Latest opinions that Chris Holmes has shared on Finextra

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Chris Holmes

Senior Vice President

KAE Consulting

Member since

06 Dec 2018

Location

London

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Chris's opinions

The perks and dangers of the democratisation of finance

The GameStop / Robinhood saga has dominated the news over recent weeks and provoked some strong reactions across the industry. For FinTech as a whole, the scandal raised some intriguing questions the industry might have to address in the future. In this post, we explore some of the perks and dangers of the democratisation of finance. The “democr...

03 March 2021 Banking Strategy, Digital and Transformation

The state of FinTech: a recap of 2020 and a glimpse into 2021

2020 was a very challenging year for most industries, and FinTech was no exception. However, the FinTech industry seems to have weathered the storm that continues to ravage the globe. Below we discuss three of the main trends KAE identified as defining for the industry. Maintained growth & consolidation Following the outbreak of the pandemic...

08 February 2021 /payments /predictions Banking Strategy, Digital and Transformation

Credit scoring: Going alternative

When assessing applicants’ financial reliability, lenders globally have traditionally relied on a limited range of data sources. In the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Germany, creditworthiness is determined primarily based on credit scores provided by large credit reporting agencies (e.g. Experian, Equifax, SCHUFA). These scores are typically based on...

04 May 2020 /retail /inclusion Fintech

FinTech responds to the pandemic: Supporting small businesses

The current COVID-19 outbreak is starting to take its toll on the global economy, with small businesses and self-employed individuals being heavily impacted. Whilst many governments around the world have been reactive in developing and implementing initiatives to help small businesses and the self-employed, these can sadly take some time to come i...

27 April 2020 /payments /covid-19 Fintech

Health check: what the current COVID-19 pandemic means for the global FinTech industry

The current pandemic sweeping through most of the world has wreaked havoc in most areas of the economy as well as our personal lives. As schools and businesses gradually shut down, governments plead for people to stay home to contain the spread of Covid-19. With the virus showing no sign of going away, countries could remain on lockdown for many m...

27 March 2020 /markets /covid-19 Trends in Financial Services

VC investment strategies

FinTech investment from VCs continues to pour into the market, filling the pockets of a plethora of sub-sectors under the FinTech umbrella. 2019 saw $33.9B worth of investment, and while this is a decline from 2018’s $40.8B, it is worth noting that Ant Financials recording breaking $14B deal in Q2 of 2018 weighed in heavy into the previous year’s ...

09 March 2020 Trends in Financial Services

Financial infrastructure: the FinTech way

Financial infrastructure plays a critical role in a country’s economic development and stability. It determines how efficiently financial services can be provided. A high-quality infrastructure lends itself, among other benefits, to lower transactional costs and more accurate risk evaluations, improving lending and access to capital. In short, a f...

24 February 2020 /startups /markets Banking Strategy, Digital and Transformation

Status check: China's regulatory landscape

China’s FinTech industry is incomparable to the rest of the world. It is home to eight of the world’s leading FinTech unicorns, with an average value of $26.8BN – eight times greater than the average value of North American FinTech unicorns. But, behind China’s rapid FinTech development lies a country with unique circumstances, consisting of a lar...

24 January 2020 /regulation Asia Financial Services

The future of invisible payments

In the not-so-distant future, payments are expected to become more or less invisible as our financial processes become more sophisticated and frictionless. Invisible payments take physical payment methods such as cash, debit and credit cards, and wearables completely out of the equation – creating a convenient and speedy experience. We have alread...

13 January 2020 /payments The Payments Business

Will tech giants ever fully penetrate the financial services space?

While FinTech start-ups have been showcasing their rapid dynamism and proving themselves to represent a real threat to traditional financial institutions, in recent years, and even months, it has become increasingly difficult not to address the elephant in the room. Big tech companies such as Amazon and Google, have been dipping their toes into th...

09 December 2019 Trends in Financial Services