All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
MENA Banking Excellence Awards reveals retail, digital and SME winners
Banks from 11 countries recognised for excellence across retail, digital and SME banking
Interview: Stax Payments CMO Jenn Reichenbacher on building trust
AI can help boost business productivity, but it can’t replace authenticity, transparency, and trust. Once the foundation of trust is built, it needs to be reinforced through each customer interaction, says Jenn Reichenbacher
Why payments infrastructure matters more as finance becomes embedded
Nadish Lad discusses how embedded finance is reshaping the economics of banking rather than displacing it and explains how modern payments architecture is becoming a strategic asset for banks
Will cryptocurrency cross-border transfers increase?
Cross-border transfers are rising, with increasing demand for efficiency. Is crypto the answer? Alexander Sun writes
Why a working online checkout can still cost merchants sales
An inflexible payments experience leaves customers with the wrong options and merchants slow to respond, says Jacob Spencer
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The payments lock-In problem: Why 98% of software platforms want to switch providers and why most never do
Kevin Kidd discusses the disparity between intent to switch and actual switching and why the gap is not due to preference or vendor dissatisfaction, but is instead down to infrastructure
The next challenge for Europe’s EV charging networks is not energy…It’s payments
Jean-Philippe Niedergang explains why a successful European transition to EVs depends on more than just the tech and energy challenges and why optimising the payments experience is key to the overall driver user experience
The hidden cost of exceptions: How agentic AI transforms lockbox economics
Steve Markle explains why modern lockbox operations need no longer be viewed as mere processing utilities. Instead, they are becoming strategic tools that help banks improve margins and differentiate treasury offerings
Embedded payments have an adoption problem: The fix isn’t more integration
Embedding payments alone doesn’t guarantee customer adoption. Pete Uselman explains what successful software platforms do differently to drive real payments adoption
Instant payments: technology imperatives for banking leaders
Achieving success in the instant payments era is not just about processing transactions faster. Radha Suvarna explains why it should be about designing for real-time value