An overview of 1-year blogging

Last week I published my 60th post on my blog called Bankloch (a reference to "Banking" and my family name). The past year, I have published a blog on a weekly basis, providing my humble personal vision on the topics of Fintech, IT software delivery and mobility.

This blogging has mainly been a personal enrichment, as it forced me to dive deep into a number of different topics, not only in researching for content, but also in trying to identify trends, innovations and patterns into these topics. Furthermore it allowed me to have several very interesting conversations and discussions with passionate colleagues in the financial industry and to get more insights into the wonderful world of blogging and more general of digital marketing, exploring subjects and tools like:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• LinkedIn post optimization

• Google Search Console

• Google AdWorks

• Google Blogger

• Thinker360

• Finextra

• …​

Clearly it is not easy to get the necessary attention. With thousands of blogs being posted every day, there is an enormous crave for the limited attention of an audience. I must admit that I thought it would have been easier, i.e. after a few blogs I saw myself already having 10.000 followers on LinkedIn and being asked at conferences to present my ideas. As always the reality is hard work, fighting for every follower and a long process requiring a lot of perseverance. That’s why doing it for personal enrichment is a far better motive than doing it for the fame and glory, as this last is unlikely to come.

But all these lessons put aside, I thought it would be interesting to give a short overview of these 60 blogs, categorized in a few larger topics. This gives a good summary of a number of trends in the financial and IT industry and hopefully some inspiration for additional reading:

• Open Banking/Open Insurance, Ecosystems and Marketplaces: the financial industry is rapidly evolving. One of the major trends for banks and insurance companies is to make them more open to the outside world. This consists of providing access to the financial data to external parties (such as the European PSD2 directive), but also delivering more and more banking products and services via ecosystems (sell financial products where the customer is located).
  The most extreme examples of such ecosystems are marketplaces, which also are rising rapidly in the financial services industry. These platforms bringing together demand and supply, rise in all shapes and forms and force the financial industry to be even more open and outward looking.

  • Transforming the bank to an Open API Ecosystem(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/transforming-bank-to-open-api-ecosystem.html)

  • Transforming the insurance sector to an Open API Ecosystem(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/transforming-insurance-sector-to-open.html)

  • Eco-systems - Welcome to a new cooperating world(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/eco-systems-welcome-to-new-cooperating.html)

  • From app to super-app to personal assistant(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/08/from-app-to-super-app-to-personal.html)

  • Marketplaces in the financial industry - Here to stay?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/06/marketplaces-in-financial-industry-here.html)

  • Monetization of a marketplace in the financial industry - Make your idea profitable!(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/07/monetization-of-marketplace-in.html)

  • Marketplace analytics - Stop running your business blindly(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/08/marketplace-analytics-stop-running-your.html)

  • The war for direct customer contact - Banks should fight along!(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-war-for-direct-customer-contact.html)

• Banking innovation and Fintech trends: over the last years a lot of publications in the financial services industry deal with its disruption coming from Fintechs and the Big Techs (like Apple, Google, Facebook…​). Although these challengers have definitely woken up the industry, their major disruption has not really come yet. Even in the UK market, where a number of famous neobanks are very active and successful (e.g. Monzo, Revolut, N26, Starling, Oaknorth…​), the traditional incumbent banks are not really threatened yet. Of course with these neobanks growing much faster than the traditional banks and having a very high market share in the segment of the young, digital generations, this could change in the future, even though profitability of these challenger banks remains a major concern for the future. The solution to the incumbent banks will be on the one hand an aggressive digital transformation and on the other hand partnerships with niche Fintechs, like in the domains of Global Warming and Sustainability, financial inclusion, AI, robo-advise, augmented reality…​

  • Fintech is dead, long live Fintech(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/07/fintech-is-dead-long-live-fintech.html)

  • Can financial service incumbents bridge the technology gap?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/can-financial-service-incumbents-bridge.html)

  • Customer acquisition cost: probably the most valuable metric for Fintechs (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/06/customer-acquisition-cost-probably-most.html)

  • Innovation is the key to solve our climate issues (part 1) - Introduction (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/08/innovation-is-key-to-solve-our-climate.html)

