The Pay Off by Gottfried Lebbrandt and Natasha De Teran
Payments are eating the world, say the folks at JP Morgan. They're right. Forget the specific numbers and market sizes... just think about it. Money is a representation of value. Knowing its history, fallacies, economics, geopolitical struggles, and the technology that bolsters its movements is essential to being an informed citizen.
We take payments for granted. To be so frictionless as to be virtually invisible is the goal of most companies in this space. Despite their size and influence, most people in the world have neither heard of many of these companies nor understand the technical complexity of their feats and the important dynamics they have with each other.
A list of important topics primer'd in this book:
Cash; History of debit/credit; Why our payments habits are national; Payments in emerging markets like India, China, and Kenya; The hidden costs of payments and who controls the industry; Mechanics of payments at all levels; Security issues from retail, wholesale, to national payments; Cross-border payments; Buy now pay later; Neo-banks and open banking; Big Tech and the implications of using payments data on consumers; Crypto; Central Bank Digital Currencies; Open and closed payment loops; Politics and regulations in different countries.
I'd recommend this book for anyone trying to broadly understand the vast and interconnected nature of the FinTech industry. The authors do a solid job at presenting almost all concepts with both their pros/cons and the implications of choices on other moving parts of the system throughout time. This is particularly thoughtfully done on the forward looking and quickly changing aspects of the FinTech revolution.
My plan is to dive deeper into niches by reading books on industries or case studies on companies.
Special thanks to my friend/mentor who gifted me the book, a senior FinTech/payments executive at one of the largest banks. I can't wait to get his insights.
Next list of books:
Failure, Modularity, and Incentives from LessWrong
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules by Jeremy Miller