (and lead to improved business performance)?
Dear banks, social media doesn’t have to be scary
By Stephan Delbos, editor at Brand Embassy
Dear Banks, how’s it going? If you’re reading this, you must be on social media, or you’re at least checking the internet. That’s great…
Let’s all get together? Not likely – mobile payments are still a far, far away dream!
By Richard Buckle, founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies
In the course of a recent active business day I observed myself carrying a multitude of financial instruments. I had to make a payment from my business checking account to a local government agency and I was reluctant to use my business debit card. Should I have chosen my credit card the agency charged an additional and quite sizeable interest charge to do so!
Big data is no longer a big deal but smart data is sure a smart strategy
By Yamini Kona, principal consultant, financial services, Infosys
We are all pretty much unanimous that the once IT buzz word “big data” is no longer the awe-inspiring complex beast which can be tamed only by expensive databases and superlative data analytics platforms. Cloud architecture and collaborative open source software brought big data processing within the reach of pretty much all enterprises. Analytics domain has reached a stage where big data is now just normal data…
