A standing index of writing on banking, payments and applied AI.
Essays, research notes and commentary observing and deciphering the trends reshaping financial services. Each piece is published in full at amestuart.com.
2026
3 entries- 01 / 0318 June 2026Essay · CFO & AI
The CFO in the AI Era: Stop Hiding Behind the Pilot
UK banking has already adopted AI. The fight most CFOs are quietly losing is what happens to finance leadership once the transactional work that used to justify it is gone — and what SS1/23, SMCR and Consumer Duty now demand they own.
- 02 / 0310 June 2026Essay · Quantum & Security
The $600 Billion Blind Spot: How Quantum is Rewriting Banking — and Why Most Banks Aren't Ready
Quantum is simultaneously a $400–600bn opportunity and an existential threat to the encryption every bank depends on. What boards should be asking now, ahead of 2030.
- 03 / 0301 June 2026Commentary · Governance & AI
The board question has changed: from "should we?" to "are we in control?"
Reflections from the IBM NED Talks community on why AI governance is a growth lever, not a brake — and what boards should be asking on any given Tuesday.
2025
6 entries- 01 / 0606 June 2025Essay · Ethical AI
Pioneering Trust: How Ethical AI is Reshaping UK Banking for a Fairer Future
AI is profoundly transforming UK banking — delivering efficiency, personalisation and stronger fraud defences. The institutions that lead will pair capability with genuine ethical guardrails.
- 02 / 0608 May 2025Commentary · Geopolitics
How is the current geopolitical landscape affecting banks
Sanctions regimes, fractured trade corridors and shifting alliances are reshaping the operating environment for global banks — with implications for funding, compliance posture and growth strategy.
- 03 / 0615 April 2025Essay · Strategy
What banking can learn from the pharma industry
Two highly regulated industries, very different innovation cultures. What banks can borrow from how pharma develops, tests, partners and scales — and where the analogy stops.
- 04 / 0608 March 2025Essay · Payments & AI
AI's Transformative Role in Commercial Payment Innovation
Where AI is genuinely changing the commercial payments stack — underwriting, reconciliation, fraud detection, corporate treasury — and where it remains hype in new clothes.
- 05 / 0608 February 2025Essay · Security
The Quantum-Ready Era: Banking Needs to Evolve to Stay Secure
Post-quantum cryptography is no longer a research topic. Why boards should be asking about migration plans now, and what a credible quantum-readiness roadmap looks like.
- 06 / 0608 January 2025Commentary · Open Banking
Open Banking: What is New in 2025
A practical readout on where Open Banking has actually moved beyond the regulatory headlines, and where the next wave of value is being unlocked.
2024
3 entries- 01 / 0308 December 2024Outlook
Predictions for the banking industry in 2026
A view on where AI and automation begin to dominate the operating model, how chatbots have already reshaped retail cost-to-serve, and the structural shifts boards should plan against.
- 02 / 0310 November 2024Essay · Wealth
Trends in Wealth Management: Beyond Robo
Robo-advisors changed distribution. The next wave of wealth platforms is changing what advice itself looks like — and who gets to receive it.
- 03 / 0324 October 2024Commentary · Crypto
What's new in the world of crypto?
New crypto use cases moving past speculation — tokenisation of real-world assets, regulated stablecoins and the institutional rails being built around them.
2023
15 entries- 01 / 1502 September 2023Essay · Workforce
The world of work is transforming, keep pace
How we approach work and careers has changed post-pandemic. What that means for talent strategy, leadership and operating models in financial services.
- 02 / 1526 August 2023Essay · Brand
Changing brand perception in financial services
Why shifting brand perception in traditional banking is one of the hardest strategic moves — and what actually moves the needle.
- 03 / 1512 June 2023Essay · Leadership
Leadership in Fast-Moving Tech-Centric Banks
Leadership is about willing followership — beyond command-and-control. What that demands of executives in technology-led banks.
- 04 / 1505 May 2023Essay · Strategy
What does it mean to be relevant to customers in banking?
Relevancy, not product, is what keeps a bank alive. A working definition and a practical lens for testing your own proposition.
- 05 / 1528 April 2023Commentary · BNPL
Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL): How does it work?
How BNPL actually works, who carries the risk, and why the cost-of-living squeeze is reshaping its trajectory.
- 06 / 1514 April 2023Framework
10 KPIs keeping strategy & technology aligned
Ten KPIs that help keep bank strategy and technology in lock-step — driving aligned change rather than parallel transformation programmes.
