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I think the Rise of the Challengers - with large amounts of European talent  - and the demise of the Traditional banks  is on the cards.   I think banks that want to be successful in India, China, Indonesia, Saudi/GCC etc ALL need local talent..... Banks that want to be successful in Europe AND some of the other international markets need European talent.....   and by European i mean ONSHORE -  Ethnicity is less relevant than culture and exposure to the local market.

I remember an employer of mine saying they didnt need more than one Payment Gateway (in the USA) because the internet is global..... and at that time dominated by the USA.....  the last bit was true at the time....  However    They missed the need to Localise payment integrations and merchant acquiring....  An opportunity missed.

It would seem logical that banks should recieve some form of compensation for providing access to databases and networks/applications to third parties acting as the 'Agents' of the consumer.  In theory these 'Agents' could introduce significant overheads  on the Host - performing large numbers of transactions or account manipulations at the behest of the Data Subject/Consumer/Account holder.

The question may well be - do these access charges get levied at the Consumer/Subject Level, or are they directed at the Third Party 'Agent'.   in the latter Pay-to-play model - the Agent would then be in the position to choose to pass on these charges to their employer (in this case - The Consumer/Subject)......   Possibly a better reflection on the value provided by the Host AND the Agent....  the leaner and more productive being better able to create a commercial model supported by value-add for the consumer.   Tripples all Round! 

The UK's Tax and Governance systems have finally succeeded in driving entrepreneurs out of the most creative country on Earth.  Why would someone who wants to lead a Unicorn want to do it in a jurisdiction that is going to punitively tax that individual, his company and his employees out of existance, whilst charging the highest costs for Energy in the world.  Our regulators are not doing enough to convince Fintechs that this is the place to be.   We may have the ideas, but exploitation will happen in the USA and Middle and Far East from now on.

Congratulations to the UAE for creating a welcoming place for creative business builders.  Have worked there, and in KSA for years, and can only say that there is lots to be said for the GCC as it blossoms into a great financial jurisdiction,  welcoming environments for expat workers and a fun place to live.  Mumtaz, and Mabrouk! 

This looks like a quasai autonomous non governmental organisation to me.  So not a talking shop or echo chamber at all. 

It would be good to hear from Henk in an interactive debate -  we see his comments above - how does he think government policy is going to help anyone grow businesses in such an expensive and punitive tax environment?  Lets see what happens to tax rates in the next budget - its going to get very ugly with Inflation growing and the fiscal headroom vanishing/vanished.  We have to move past the spin and deal with real-world issues

Where are Brookfield? 

They might want to try to do something about the cost of energy to run data centres in the UK..... I suppose we can use Norwegian or Swedish DC's. Norway is still drilling and exporting lots of Oil.

Hope this one goes better for Lloyds.  Its a tough act taking on Applepay.  Mobile commerce struggled through the Nineties and Naughties with huge amounts squandered until Apple and Android came along.   Curve may suffer the same fate as many other Tech-bro companies that get acquired and then get Over-Branded by the bank, thereby destroying their Multi-consumer/Multi Bank/Multi Merchant appeal.    Still it gives people stuff to do.

New Zealand has launched a national Confirmation of Payee (CoP) service to enhance the security of online payments. This service, which is being phased in from late November 2024 to Easter 2025, helps customers verify the recipient's account details before making a payment, reducing the risk of errors and fraud according to the Beehive.govt.nz.  Belgium is the first in the Eurozone.

Maybe this is one of those activities best kept secret.... don't get me wrong - I love it - but scammers will now be more alert to time wasting bots than they should have otherwise been.  Great work by the Industry nonetheless!