  • Innovation is the key to solve our climate issues (part 2) - The financial services sector as change enabler(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/08/innovation-is-key-to-solve-our-climate_30.html)

  • Innovation is the key to solve our climate issues (part 3) - The IT/Tech sector as change enabler(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/09/innovation-is-key-to-solve-our-climate.html)

  • Financial inclusion - A word with many meanings(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/financial-inclusion-word-with-many.html)

  • Big Data in the Financial Services Industry - From data to insights(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/big-data-in-financial-services-industry.html)

  • AI in Financial Services - A buzzword that is here to stay!(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/09/ai-in-financial-services-buzzword-that.html)

  • Digital Investment Advice - Should Financial Advisors start looking for another job?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/digital-investment-advice-should.html)

  • A demographic shift changing the financial landscape forever(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-demographic-shift-changing-financial.html)

  • IoT - Revolution or Evolution in the Financial Services Industry(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/iot-revolution-or-evolution-in.html)

  • Can Augmented Reality make daily banking a more pleasant experience? (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/can-augmented-reality-make-daily.html)

  • Blockchain - Beyond the hype(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/blockchain-beyond-hype.html)

• Payment landscape and Personal Financial Management: due to Fintech disruption and the rise of Open Banking, as explained above, the banking industry has rapidly been transformed, with daily banking (i.e. payment and cash account management) being a frontrunner. Thanks to PSD2 and other evolutions, banks and Fintechs have now much more info available about the financial situation of its customer and as such can guide their customers in their personal finances much better. Furthermore payments are becoming more frictionless, even though the complex payment infrastructure is still throwing a lot of hurdles for consumers. These blogs describe a number of evolutions in this domain of daily banking.

  • PSD2 - 10 questions I would like to see a clear answer on(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/psd2-10-questions-i-would-like-to-see.html)

  • PSD2 - 10 questions requiring an answer - Here is a shot on an answer (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/psd2-10-questions-requiring-answer-here.html)

  • PFM, BFM, Financial Butler, Financial Cockpit, Account Aggregator…​ - Will the cumbersome administrative tasks on your financials finally be taken over by your financial institution?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/pfm-bfm-financial-butler-financial.html)

  • Budgeting apps - A red ocean looking for a market(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/03/budgeting-apps-red-ocean-looking-for.html)

  • Your Personal Balance Sheet - Should everybody have one?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/05/your-personal-balance-sheet-should.html)

  • Manage the new jungle of your subscriptions - Banks and Fintechs should step up to the challenge(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/08/manage-new-jungle-of-your-subscriptions.html)

  • Payment contact management - Room for innovation(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/09/payment-contact-management-room-for.html)

  • A bank account - A concept of the past(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-bank-account-concept-of-past.html)

  • A frictionless check-out experience, what does that actually mean?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-frictionless-check-out-experience.html)

  • Micro Payments - A revolution in the payments landscape(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/micro-payments-revolution-in-payments.html)

  • Pre-paid cards - An outdated concept with a lot of innovative potential (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/04/pre-paid-cards-outdated-concept-with.html)

  • A gift voucher - It’s all about the story telling(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-gift-voucher-its-all-about-story.html)

• Security, Compliance Authentication and Identity management: with digital banking becoming the standard, security, authentication and identity management become crucial. With (successful) hacking attacks increasing year after year, the financial services sector is forced to invest more and more into security. Unfortunately often this leads to an increase of friction for the customers and for the bank’s or insurer’s employees, leading to a decreased customer service and customer satisfaction. Luckily new technological evolutions allow to remove this need to find a compromise between usability and security.