- 07 / 1507 April 2023Essay · Behavioural
Cognitive Behavioural Science: supporting bank customers & colleagues
How CBS principles can be applied inside banks — to coach colleagues, design better journeys and support customers in financial distress.
- 08 / 1531 March 2023Commentary · Mortgages
Innovation in home buying & mortgages
The new mortgage providers genuinely changing the landscape — and which innovations are likely to stick.
- 09 / 1524 March 2023Essay · AI
Large Language AI in Banking: Uses & Ethical Considerations
Practical use cases for LLMs in banking, paired with the ethical considerations boards must hold the line on.
- 10 / 1518 March 2023Commentary · Payments
Soundbites from the world of payments
A round-up of the technology and regulatory currents driving the next phase of innovation across the payments industry.
- 11 / 1502 March 2023Essay · Talent
Your Talent IS Your Business Strategy
In an industry where products are largely undifferentiated, talent is the most durable strategic asset a bank has.
- 12 / 1526 February 2023Commentary · ESG
Sustainability Trends Across Banking
The sustainability regulations banks now operate under, and the trends shaping how they integrate ESG into core decisioning.
- 13 / 1514 February 2023Commentary · Technology
Emerging Technology Trends that Help Banking
The emerging technologies that genuinely help banks improve operations, drive innovation and protect customers from financial crime.
- 14 / 1501 February 2023Outlook
2023: Noteworthy Trends In Banking
The trends shaping banking in 2023 — consumer expectations, regulatory shifts and the technology stack quietly being rebuilt underneath.
- 15 / 1501 January 2023Outlook
2022: Things to Look at List for banks & FIs
Not predictions — a working list of the structural questions banks and financial institutions should be examining as the year opens.
2021
41 entries- 01 / 4124 December 2021Research · Retail Banking
Top Trends in Retail Banking 2022
Capgemini's latest research distilled — the trends most likely to shape retail banking strategy through 2022.
- 02 / 4117 December 2021Commentary · Regulation
Three of the most significant regulatory changes in 2021/2022
The three regulatory shifts that warrant the most board attention as the industry moves into a more complex compliance environment.
- 03 / 4103 December 2021Essay · Mindset
The Tech Entrepreneur Mindset
What the tech entrepreneur mindset looks like up close — and what large incumbents repeatedly fail to copy from it.
- 04 / 4119 November 2021Essay · Marketing
Top Tips for Marketeers in Banking Today
Distilled from a panel on digital marketing in financial services — the moves that actually compound for marketers in banking.
- 05 / 4112 November 2021Commentary · ESG
COP26: What does it mean for financial services?
Reading COP26 through the lens of capital allocation, disclosure and how financial services translates climate commitments into balance-sheet actions.
- 06 / 4129 October 2021Essay · Data
Get Your Brand On — Data to Insight
The data-to-insight journey for brands in a world where online buying is the default — what to instrument, and what to act on.
- 07 / 4122 October 2021Research · Payments
Capgemini World Payments Report 2021
The headline trends in Capgemini's annual World Payments Report and what they imply for incumbents and new entrants.
- 08 / 4108 October 2021Essay · Marketing
Drive marketing agility to improve business outcomes
A CMO guide to marketing agility in financial services — built around Lifestyle, Loyalty and Lifetime value.
- 09 / 4101 October 2021Series · Innovation
Innovation That Makes a Difference: Part 2
Cutting through brain fog around 'innovation' to highlight the start-ups whose work genuinely changes outcomes for customers.
- 10 / 4124 September 2021Essay · Inclusion
Creative Technology — Designing for Inclusion
As life becomes digital by default, how technology design must adapt so it serves rather than excludes whole populations.
- 11 / 4110 September 2021Essay · Talent
The new banking talent pool: red-hot skills that drive innovation
As banking becomes more technology-centric, the new skills profile required to propel these organisations forward.
- 12 / 4127 August 2021Essay · Investment Banking
The Rise of the Machines: Trends in Investment Banking
Investment banking has historically been under-invested in technology. The current trends finally rebuilding that operating model.
- 13 / 4120 August 2021Series · Innovation
Innovation That Makes a Difference: Part 1
Cutting through brain fog around 'innovation' to highlight the start-ups whose work genuinely changes outcomes for customers.
