Bankloch

  History has an interesting habit of repeating itself. Not because companies fail to innovate, but because they fail to embrace the innovations they have already created. Time and again, industry leaders have developed breakthrough technologies years before anyone else, only to watch competitors turn those same ideas into billion-dollar businesses. Xerox PARC developed the graphical user interface and the computer mouse long before Microsoft and Apple brought them to the masses. Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 but hesitated to commercialize it because digital photography threatened its highly profitable film business. Nokia dominated mobile phones yet underestimated how quickly smartphones would redefine the market. BlackBerry dismissed touchscreen devices because its enterprise customers loved physical keyboards. Yahoo failed to capitalize on opportunities in search, social media and mobile. Even Blockbuster had the technology and opportunity to launch a streaming pla...

  Every once in a while, humanity experiences a technological revolution that fundamentally changes the way we live. The steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution. Electricity transformed every home and factory. The internet connected the world. Smartphones put that world into our pockets. Today we are entering another one of those moments in history. But this time it is different. We are not witnessing a single technological revolution, we are witnessing three revolutions unfolding simultaneously . Artificial Intelligence is changing how we think and process information. Autonomous vehicles will transform how people and goods move. And humanoid robots are about to change how physical work gets done. These three revolutions are closely connected. Modern robotics would not exist without AI. Autonomous vehicles are essentially highly specialized robots navigating the physical world. Together they create something unprecedented: for the first time in history, technology i...

For decades, intraday liquidity management followed a predictable rhythm. Treasury teams monitored end-of-day positions, reconciled overnight balances, and relied on relatively stable, batch-driven payment flows to plan their funding needs. The tools and processes built around this world were fit for purpose, because the world itself moved at a manageable pace. Instant payments have dismantled that rhythm entirely. Across Europe, the US, the UK, and markets beyond, real-time payment rails are now live, scaling fast, and operating around the clock. SEPA Instant, FedNow, Faster Payments, TIPS, RT1: each of these schemes imposes obligations that traditional liquidity management frameworks were simply not designed to meet. Settlement accounts must be pre-funded and continuously replenished. Outflows can spike without warning at 2am on a Sunday. And when a pre-funded account runs dry outside of business hours, the consequences are immediate: failed transactions, reputational damage, and reg...

  One of the most frequently used arguments behind the rise of Fintechs and especially neo-banks, is the inability of large incumbent banks to remain agile. Traditional financial institutions often struggle to rapidly adapt to changing customer expectations, evolving regulations, and technological innovation. Fintechs, by contrast, start smaller, carry significantly less historical software legacy, and operate with far less bureaucracy. Decisions are taken faster, teams move quicker, and products evolve continuously. In short: they are more agile . Yet after speaking with many Fintechs and observing numerous start-ups and scale-ups from close by, I increasingly notice a paradox: many young Fintech companies begin to lose their agility surprisingly early, not because of business bureaucracy, but because their IT organization becomes the bottleneck. Ironically, this happens despite hiring highly talented, motivated, and technically excellent engineers. In many start-ups, productivit...