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As of now, my employer is not a Watson client. As a result, I'm forced to monitor the condition of my pair of sneakers myself once every few years and buy a new pair of sneakers whenever my existing pair shows visible signs of wear and tear. If only I worked for a Watson client, I'd be relieved from the mundane task of checking the physical condition of my sneakers once in a few years and spend my time on strategic activities like - um - dreaming up some inane use cases for partnership between my company's products and Watson.

@BernhardKainz:

TY for your comment. 

In the absence of PSD2, fintechs (e.g. Mint) have been enjoying full and unfettered access to users' bank accounts via online banking passwords. Despite doing so for nearly 10 years, they have only managed to come up with "mundane" and "of questionable value" functionality. So, PSD2 or lack of PSD2 has not been and won't be a constraint. Their lack of imagination has been the constraint.

https://twitter.com/annairrera/status/824652800466509832

Doesn't get more fintech than this: Robo-hedge fund to invest in P2P loans notarised w/blockchain

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In this day and age of AI, ML, Chatbots, etc., the very notion that an ad seen by bot is fake is so 20th century!

LOL. I thought this issue was forgotten after #CurrencySwitch. During the cash crunch caused by the recent demonetization in India, the longest queue I saw outside an ATM was at the bank whose ATM network was run by HDS and held responsible for the debit card data breach. 

Going by the experience with 2FA in India, the angst is justified. Sad to see EBA regressing.

Why do I get this feeling that this is a long and convoluted way to achieve "top of wallet" status for NBD's credit & debit cards?

At last I've found a fintech that offers credit card.

Bling Nation on Blockchain? The original Bling Nation failed because local didn't equal scale. Hope Colu has better luck.

I agree with some of your Defection Triggers (esp. #2 & 4) but #1 contradicts #2. More frequent enquiries means more interactions, not less. While banks may be serious about controlling attrition in their PWM business, I doubt if they care about attrition in their plain-vanilla retail banking business. Because, they know customers know that there isn't too much difference between two high street banks and also that fintechs don't offer an equivalently broad offering to really pose a threat. TBH, 124,615 moves in a month seems to be a tiny number compared to the tens of millions of current accounts out there. And it's not just me: According to Finextra, 

Current account switching flops 

As the cash crunch has eased, I've seen many people going back to cash. Unanimous reason of around 15 people I polled being cash is frictionless.

I've been personally disappointed by the lack of enforcement of the government's policies at the ground level. Over a year ago, the government said payments made by Debit Cards or Credit Cards or Internet Transfer to government agencies and Public Sector Undertakings would attract no surcharge. This commitment was reiterated after #DeMo. However, I know at least two PSUs that still continue to levy 1-2% surcharge on digital payments. As a result, if I pay them digitally, I incur a higher cost.

As a consumer, I don't care what MDR is charged by issuer banks to merchants but I definitely expect the government to ensure that, regardless of whatever MDR, a consumer shouldn't have to incur a higher cost for making digital payments compared to cash. I think the success or failure of the government's drive for #CashlessIndia will largely depend on how the government manages this issue.

Historically, merchants in developed countries started accepting card payments widely despite MDR and without surcharge because (a) they'd lose business otherwise (b) card payments make consumers spend more, both of which are benefits for merchants. This is an old insight but I'm amazed that banks are just not propagating this message widely enough in India, thus leaving it to the consumer to fight it out with merchants to avoid the latter trying to pass on MDR as surcharge.