I have dealt with thousands of people in my 35-year banking career. Paul is one of the most precise, thoughtful, and prepared clients I have experienced. This kind of commitment to details is rarely seen in our industry. Paul is qualified, through his vast experience and achievements, to share on the subject of creating a strong business plan and acquiring financing for a business. Thinking outside the box is a strength of Paul’s and shows that securing traditional means of funding is not the only path to success. Adhering to Paul’s guidance in this book will provide a solid foundation for other entrepreneurs and business owners. Paul Kohler – (Past President – Charter Bank) – Senior Vice President & Western Banking Manager – Nicolet National Bank

There is a fundamental denial at the centre of why we have an environmental crisis – a denial that ignores that endless physical growth on a finite planet is impossible. Nature provides the ecosystem services that support our civilisation, thus making humanity unavoidably dependent upon it. However, society continues to ignore and deny this dependence. A Future Beyond Growth explores the reason why the endless growth economy is fundamentally unsustainable and considers ways in which society can move beyond this to a steady state economy. The book brings together some of the deepest thinkers from around the world to consider how to advance beyond growth. The main themes consider the deep problems of the current system and key aspects of a steady state economy, such as population; throughput and consumerism; ethics and equity; and policy for change. The policy section and conclusion bring together these various themes and indicates how we can move past the growth economy to a truly sustainable future. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of economics, sustainability and environmental studies in general.

How new technology is rapidly changing the nature of money and the way we pay A diverse and growing range of financial institutions and platforms—from PayPal and Venmo to WeChat, Alipay, and the brave new world of stablecoins—has harnessed new technology to disrupt the system of money and payments as we know it. Beyond Banks explains why this disruption holds out the promise of faster, cheaper, more convenient, and more secure payments, but also how it increasingly risks exposing consumers, businesses, and governments to the problem of bad money. Dan Awrey traces the origins of our current bundled system of banking, money, and payments. He explains why the problem of bad money—the result of antiquated and inadequate laws and regulation that fail to establish credible commitments to hold, transfer, or return a customer’s money on demand—requires that policymakers fundamentally rethink their approach toward the design of the laws and institutions at the heart of this system. He presents ways to effectively unbundle banking from money and payments, ensure the credibility of monetary commitments, and promote the stability of this system. Awrey also envisions a more forward-looking role for policymakers in encouraging greater technological experimentation, competition, and innovation in the realm of payments. Beyond Banks sheds critical light on the important but too often dysfunctional relationship among technology, regulation, and money, and lays the foundations for a safer, more nimble, and more inclusive system of money and payments.

This book arises from an event on the future of banking which included leading figures in the industry. It addresses current trends influencing competition including globalization, market structure, technology and demographics and how these will impact upon companies and their organization, business opportunities, revenue streams, branding and customer behaviour. It will also show banks how to develop strategic initiatives for future competition. This will represent essential thinking for the banking and financial services industry.

Do you know how banking and money will look like in the new digital age? This book collects the voices of leading scholars, entrepreneurs, policy makers and consultants who, through their expertise and keen analytical skills, are best positioned to picture from various angles the ongoing technological revolution in banking and finance. You will learn how lending and borrowing can exist without banks; how new forms of money can compete to better serve different society needs; how new technologies are banking the unbanked communities in the poorest parts of the world, and how ideas and small projects can be financed by the crowds without the need to rely upon banks. You will learn how, in the new digital age, we will interact with new self-organised and autonomous companies that operate without any human involvement, based on a set of programmed and incorruptible rules. You will learn that new business models will emerge thanks to technology-enabled platforms, upon which one can build new forms of non-hierarchical cooperation between strangers. And you will also learn that new forms of risks and threats are emerging that will destabilise our systems and jeopardise the stability of our financial order.

