The New Year is a time of reflection, a time for looking forwards and a time to take stock. So in this light this will be a special, somewhat off-piste episode with just me at the microphone. This episode has three parts:

In Part 1 I talk about some of the behind the scenes stories that go into making the LFP and share some of my thoughts about the challenges of the creative journey – a journey which many fintechs will have been through and are going through.

In Part 2 I discuss the five themes that I expect to see in UK Fintech in 2015.  These all go under the overarching banner of “2015 – The Year When Fintech Grows Up”.

If Xmas is a time for traditional rituals like family, over-eating, and hitting Amazon Prime bigtime it’s also a time for thinking of those less fortunate than ourselves.

If you work in Canary Wharf you will probably never see a homeless person there (I never have – are they kept out?). Meg Hillier the MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch points out that in Hackney a staggering 47% of children live in poverty :-O

In Part 3 I discuss the wider societal impact of Fintech and its media narratives.

Will Fintech, driven by the “billion dollar IPO narrative” end up being just another “get rich quick scheme” for a tiny few and become self-centred and greedy like the existing widely-disliked banking system?

Is Fintech just about creating some new mega-corporates that will live in tall shiny buildings?

Can Fintech be more than this?  Can it have a social conscience, can Fintech contribute to society and make the world a better place?

Let me know what you think!  In my pre-Xmas mode of thinking of those less fortunate than ourselves I tweeted a few socially pertinent tweets under the hashtag #OccupyFintech.  For those of you interested in this topic please feel free to use and amplify.  You don’t even have to sleep outside in the cold in a tent

In the next episode  I’ll be back on the centre of the piste and we have some great guests coming up for the coming year.

May 2015 be a great one for you and yours and all of society

In part 3 I quote quite a few articles and stats in “joining the dots”. Here are some of the key refs:

Oxfam Chart in the Guardian (via @FintechHK):

Henry Blodget in Business Insider “Amazing Charts Show How 90% Of The Country Has Gotten Shafted Over The Past 30 Years”

Wikipedia Incarceration in the US Daniel Wessel (via Dan Pink) on twitter Racial Lifetime stats of chances of a MALE baby born in the US in 2001 going to prison (I inadvertently omitted the word male in the podcast in quoting these stats). See also the brilliant (4.6*/5 with 461 (!!) reviews on amazon.com) “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”

Ralph Benko in Forbes “1.6 Billion Rounds Of Ammo For Homeland Security? It’s Time For A National Conversation”

James de Angelo, World Bitcoin Network on YouTube “The Cardboard Box Reform – A Crucial Flaw in Democracy & A Five Dollar Solution “

Edward Luce in the FT “Too big to resist: Wall Street’s comeback”

Kevin Maney in Newsweek “Tech Bubble? No it’s a startup wealth gap”

Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert in The Nation Socialize Uber

Leo Mirani in Quartz “The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality”

UK MP Meg Hillier in Tech City News “Need a New Year’s resolution? Build a Bridge”