Bankloch

Marketplaces are   hip and trendy   on the internet and will likely evolve even more in the near future. In some markets (like food delivery, transportation, commerce, holiday…​) they already represent double digit market shares (e.g. in 2018 $1.86 trillion was spent globally on the top 100 online marketplaces), but for the financial services sector, their impact (even though there are a few unicorn FinTechs in this space) on the industry is still limited. Any form of   intermediation   (travel agents, taxi dispatchers…​) will likely be replaced by a modern, digital and more direct equivalent, i.e. a digital marketplace. As the business of banks is exactly the intermediation between people having excess money and people needing money, the financial services sector will be significantly impacted. Furthermore, marketplaces are strongly intertwined with other concepts like the   gig-economy, the sharing-economy and the API-economy . All these trends will ultimately...

“ In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact. ” - Les Brown As human beings we all   strive to be appreciated . For young people this is the appreciation of their friends, family, colleagues…​, but as you get older you strive also towards after-live appreciation, i.e. your legacy. With the increased automation and the rise of AI, a lot of   jobs are threatened . As many people define (a big part of) their life by their job (one of the first questions many people ask someone they meet for the first time is what their job is), their ability to be meaningful and appreciated by society is at risk. But even people with good job security, ask themselves the question whether their job has a   meaningful and positive impact   (i.e. do good/make a difference) on society. Especially the young generation is very sensitive to this desire to do something enjoyable, while making a difference in society ( a "purpose...

In a time of real-time, instant payments, it is strange to see that companies providing pre-paid gift vouchers are still massively being created and continue to grow. At first sight buying such a gift voucher has only disadvantages, as it converts liquid currency to a product, with less favorable qualities (i.e. can only be consumed in certain shops or even in only 1 shop and usually limited in time). There are however many good reasons for the existence of such gift vouchers: In many countries there is a   fiscal advantage   for employers to offer such gift vouchers to their employees or to their business relations. Of course the government limits the amount and frequency (usually only for specific occasions) at which such vouchers can be offered and limits the places (usually can only be consumed in that country) where they can be consumed, but it’s still a very interesting way for businesses to offer a highly liquid advantage/gift at a lower cost. A gift voucher is often a ...