Author: Professor Brian Scott-Quinn. A big issue for the UK and for the EU is a fall in the rate of productivity growth since the global financial crisis (GFC) back in 2008). The Office of National Statistics says that wage levels in real terms have not risen in 12 years. Others say the period of no real wage growth is much longer but it can be sai...
Author: Professor Brian Scott-Quinn. At one time, many people thought that fintechs would have the international retail money transfer business to themselves and that the large banks could really not compete with them. Well it is true that the large banks do very well out of retail customer FOREX transactions. But they were wrong in thinking b...
The Madiston team is very excited to have been named as a finalist in Banking Tech's Excellence in Tech Awards in the category "Best Digital Solution Provider – LendTech". We are proud to see The Madiston Lending Platform recognised in this way as one of the standout solutions in the Digital Lending space. We'll find out if we have won at the Banki...
There are a number of obvious hurdles like regulation, prudential requirements, experienced workforce but gone are the days that "technology" is one of those hurdles.You used to see eye-watering sums of money spent on technology just to get to launch, only to discover six months later, the tech that you thought you needed, only does half the ...
Peer to peer lending and borrowing (P2P), or more particularly, consumer P2P, is not dead, it has just been beaten up by bad actors, bandwagon jumpers and poor execution! In 2009 the notion for P2P was that "technology would take the strain" and it would beat banks at their own game. Unfortunately, that promise has not been delivered by many. Poor ...
Read our recent news coverage of Madiston's Digital Lending software that has enabled the launch of Carilend's Instaloan in Trinidad & Tobago. This was the third Caribbean country to launch for Carilend, this one in partnership with Massy Finance. All Carilend's online lending services in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago run on Madis...
Finextra: Green investment firms this is for you.Following on from our recent blog (Can FinTech alleviate global crises?) now is a good time to look more closely at what we can all do to protect ourselves and our planet from the extreme heat we have just experienced. Climate Change won't wait for us to sort out a cost of living crisis or a war, it ...
CAN FINTECH HELP TACKLE THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS, CLIMATE CRISIS, WORLD PEACE? The financial sector is always pivotal in a crisis but rarely do we have so much hitting us at once. Storms of the past may pale against a potential hurricane of competing priorities coming towards us. We are not t...
The Madiston technical team are not just brilliant at digital banking and digital lending technology but they are also genius at coming up with entertaining fintech-specific festive poems and songs. Taking a light-hearted look at the year just gone, and looking forward to exciting times ahead, click below for their 2021 offering. Scroll down for th...
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) providers have enjoyed phenomenal growth across the world over the last few years. Just from the firms surveyed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the total value of BNPL transactions between January to December 2020 was £2.7bn and is expected to grow rapidly by 2024. Flexible payment options at the Point-of-Sale (PO...
Finextra: In our area of digital banking and lending, there is much talk about digital transformation and the future being in technologies such as AI, Machine Learning (ML), Cloud, CX, Open Banking, Big Data, etc. But anyone who has ever tried to arrange a house or office move, or simply communicate online with big institutions, banks, building soc...
Finextra: The answer to the question above is: "...as close to zero as practical!" Full disclosure: we are massive advocates of automation. If you have read our earlier posts in this series, you will know that we believe that automation is the route to profitable, sustainable digital lending businesses. The role of skilled people is to monitor exce...
Finextra: Flexible payment options, including Point-of-Sale (POS) "Buy Now Pay Later" (BNPL) offers, are growing in popularity at a pace that regulators are struggling to match. The Woolard Review (a review of change and innovation in the unsecured credit market) noted that the value of BNPL transactions has nearly quadrupled during 2020. Acco...
Digital lending has grown as an industry into many diverse business models, but there have been many challenges faced by them all, barriers to sustainable profitability baked-in from early technology decisions... To buy or build, own or licence, outsource or in-house? All questions that have been rumbling on for decades in the financial sector.&nbs...
'Twas the night before lockdown, the ghost of past bankingWarns dinosaur bankers of losing their ranking"You move into FinTech and get with the timesOr be left cleaning dust from your pennies and dimes.A suit in the high street was fine for C. Dickensbut Madiston-ise or be left with thin pickings."'Twas the night before Christmas two thousand and t...
Finextra: Is there any aspect of our lives that isn't wholly dependent upon trust? Our relationships with our partners, family, friends, colleagues, suppliers of our goods and services, medics, law makers, governments, world leaders - all fundamentally rely on trust. With it, those relationships can be successful and productive. W...
Finextra: Consider the positives in the way that we do things, against the background of the current pandemic. For the sake of us all, it's important to try to keep things going, learn and make all the positive moves for improvement that we can during this lockdown.For most companies, the time to make radical changes is when business is quiet or de...
As thousands of financial services employees begin to work remotely, how do you get the most from your team? How do you make the most productive use of the time? How do you make sure you move your business forward and not stand still or go into reverse over the next few challenging months? The situation, particularly at the heart of Lon...
Finextra: Most of us have never experienced times like these before but, while the medics deal with the health crisis, we - the financial services and FinTech sectors - have a crucial role to play in minimising the economic impact. To keep the economy moving, we have to keep working. Those set up to run their businesses remotely online can continue...
Thanks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee we have the ability to talk face-to-face with vulnerable members of our families, without being near them. We have the ability to work with our colleagues, without being in the same room as them. And digital businesses have the ability to carry on working to keep the economy going through this temporary cri...