Mark Carney’s Warning: We Need a New Zeitgeist of Affordability
Mark Carney warned this week that Britain could be heading for another economic crash as households over extend on consumer credit. It seems, as a nation, we have short memories. Continue reading “Mark Carney’s Warning: We Need a New Zeitgeist of Affordability”
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Sub-Prime Lending: Lets Stop the Next Financial Tsunami
10 years ago the US sub-prime mortgage market hit the rocks and triggered a financial tsunami around the world. Many of us, I’m sure, will never forget the sight of panicked queues outside Northern Rock banks as the waves of destruction reached UK shores and began to lap at the doors of our High Street banks.
There were many reasons for the financial crisis – it was, in fact, a perfect storm. Continue reading “Sub-Prime Lending: Lets Stop the Next Financial Tsunami”
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The Bank of Mum and Dad Ends Tomorrow
Last week, it was reported in the press that British parents will lend or give more than £6.5 billion this year to help their children buy their first home. This figure is up from £5 billion in 2016. And it seems that the phenomenon is here to stay. It already has its own acronym. BOMAD. The Bank of Mum and Dad. Continue reading “The Bank of Mum and Dad Ends Tomorrow”
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A Week of Awards in the Company of Fellow Disrupters
It has been a whirlwind of a week for the Castlight team. In the course of just a few days Castlight has won the first ever Deloitte’s Disrupt the Enterprise event to be held in Scotland and then we secured a place for the live final of TEDxGlasgow at the beginning of June. Continue reading “A Week of Awards in the Company of Fellow Disrupters”
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Castlight® Wins Deloitte’s Kick Start a Start Up Award
Glasgow-based fintech company, Castlight®, has won the first ever Deloitte’s Kick Start a Start Up event to be held in Scotland. Continue reading “Castlight® Wins Deloitte’s Kick Start a Start Up Award”
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Security in a Safer Financial World
Former national rugby referee, past president of The Scottish Rugby Union and Bill Clinton look-alike (see our Meet the Team page) Ed Crozier is also a highly experienced director on the Castlight board. One of the things we particularly value about Ed’s contribution to our team is his expertise in governance and regulation and his commitment to ensuring that everything we do, we do with integrity and thoroughness. Continue reading “Security in a Safer Financial World”
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Credit Too Thin? Get to the Core of the Problem
I’ve talked about pizza before in one of my blogs but maybe I failed to mention that thin crust is best. And that the best thin crust I’ve found is at Paesano in Glasgow’s city centre.
In fact, thin is quite often seen to be a good thing. Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham have built careers on it. Steve Jobs’s mission in life was to make his i-things thinner and thinner. And no self regarding espresso would ever want to share saucer space with a fat chocolate mint would it? Continue reading “Credit Too Thin? Get to the Core of the Problem”
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It’s Time for the Banks to Play Catch Up
This month, Facebook launched Messenger Day, a feature that lets you post pictures and videos with a 24 hour shelf life. Snapchat may have got in there first with the broad concept, but Facebook has given it a twist by formatting the feature to encourage users to get together offline. A billion people worldwide use Messenger and Facebook has identified a way to deliver additional value to them. Continue reading “It’s Time for the Banks to Play Catch Up”
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Tumbleweed Rolls through the Branches as Banks go Digital
Last week in this blog I flagged up Radio 4’s The Bottom Line’s interesting debate about the impact of fintech on the banking scene. If you had time to tune in, you will also have heard Anthony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclay’s Bank talk, in almost apocalyptic terms, about the accelerating fall in branch traffic. He quoted customer traffic as falling by 15% per annum and said: “If you walk into a branch in central London now, you can see the tumbleweeds rolling through the aisles.” Continue reading “Tumbleweed Rolls through the Branches as Banks go Digital”
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PSD2 is Speeding up the Tracks
On Saturday afternoon’s The Bottom Line on Radio 4, Evan Davis asked Anthony Jenkins, former CEO of Barclay’s Bank, what he thought the next big thing in banking would be. Jenkins replied: “In the very short term I think the better use of data to make lending and credit decisions and marketing decisions.”
Of course I couldn’t agree more, as this is exactly what we are already doing with The Affordability Passport. Continue reading “PSD2 is Speeding up the Tracks”
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