hernaes.com

Innovation – Finance – Technology

September 11, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

Are challenger banks a challenge for incumbent banks?

Will challenger banks lead to a revolution in digital banking or are they merely digital lipstick? Banking as a platform is an inevitable scenario and clever use of technology will most likely change the face of retail banking where user experience and simplicity is integral. Challenger banks with an app-only presence are not limited to the constraints of traditional online and mobile banking interfaces in the same way direct banks benefited from not having any branches 15 years ago.

September 7, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

You can’t have financial inclusion without digital inclusion

One of the most exciting aspects of fintech is the promise of delivering financial services to the unbanked and underbanked population of the world. According to the World Bank, 2 billion people are still unbanked in the world today. Even though this is a high number, it still is a decrease of 20 percent since 2011. Of the unbanked population, 1,5 billion people are unbanked due to their inability to prove their identity through a valid birth certificate, passport, proof of residence through utility bill or some other means to fulfil traditional KYC-procedures.

August 31, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

PSD2 – opportunities, threats and strategic options for banks

As I have described in previous posts, PSD2 will force banks to open up their infrastructure to third parties by offering APIs under the XS2A (access to account) rule. The directive has the potential to fundamentally alter the payment landscape as we know it. One of the reasons why PSD2 will have such a large impact is that it will level the playing field and increase competition by integrating the role of new and emerging payment services into the regulation. While incumbents have the most to lose, there are also opportunities ahead for banks.

August 30, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

Digitalisering handler minst av alt om teknologi

Det siste året har vært preget av et fokus på digitalisering og omstilling innen både offentlig og privat sektor. Finansbransjen opplever at digitalisering fører til nedbemanninger og behov for effektivisering, ny teknologi og digitalisering er hovedtemaer i regjeringens industrimelding, og regjeringen viser til teknologiutvikling og innovasjon som nøkkelen til å lykkes med det grønne skiftet. For å lykkes med digitalisering er det viktig å se på teknologi som et verktøy for å nå målet fremfor målet i seg selv.

August 28, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

What does PSD2 mean for online merchants?

The purpose of the upcoming payment service directive PSD 2 is to create an even playing field for payments and encourage innovation. The players on this field include banks, fintechs, the PCI (Payment Card Industry) and merchants. While banks are at risk of losing up to 43 percent of retail payment revenues by 2020, the directive represents several opportunities for online merchants.

August 25, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

A short introduction to PSD2

The coming payment service directive from the European Commission marks a shift in banking regulations. Instead of prohibitions and limitations, the overall purpose of PSD 2 is to create an even playing field and encourage innovation in the payment space as a part of SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area). Although all the technical details is yet to be sorted out, the directive states that banks need to offer payment APIs to third party-providers of financial services, also known as TPPs (Third Party Provider) under the XS2A (Access to account) rule.

August 21, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

How will blockchain impact the music industry?

While the financial industry is on the brink of disruption, the music industry has been on a steady decline as digital has replaced physical distribution the last ten years. Even though revenues in the music industry is growing for the first time since 1995, the gap between music consumption and artist revenues is growing. This is due to several factors, but one of the contributors for lesser known artists is how streaming platforms calculate royalties. The way it works, the artist’s monthly streams is divided on total monthly streams, effectively favoring whatever becomes that months huge hit, instead of dividing revenues per play. This has enraged both fans and artists, and some artists have chosen to pull their music from streaming services such as Spotify.

August 15, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

Banks should not underestimate Facebook Messenger

Before you say that Facebook is no longer perceived as cool with today’s youth, do you know what is even less cool? Banks.

When you break down the numbers, coolness becomes less relevant. When it comes to user engagement, Facebook’s reigns supreme above all others. WhatsApp has exceeded 1 billion users, and Facebook Messenger reports 900 million users, handling 60 billion messages a day combined — three times the number of traditional text messages. The combination of chat and payments have already proven to be a great success, as exemplified by the launch of Facebook Pay, Snapcash by Snapchat, WeChats integrated payment solution and Kakao Pay in Kakao Talk in South Korea.

August 9, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

My bank already has an app

That’s what I hear when I tell people that I’ve just spent the last two years building a new digital bank. And they’re right, their existing bank has had an app and a website for years!