- 14 / 4113 August 2021Essay · Cost
Breaking the 'Jaws': Top 5 cost reduction programmes
When top-line growth is constrained, five cost programmes that meaningfully widen the gap between cost and income.
- 15 / 4106 August 2021Essay · Credit Risk
The CRO v COVID: Challenges in Banking Credit Risk
The pressure the pandemic placed on credit risk frameworks across sectors and what the CRO function had to rebuild as a result.
- 16 / 4123 July 2021Commentary · Crypto
Crushing Crypto Crime
Reading the EU Commission's move to extend AML traceability into crypto, and what it means for the wider digital-asset ecosystem.
- 17 / 4116 July 2021Commentary · Fraud & Fincrime
Sophisticated financial crime and fraud needs a proportional response
UK Finance puts 2020 banking fraud losses at £784m. What a proportional, modern response to that level of sophistication looks like.
- 18 / 4102 July 2021Research · Wealth
Capgemini World Wealth Report 2021
A 25th-anniversary edition of the World Wealth Report — what shifted in the global HNWI population and what wealth managers should take from it.
- 19 / 4118 June 2021Research · Open Banking
Mastercard's 2021 report on the future of Open Banking
Reading Mastercard and PCM's report on Open Banking readiness — where the trends, and the opportunities, are concentrating.
- 20 / 4104 June 2021Research · Fintech
World FinTech Report 2021
Banking in the FinTech era — what Capgemini and Efma's annual report shows about how successful FinTechs are scaling.
- 21 / 4121 May 2021Essay · Payments
Payment Reshuffling — Retail Shopping Upheaval Forcing Banking Innovation?
COVID forced retail digitisation. What that has done to the payments stack — and the innovation now required from banks.
- 22 / 4114 May 2021Essay · Workforce
No 'New-Normal' only 'Fusion': The Integrated World of Work
Four key areas leaders should weigh when redesigning how work is conducted in a fused physical-digital workplace.
- 23 / 4107 May 2021Essay · Strategy
What banks can learn from platforms like Club House
The pandemic-fuelled gig economy and audio-social platforms hold lessons for how banks build community and proposition.
- 24 / 4130 April 2021Essay · Payments
Flexible to Invisible: The future of credit and debit cards
Over 163m payment cards circulate in the UK. The piece traces where cards go next — from flexible products to invisible rails.
- 25 / 4123 April 2021Essay · CX
Demystifying the customer experience: harvesting data to thrive
Cutting through the overused 'CX' label to show how data should be harvested and acted on in the experience economy.
- 26 / 4116 April 2021Research · Retail Banking
What is new in Retail Banking?
A read on Capgemini's World Retail Banking Report and the emerging trends most worth boards' attention.
- 27 / 4109 April 2021Essay · Crypto
Using Cryptocurrency for everyday transactions — a new era?
PayPal enables US crypto checkout. The implications for everyday payments, merchants and the broader settlement stack.
- 28 / 4102 April 2021Interview · Core Banking
Has COVID made us think about Core Banking Transformation differently?
A conversation with Carlos Salta, Global Head of Banking & Diversified Finance at Capgemini, on whether core transformation has fundamentally shifted.
- 29 / 4126 March 2021Essay · Crypto
A Short History and the Possible Future of Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is now part of everyday discourse without being widely understood. A short history and a view on where it is going.
- 30 / 4119 March 2021Essay · Careers
Non-linear careers and advice for navigating them
Reflections shared at a Women in Banking seminar on building, and navigating, a non-linear career.
- 31 / 4112 March 2021Essay · AI
Top 6 use cases for AI in banking
The six AI use cases in banking with the clearest line of sight from investment to outcome.
- 32 / 4105 March 2021Essay · Fintech
5 reasons why fintechs are important for the UK economy
Why the UK is a natural home for fintech, and the five reasons the sector matters to the wider economy.
- 33 / 4126 February 2021Essay · Strategy
What banks can learn from switching services and comparison sites
What banks can borrow from how switching services and comparison sites have built trust around money decisions.
- 34 / 4119 February 2021Essay · Payments
The pandemic and cash usage — do payment strategies need revision?
COVID accelerated the move away from cash. Whether existing payment strategies are still calibrated to the new mix.
- 35 / 4112 February 2021Essay · Payments
Implications for the payments industry as digital adoption goes into overdrive
Written with Sankar Krishnan (EVP, Strategy & Corporate Development, Capgemini) on what the digital-adoption surge means for payments.