  • Securing your doors is not enough. Go for a multi-layered security strategy. (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/securing-your-doors-is-not-enough-go.html)

  • Multi-Factor Authentication and Identity Fraud Detection in the Financial Services Industry(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/multi-factor-authentication-and.html)

  • Digital signature - There is no such thing as THE digital signature(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/digital-signature-there-is-no-such.html)

  • How too much compliance might actually increase the risk of financial service companies?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/10/how-too-much-compliance-might-actually.html)

• IT Development and architecture: the IT industry is still a young and immature industry, which is still rapidly evolving and looking for the best way to deliver software in the fastest way possible. Obviously with projects at large financial institutions taking longer and longer, these large corporations are forced to try out new methodologies and new architectures to cope with the ever accelerating need to adapt. This results in trends like open source software, micro-services, cloud computing, Agile and DevOps software delivery, No- and Low-code platforms…​ Most of these trends are described in these blogs:

  • Is Lego building the new way of creating applications in the Financial Services sector?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/is-lego-building-new-way-of-creating.html)

  • Are banking systems inherently more complex than 10 years ago?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/are-banking-systems-inherently-more.html)

  • Abstraction in Financial IT - How far can and should we go?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/abstraction-in-financial-it-how-far-can.html)

  • The boundary between "Data" and "Code" is blurring(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-boundary-between-data-and-code-is.html)

  • Building resilient systems in the Financial Services industry(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/building-resilient-systems-in-financial.html)

  • Microservices - Yet another buzzword or a real innovation for the Financial Services Industry(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/microservices-yet-another-buzzword-or.html)

  • Microservices monitoring: disaggregate to optimize, aggregate to operate (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/03/microservices-monitoring-disaggregate.html)

  • RPA - The miracle solution for incumbent banks to bridge the automation gap with neo-banks?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/05/rpa-miracle-solution-for-incumbent.html)

  • Low- and No-code platforms - Will IT developers soon be out of a job? (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/07/low-and-no-code-platforms-will-it.html)

  • Docker for dummies(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/docker-for-dummies.html)

  • Why app deployment is not a solved puzzle yet?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/03/why-app-deployment-is-not-solved-puzzle.html)

  • DevOps for dummies(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/10/devops-for-dummies.html)

  • Don’t underestimate your positive impact as a software engineer in the financial services industry(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/06/dont-underestimate-your-positive-impact.html)

  • Testing: overkill or an absolute necessity(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/05/testing-overkill-or-absolute-necessity.html)

  • Banks are finally embracing the Open Source movement(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/banks-are-finally-embracing-open-source.html)

• General productivity tools: with millions of users using spreadsheets, text processors, digital agendas, video conferencing tools, you would expect these tools to be nearly perfect. Unfortunately many of our day-to-day personal and professional tasks, supported by productivity tools, are still organized inefficiently and can be improved considerably. These 4 blogs describe some general recurring tasks, which are happening in nearly every industry, for which still a lot of improvements can be made:

  • Your digital agenda - The cornerstone of your daily activities or not just yet? (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/04/your-digital-agenda-cornerstone-of-your.html)

  • Video conferencing vendors - Get us out of trouble(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/09/video-conferencing-vendors-get-us-out.html)

  • Notification management - Don’t underestimate its importance and complexity(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/03/notification-management-dont.html)

  • Optimisation problems - Far from being a commodity(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/05/optimisation-problems-far-from-being.html)

• Mobility: another very fast growing sector is the sector of mobility solutions, like self-driving cars, shared mobility providers, (multi-modal) router planners, MaaS (Mobility as a Service) platforms…​ With so many (well-funded) players investing and exploring this market, we are likely to see major (r)evolutions in this space in the coming years. However in such a hyped market, a market correction is likely to come, resulting in a major market consolidation where only the best solutions will survive. With only a handful companies in this space being profitable (and hundreds if not thousands of companies not achieving a profitable business model, even after years of activity), some critical reflection is required.

  • Self-driving cars - A real life changer!(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/self-driving-cars-real-life-changer.html)

  • What is more excessive: regularly taking taxis or possessing your own car? (https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/02/what-is-more-excessive-regularly-taking.html)

  • Shared mobility - Is there a sustainable business model?(https://bankloch.blogspot.com/2020/04/shared-mobility-is-there-sustainable.html)

All the above blogs (and future blogs) can be found on "https://bankloch.blogspot.com/"

As always feel free to reach out to me if you want to comment or discuss one of those blogs. I love getting feedback (including negative feedback, although preferably constructive criticism), as it typically gives new insights and helps to further grow.

Thanks in any case for all the people reading, liking and commenting my blogs.