Zero-commission brokers selling order flow are the new intermediaries. Who will disrupt them? In October the US market witnessed the Robinhood effect. Schwab slashed its stock commissions to zero, which in turn forced TD Ameritrade, E-trade, Interactive Brokers, Ally Invest, and Fidelity to follow suit over the next few days. Schwab called this the zero-commission…

Will Robo advisors take control of the ETF market? Betterment and Wealthfront are 11 and 8 years old. They set the tone in the market for Robo-Advisors, that are neither Robots nor Advisors as Paolo Sironi kept saying more than 4 yrs ago. They got leapfrogged by the incumbents which as of today manage 10…

Digital deployment in small and medium sized banks remains anemic Temenos released in April its annual report[1] on the State of digital sales in banking and Jim Marous provided insights in Banks Not Meeting Digital Sales Expectations. In late August, in The Illusion of Digital Transformation in Banking he categorized the digital readiness of banks in 5…

Spotting `dump pipes` during the re-bundling of banking, is not easy `Buy versus build` continues to be a discussion for incumbents.  Shared infrastructure allows for rapid deployment, economies of scale, and expansion in additional markets. On the other hand, incumbents have cultural issues and technology integration challenges that are real. Increased Saas model adoption and…

Don`t confuse People-centric Banking with Customer-centric Banking A bank that is people-centric is one that supports, inspires, and grows a community with strong ties. This is much more than a customer centric bank. The customer centric hashtag may mean a great app that is simple and easy to use, or an onboarding process that is…

Telecoms, banks, and e-commerce giants Last October, the Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent Holdings Limited, better known as ‘Tencent’ invested $180 million in Brazilian digital bank and credit card operator ‘NuBank’ (Nu Pagamentos SA). [1] This FinTech pioneer, an early mover in Latin America’s largest market offering fee-free credit cards and digital payment accounts, has recently obtained clearance from…

Telecoms, banks, and e-commerce giants MPesa`s early success in Kenya will remain the mobile money business case study of payment innovation in Emerging markets. [1] It was 12 years ago; in 2007 when Vodafone launched the service. Africa continues to be the continent where `Necessity is the mother of invention`.  Africa brings to market further…