All articles by Douglas Blakey

Douglas Blakey

How financial services tech has lost sight of the humans behind apps

Dan Scholey discusses the current technological developments in financial services which, he believes, are inadvertently overlooking a critical element: the human customers at the heart of it all

AI meets instinct: Why the human relationship still defines real estate lending

With AI already transforming UK real estate lending as more than 85% of lenders now use AI to streamline operations and enhance decision-making, Daniel Austin assesses the implications for the sector

The great balancing act: Why fraud prevention must move upstream

With banks under increasing pressure to deliver seamless digital experience while tightening financial crime controls, Thara Brooks explains why there is a need for ecosystem-wide collaboration

The merchant economy: How integrated payments are re-architecting banking

Dr Gulzar Singh explains why the next decade of growth will belong to banks that master merchant ecosystems

October in European tech venture: Scaling trends, emerging patterns

Expert analysis from Zubr Capital’s Oleg Khuaenov provides investors, founders, and policymakers with a data-informed look at how capital flows and collaboration models are evolving across Europe

Building smarter deals in a fragmented world

Balagopal Ravibalan outlines how a ‘deal operating layer’ can help banks cut time-to-market, reduce revenue leakage and improve oversight and explains what the next step in intelligent automation looks like

Q3 UK current account switching up by 7% y-o-y

Account switching rises in the latest quarter but YTD switching is down by 20%. In the latest brand-by-brand numbers, Nationwide records the highest net switching gains, ahead of Co-op, Monzo and HSBC

UniCredit to pull client funds from Amundi by mid-2027

While not denying the Bloomberg report, UniCredit told PBI that it is not commenting at this stage

Focussing on infrastructure will define fintech’s future

As the global fintech market matures, scalable, secure, and interoperable infrastructure is emerging as the true foundation of financial innovation, writes Andrii Shevchuk

Banks turn to AI and real-time payments amid demand for hybrid services

GlobalData’s latest survey reveals how banking behaviour is being redefined by technology, trust and transparency reports Sarah Rizvi