August 2, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

What’s next for Nintendo following Pokémon Go?

Like so many others, I have spent my share of time walking around like a mindless zombie hunting Pokémon with my cell phone this summer. The game was an instant hit with both gamers, being the fastest growing mobile game of all time as well as with investors as Nintendo stock leaped 25 percent at release.

August 1, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

The state of fintech in 15 visuals

What makes the world go round — money or technology? It’s a big question, but now with the emerging sector of FinTech, you no longer have to choose one or the other. It’s both.

June 27, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

A summary of the first half of 2016

I get a lot of questions about my blog, so I thought I’d give a shot at a more personal touch as I summarize the first six months of 2016 before I take a hiatus from blogging over the summer.

June 19, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

What is Brexit and why should you care?

Brexit refers to the possibility of Great Britain deciding to leave the European Union. The term is an abbreviation of British Exit, and originates from the term Grexit when Greece considered the same thing. The referendum will be held on June 23rd, where the voters will decide whether Britain should stay or go. The only thing that is certain is that the short term consequences will be negative. I agree that the European Union in its current state is flawed in several ways, but I do believe that the long term effects of a Brexit will be negative for both UK and the EU.

June 13, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

How to succeed with innovation in established companies

Ten years ago I did my masters thesis on innovation capabilities in established companies. Since then I have been working with innovation the last ten years in various organizations. How naive I was when I was looking at innovation from an academic perspective. A lot of theory is focused on idea management, innovationstrategies, business models and processes. The truth is that what could have been brilliant innovations often end up as merely incremental improvements that act as artificial respiration for dying business models.

June 5, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

Can banks and fintechs collaborate in a mutually beneficial way?

As fintech has become one of the hottest subjects in tech the sleepers have awoken, and incumbents are embracing fintech as an opportunity rather than a threat. As a result, the fintech startups are now approaching the incumbents they were once set out to disrupt as potential partners.

May 29, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

Professional eSports is becoming a big thing

When Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty launched, I played Starcraft 2 online a lot. And by that I mean a lot. As a result of this I inevitably drifted into watching streams of other players competing in order to improve my own game. I even remember having my favorite casters, Husky and TotalBiscuit in addition to following Team Liquid. Eventually I stopped playing as much as well as stopped following the eSports scene.

May 27, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

What we learned about the transformation of Consumer Banking from 5 Pirates with Ties interviews

This post is a rePress from the summary of dailyfintech.com interview series, Pirates with Ties.

One of the things that makes this job so much fun is the ability to talk to the really smart people in a dynamic market. Doing a startup is hard; we are entrepreneurs ourselves so we get that. However we want to counter the myth that all innovation comes from VC funded startups. To do that we need to find real innovation that has had an impact (not just “innovation by press release” about experiments) and then find people within established financial institutions who are willing to talk about on the public record.

May 22, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

Mobil betaling handler ikke om å bytte ut plastkortet med mobilen

Kampen om mobilbetaling er i full gang, og kundene kan nå velge mellom en rekke ulike tjenester fra bankene. Dette er bare begynnelsen, og flere mobile betalingstjenester er på vei fra Facebook, Apple, Google, Samsung med flere. Tidligere meldte dagligvarehandelen seg på, med en annonsert betalingsløsning fra Norgesgruppen og Coop, ikke ulikt CurrentC fra de store varehandelsaktørene i USA. Mens banker, varehandelen og teknologiselskapene kjemper om å skaffe seg en posisjon innen mobilbetaling hevder flere at bankkort fortsatt er den enkleste betalingsformen og ser ikke behovet for betaling med mobilen. Denne konklusjonen har én fundamental feil, og det er forutsetningen om at måten vi betaler på forblir uendret.

May 11, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

What is the value of a fintech company?

If the rise and fall of Powa Technologies taught us anything, it is that fintech valuations are not always rooted in reality. Powa technologies, once estimated to be worth $2,7 billion collapsed earlier this year. What made this sudden fall from grace possible?

May 1, 2016 Christoffer Hernæs

The state of fintech in Scandinavia in numbers

Authors note: Investment statistics only include disclosed investment amounts, and should be considered a low estimate.