The Future and FinTech examines the fundamental financial technologies and its growing impact on the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sectors. With global investment amounting to more than $100 billion in 2020, the proliferation of FinTech has underpinned the direction payments, loans, wealth management, insurance, and cryptocurrencies are heading.This book presents FinTech from an industrial perspective in the context of architecture and its basic building blocks, e.g., Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Cloud, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and its connections to real-life applications at work. It provides a detailed guidance on how FinTech digitalizes business operations, improves productivity and efficiency, and optimizes resource management with the help of some new concepts, such as AIOps, MLOps and DevSecOps. Readers will also discover how FinTech Innovations connect BFSI to the rest of the world with growing interests in Open Banking, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and FinTech-as-a-Service (FaaS).To help readers understand how FinTech has unlocked numerous opportunities for tapping into the massive substantial group of customers, this book illustrates the massive changes already underway and provides insights into changes yet to come through practical examples and applications with illustrative figures and summary tables, making this book a handy quick reference for all things of FinTech.Related Link(s)

This book explores blockchain technology’s impact on banks, particularly how blockchain technology can create new opportunities for banks and poses new threats to their business. The digital revolution in the banking industry, whose customers are increasingly adapting to new technologies and new types of competitors and solutions arising in the space, has had a significant impact on the banking industry over the past few years, requiring banks to substantially rethink their business models and strategies in order to cope with these developments. The rise of blockchain’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) has also played an important role since it has the potential to change the whole banking industry in faster and more disruptive ways than ever before. Born as the technology underlying Bitcoin, which has been used to allow the recording of cryptocurrencies transactions, blockchain can facilitate the process of recording any transaction type and track the movement of any asset, finding application in many different areas. Specifically, it has been acknowledged as a disruptive force in the financial sector and a key source of future financial market innovation with the potential to reshape existing business models in the financial services industry. Regarding the banking industry in particular, existing literature suggests that blockchain poses new challenges and generates opportunities as well as threats. This is pushing banks to rethink their operations, business models and strategies. However, literature in this regard is still in its infancy, and we do not yet have a clear understanding of blockchain technology’s potential implications for banks. This book expands the literature on blockchain technology in banking by providing new insights into the developments, trends and challenges of blockchain in the banking industry. In particular, sheds more light on the implications of blockchain technology for banks by discussing the advantages and disadvantages related to this technology and exploring its potential impact on traditional banking business models.

Beyond Piggy Banks is written for you: the loving, responsible and overworked parents of young children. It takes the stress and mystery out of finance, and focuses on the basic fundamentals elementary children should understand so they can make smart decisions as they grow. This usable, light hearted, real-world guide provides parents with the specific tools and step-by-step lessons needed to teach their child. The lessons provided are easy to teach and understand. The activities are quick, enjoyable and educational. Each concept starts with the basics, and builds upon them so your child has a full understanding of the topic. The chapters are broken out into simple and digestible sections, made for busy parents who don’t have time for a finance novel. Most of all, the book focuses on how to incorporate teaching finance to your child through everyday real-world activities that you and your child are already doing. This book provides parents with the confidence to teach simple financial basics to children. With that confidence comes excitement and inspiration; by teaching your children about finance you will influence every step of their lives in a positive and meaningful way. The ultimate goal of this book, and of any parent, is to raise healthy, independent and responsible children; kids who are prepared when adulthood hits!

“A motivating guide to claiming financial health and success [that] speaks to the unique money challenges of Black women and offers empowering steps to healing.”—Ebony “Thoughtful, holistic, heartfelt advice.”—USA Today If you’re tired of feeling powerless over your finances and are ready to start funding your dreams, then come on, girl—it’s time to get your money straight! Author and financial expert Glinda Bridgforth knows that healthy money management is rarely just about dollars—it’s about getting to the root of why we spend what we do and recognizing the emotional and cultural issues that play out in our unhealthy financial habits. Girl, Get Your Money Straight! presents her seven-step program for holistic financial healing—an upbeat, empowering road map that you can use to identify your heart’s desires, break away from negative spending patterns, pay off outstanding debts, develop a spending plan, conquer the checkbook blues, and create new wealth. Filled with Bridgforth’s warmhearted wisdom and advice, and complete with worksheets, exercises, affirmations, and inspiring stories of African American women who have found financial peace of mind, Girl, Get Your Money Straight! is a fresh, fun, and eminently practical guide to healing your bank account and building a life that you love.