- 36 / 4105 February 2021Essay · Strategy
How platform models help drive top-line growth in Banking
How platform business models can break the monolith and unlock new top-line growth for banks.
- 37 / 4129 January 2021Essay · Distribution
Traditional Branch Banking — The next evolution
Customer engagement has moved remote. What that means for the next evolution of branch banking and physical presence.
- 38 / 4122 January 2021Essay · Wealth
Wealth Management: New player strategies
As new competition grows in wealth management, the strategies incumbents are using to defend and reposition.
- 39 / 4115 January 2021Essay · ESG
Ethical Banking: Evolving Corporate Social Responsibility
Beyond the many definitions of ethical banking — what a serious, evolving CSR posture actually looks like.
- 40 / 4108 January 2021Essay · SME
Top 5 fintechs creating value for SME businesses
Five fintechs doing real work for SMEs — the segment that is consistently under-served by traditional banking.
- 41 / 4101 January 2021Essay · AI
As banks shift to Intelligent Banking: AI takes centre stage
As customers ask deeper questions of their banks, AI moves from peripheral capability to the centre of the operating model.
2020
2 entries- 01 / 0215 December 2020Essay · Fintech
Fintechs — Cluttering the market or genuinely being of service?
A look at whether the proliferation of fintechs is genuinely serving customers, or simply cluttering an already crowded market.
- 02 / 0213 December 2020Essay · Transformation
The COVID Effect: getting digital transformation done
Why legacy banks struggle to ship digital transformation — and what the pandemic has actually changed about how it gets done.
2019
2 entries- 01 / 0220 September 2019Essay · Payments
Retailers enhance the checkout experience and loyalty through mobile wallets
As smartphones become ubiquitous, how retailers are using mobile wallets to enhance checkout and reshape loyalty.
- 02 / 0218 July 2019Essay · Open Banking
Commercial banks look to open APIs and fintechs to expand services
Retail led the open-banking conversation. Commercial banks are now using open APIs and fintech partnerships to expand client services.
2018
5 entries- 01 / 0528 May 2018Essay · CX
How banks can reuse customer journey innovations from other industries
Disruption is reaching financial services. Banks can move faster by reusing journey innovations already proven in other industries.
- 02 / 0528 May 2018Essay · Open Banking
Rethinking revenue generation in the age of open banking
As open-banking trends combine with a tight macro climate, incumbents are forced to rethink where revenue actually comes from.
- 03 / 0512 March 2018Essay · Marketing
Unlock the Full Potential of Digital Marketing
To compete with today's disruptors, digital marketing needs more than technology — it needs a strategy that actually fits the business.
- 04 / 0523 February 2018Essay · Open Banking
Strategies to Capitalise on Open Banking Opportunities
Written as VP, Digital Markets, Capgemini Financial Services — strategies for financial services providers to capitalise on open banking.
- 05 / 0507 January 2018Essay · Strategy
Design Thinking — the new business strategy?
In a fast-changing world, why design thinking is becoming a credible substitute — or supplement — to traditional business strategy.
2017
8 entries- 01 / 0810 December 2017Essay · Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Where people spend the most time online, social media marketing has to be examined as a serious strategic channel, not a tactic.
- 02 / 0802 December 2017Essay · Wealth
Movers & Shakers: New Money Managers
Managing money has historically been hard for customers. A profile of the new money managers making it materially simpler.
- 03 / 0818 November 2017Essay · Operations
Contact Centre: Getting Value in the Digital Age
How to improve the commercial performance of the contact centre when digital channels keep changing what 'good' looks like.
- 04 / 0811 November 2017Essay · CX
Don't think customer experience — it's about customer care
Under Open Banking, the conversation is shifting from customer experience to customer care. Why that distinction matters.
- 05 / 0829 October 2017Essay · Open Banking
Open Banking: A New Financial Order
Open banking is already changing the face of the industry as a new generation of disruptive technology providers move in.
- 06 / 0829 October 2017Essay · CX
Helping banks re-establish the lost art of customer conversation
Through mobile-enabled digital services, financial services firms can re-learn how to genuinely converse with customers.
- 07 / 0827 October 2017Essay · Strategy
Challenge and Opportunity
A defining moment for financial institutions — the decisions made now will define competitive position for the next decade.
- 08 / 0827 October 2017Essay · Transformation
Digital Transformation
When established financial services organisations face a rapidly changing world, what digital transformation must actually mean.