Written by Andrew Vorster, originally posted here. “Money makes the world go round The world go round The world go round Money makes the world go round That clinking clanking sound!” So sang Liza Minnelli in the 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Cabaret” and while it may be…

Digital banking is the future. Over the years, the number of bank branches declined considerably, simply because there was not enough traffic to keep them open. COVID-19 accelerated that process. In Belgium today, we have the luxury of being at the top of countries with the highest density of branches…

Banks’ priorities change constantly and this requires different skill sets. They need digital talent, data experts, artificial intelligence specialists, engineers, and more compliance officers. We spoke to Jean-Philippe Thirion, Business Unit Leader of Financial Institutions at TriFinance, to learn how banks cope with these challenges. Jean-Philippe: Talent attraction and talent retention is the top priority. This isn’t something recent; I’ve heard this since I started my career. Change is complex and, in today’s world, continuous.

On April 28, I invited Tiina Laukkonen, Global Payments Expert at Amazon, for an interactive session. I met her a few times at a conference in London, Payments International. Tiina is responsible for building & delivering a payment solution strategy for Amazon’s global payee population, a user group that ranges…

Luxembourg-based Spuerkeess announced to issue blockchain-based student loans last year. On May 5, 2022, Christophe Medinger, Deputy Head of Business Unity Digitalisation, proudly shared that 80% of the student loans they issue are blockchain-based today. The students are not aware that they are actually using blockchain technology. They only see…

It is surprising how little finance is involved in bank transformation debates. We talk about disruption in financial services, the FINANCial services industry, and we forget finance in the loop. It is surprising how little finance is involved in bank transformation debates. We talk about disruption in financial services, the…

I consider the last two years as my personal Masterclass in banking. Every week I get the chance to ask an executive my questions to help me understand the wonderful world of banking. The session on April 14 was no exception and probably one of the highlights so far. We…

KBC Group has been a front runner in the financial sector for many years, not just in Belgium but also internationally. To make this concrete: SIA Partners voted their mobile app as the best banking app worldwide. “Technology is the future, and has become a strategic element in our core…

“To accelerate digital innovation, banks need to adapt to cloud computing.” This is what we discussed and challenged on March 31, in the good company of Achim Thienel, Director of Product Management Core Banking and SaaS at Finastra. I remember, back in 2007, people like Chris Skinner talked about the…