Why Tech Layoffs Don’t Reflect the Job Market

The tech sector has cut about 50,000 jobs in November. The recent headlines about tech layoffs don't seem to match broader economic indicators, which show a strong job market and a historically low unemployment rate.

The Ukraine War’s Impact on Its Tech Sector

Ukraine’s tech sector was growing rapidly before Russia invaded earlier this year. How has Russia’s invasion changed the outlook? Two tech CEOs with Ukrainian workforces join host Zoe Thomas to discuss how they are coping and what they think the future of the sector could be after the fighting ends.

Will Bankers ever go back to the office again?

COVID-19 forced banks and credit unions to improvise for remote work and then they settled into technology and tools to see their operations through the pandemic. But having had a taste of working from home, many employees like the idea and could defect to rivals who will at least partially accommodate this new expectation.
 

Find out more HERE   

Rise of the Robots: Is AI Coming For Your Job?

From Visual Capitalist.

The rise of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will displace millions of jobs in the economy. To make sure your career is future proof, watch this video. It will show the key skills needed to make sure that robots won't take your job - and that you'll thrive in an era dominated by AI.

What Did the IMF Call a "Significant Disruption" to the Financial Landscape?

The open banking era is upon us, but banking basics still need to be executed as financial institutions weave through the disruption. Most financial institutions do an exceptional job of managing often overwhelming levels of compliance requirements, and must continually navigate change, especially as new tech presents both challenges and opportunities.

• Significant disruption is likely to come from the big tech firms who will use their enormous customer bases and deep pockets to offer financial products
• Other disruptions to financial services include the 2021 phase out of LIBOR, following the 2012 rate manipulations
• As of April 2019, there were $300 trillion in contracts that use LIBOR as a reference rate
• At least $35 trillion in contract value will not yet have expired by the end of 2021
• Another disruption to finance markets is the advent of cryptocurrency with 70% of central banks studying the concept
• But 85% of central banks are not likely to issue a general purpose Central Bank Digital Currency in the next 6 years

A market is springing up for “regtech”, fintech’s nerdy new offspring

"On September 29th, IBM announced the purchase of Promontory, a 600-strong consultancy whose senior staff include former officials from the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators. The hope is that person and machine will combine into a vast business. Promontory was founded in 2001 by Eugene Ludwig, who had headed one of America’s primary bank-supervisory agencies. It grew first because of the slathering of new rules during the previous, Bush administration and then prospered, says Mr Ludwig, as this process expanded under Barack Obama".

Read the full article in The Economist

Are mobile payments a fintech quagmire?

By Stanley Epstein - Principal Associate - Citadel Advantage Ltd.

oOOo

A while back I wrote an article in which I expressed my concerns about the future of mobile payments; “Why I am worried about the future of mobile payments”.

In essence, the problem that I focused on is this - there are just too many forms of mobile payments being offered by too many organisations and by too many banks. This approach creates confusion. It come about because everyone is bent on promoting their own form of payment mechanism in the hope that it will be the next “big thing”.

There is nothing new in this approach. Ever since banks and technology began to come together beginning in the 1970’s, there has existed this weird notion that if a bank can create something unique they would be able to capture the market, beat the competition and make a fortune.

Of course this notion is totally false.  We have seen this proved on countless past occasions whenever new innovations have just failed to take off, simply because banks failed to note that the key to success is co-operation.

If they cooperate everybody wins. If they don’t cooperate we end up with multiple failures.
If there are too many payment mechanisms and too many payment apps all that will be achieved will be a multitude of duplicate systems. These systems will often be inadequate in their own right too as they fail to adequately address user needs. These users will be totally frustrated as too will be the retailers. Very rapidly these mechanisms will fall into disuse and be abandoned.

The key to success is a single simple uniform and universal mechanism available to all users, sellers, banks and technology vendors.

So now I fast forward from these sentiments which I jotted down in March 2015.

In recent weeks two articles have grabbed my attention. Both point to the sorry state of mobile payments today.

The one article is “Mobile banking adoption growth is slower than you think”. Here Stephen Greer makes it clear that there is a disconnection between the hype surrounding mobile banking and the reality of how consumers actually interact with financial institutions. He points to the facts that a recent iteration of the Federal Reserve’s “Consumer and Mobile Financial Services 2016” survey report shows that mobile banking adoption is really slow. Among the reasons for the slowdown is the fact that 86% of respondents say that they don’t use mobile banking because they can achieve their banking needs without it. Many consumers are perfectly fine solely using online banking or ATM’s or branches.

Their reasons for non-adoption are that many apps are not mature enough (39% said the screen was too small; 20% said apps were too difficult to use). And what applies to mobile banking applies to mobile payments as well.

The second article was even more damning. “This new app proves mobile payments are a mess” states that basically there was a time when to make a purchase was a simple process. You gave the cashier money or a credit card and you would get your purchases and maybe some change and maybe a receipt and off you would go. But today in many places that have embraced mobile payments, a multitude of the different services and apps has left the process at the checkout counter a confusing mess.

Different stores accept different payment mechanisms. This means that users have to have a multitude of different apps on their mobile phones as they don’t all work the same way. This leads to confusion and delays to the frustration of all concerned.

Different retail outlets have joined the fray as well.  In the U.S. Walmart refuses to accept Apple Pay because it wants to promote its own mobile wallet app.

So the intervening year and a half since I expressed my concerns have left me even more skeptical then I was then. No one, either banks or retailers seem to see how this misguided notion of beating the “competition” is not working. In the end the people who matter, the consumer, are going to turn their backs on this disorganized mess.

And that would really be a pity. 

Barclays has two blockchain 'labs' in London and is planning 45 experiments with the technology

From Business Insider –

“Like pretty much every other major bank at the moment, Barclays is very interested in the potential of the blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin.

The Sunday Times reported this week that Barclays is planning to let charities accept bitcoin later this year, leveraging its partnership with bitcoin exchange Safello that was announced earlier this year.

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