All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
Payments failures are discovered by customers, not systems
Dr Gulzar Singh examines how payments failures are most often detected outside institutional monitoring layers, and why customer, merchant, and dispute signals typically surface breakdowns before internal metrics respond
Why payments metrics give false comfort
Dr Gulzar Singh takes a payments-led, production-focused view of how performance is interpreted at scale, and why institutions often misread health by measuring flow rather than repair
The bank of tomorrow is built on payments reconciliation
Most payment systems do not fail loudly – they fail quietly, writes Dr Gulzar Singh
European tech investments: December signals that defined 2025
December highlights include AI’s move from advisory tools to execution-driven and agentic systems and DeepTech’s shift from isolated breakthroughs to institutional pipelines. Expert analysis from Zubr Capital’s Oleg Khusaenov
The future of banking runs through payments infrastructure
Dr Gulzar Singh sets out a production-led view of payments infrastructure, focusing on reliability, margin pressure, fraud, reconciliation, and accountability at scale
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Canada finally about to get real-time payments, open banking
After years of delay, Payments Canada is set to introduce a real-time payment system concurrently with the government’s introduction of open banking in Canada, Robin Arnfield writes
Revolut’s Hungarian license highlights trade-offs of becoming a real bank
Revolut is faced with fresh challenges as it begins to operate as a bank in Hungary, explains Blandina Szalay
Pre-built AI agents are arriving. Integration is where most will fail
Dr Gulzar Singh explains why the real challenge begins once AI-agent systems move from demonstration into live production environments
2026: Six predictions for financial planning
Anthony Villis sets out the six structural forces that will reshape private banking and wealth management in 2026
Electronic payments look profitable – until you run them at scale
Dr. Gulzar Singh takes a deliberately operational and economic view of electronic payments, focusing on margin dynamics, fraud as a cost of sales, merchant acquiring complexity, and scheme-related pressures at scale