Go Lean…Caribbean

Go Lean Commentary

Looking for a job? Where are the jobs to be created for the 21 Century?

Try banking! Financial/Banking technology to be exact. This sub-industry sector is referred to as ‘Fintech’; see the definition in the Appendix below.

So rather than the individual, if a community wants to foster job creation, ‘Fintech’ offers attractive options.

What’s more, according to this news article, one New York-based bank, JPMorganChase, spent almost $10 Billion on Fintech … last year alone. The CEO, Jaime Dimon, announced that there will be even more investment in this vital area. See the full story here:

Title: Jamie Dimon – JPMorgan spent nearly $10 billion on tech last year
By: Ari Levy

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank spent $9.5 billion on technology in 2016 and has plans this year to introduce products for digital banking, online investment advice and electronic trading.

In his annual letter to shareholders on Tuesday, Dimon said the bank is also “collaborating with some excellent fintech companies to dramatically improve our digital and other customer offerings.”

Among the leading bank executives, Dimon has established himself as the biggest presence in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, making regular trips West to meet with tech executives and venture capitalists. He made headlines in his shareholder letter two years ago, warning investors that “Silicon Valley is coming.”

Rather than view potential banking disruption as a threat to JPMorgan, Dimon has embraced new technologies. About $3 billion, or almost one-third, of last year’s investment went to “new initiatives,” including $600 million on fintech solutions and projects.

Dimon highlighted partnerships with emerging tech companies like Zelle for consumer payments, Roostify for online mortgages, TrueCar for auto finance and On Deck Capital, which provides loans to small businesses.

The JPMorgan CEO also took a swipe at the U.S. immigration system and how it hurts this country’s ability to compete globally. Dimon said that about 40 percent of people receiving advanced degrees in science, technology engineering and math at American universities are from other countries. Yet they have no legal way to stay when they’re finished with school.

“We are forcing great talent overseas by not allowing these young people to build their dreams here,” Dimon wrote.

Source: CNBC – Business & Finance TV Channel; posted 04/04/2017; retrieved 04/05/2017) from: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/04/jamie-dimon-letter-jpmorgan-spent-9-5b-on-tech-last-year.html

So where are the jobs to be found? According to the foregoing, this industry – Fintech – is one of the options.

In general, this has been a frequent question for the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The book presents the Caribbean region a roadmap to elevate its societal engines, starting first with economics (jobs, industrial development and entrepreneurial opportunities). In fact, the prime directives of the roadmap includes the following 3 statements:

• Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
• Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic.
• Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The Go Lean book introduces the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) as a federal government for 30 regional member-states, plus the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) as a cooperative for the existing Central Banks. Together, these new entities will provide stewardship for the region’s banks.

Banking is very familiar to the Caribbean. This industry has proven to be the secondary industrial driver for many Caribbean communities, trailing only tourism. The Go Lean book explains (Page 58):

Overall, the Go Lean book stresses the community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to reboot, reform and transform the economic engines of Caribbean society.

How many jobs are to be impacted?

In general the roadmap projects 2.2 million new jobs across the 30 Caribbean member states. But for the Financial/Banking industry, the plan calls for:

Banking – New jobs from Banking reform, and adoption of e-payments, & card products  –  6,000

The Caribbean technology industry projects even more new jobs to be created in the region; the count was published at:

Technology – Direct:    Products and services for IT architecture, application and administration  –  20,000

Technology – Indirect: Service jobs for technology support and logistics  –  44,000

In total, the projection is for 70,000 new jobs.

Considering the experience of JPMorganChase Bank in the foregoing article – spending $10 Billion – and the projections in the Go Lean roadmap, it must be concluded that Fintech is one area “where the jobs are”.

The Go Lean book asserts that to thrive in the new global marketplace there must be an agile technocratic administration for the region’s banking; it will affect all aspects of Caribbean life. This comprehensive view – economics, security and governance – is the charge of the Go Lean roadmap, opening with these pronouncements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 and 14):

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The points of effective, technocratic banking stewardship were further elaborated upon in previous blog/commentaries. Consider this sample:

In a previous blog-commentary, the question was asked:

Who will win the [Fintech] “space race” between all the big Information Technology companies (like Facebook, Google, Apple, Paypal, etc.)? It is not known yet! But for the Caribbean, we must not be spectators only in this “space race”. Not this time!

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VIDEO – What is a ‘Robo-Advisor’ – http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/roboadvisor-roboadviser.asp

Now is the time for all stakeholders of Caribbean banking to lean-in for the empowerments described here-in and in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is where the jobs are, today and tomorrow. We can elevate our communities and our banking eco-systems. We can be a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

Download the free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix – What is ‘Fintech’

Fintech is a portmanteau – a word derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms as smog from smoke and fog) – of financial technology that describes an emerging financial services sector in the 21st century. Originally, the term applied to technology applied to the back-end of established consumer and trade financial institutions. Since the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the term has expanded to include any technological innovation in the financial sector, including innovations in financial literacy and education, retail banking, investment and even crypto-currencies like bitcoin.

BREAKING DOWN ‘Fintech’
The term financial technology can apply to any innovation in how people transact business, from the invention of money to double-entry bookkeeping. Since the internet revolution and the mobile internet revolution, however, financial technology has grown explosively, and fintech, which originally referred to computer technology applied to the back office of banks or trading firms, now describes a broad variety of technological interventions into personal and commercial finance.

Fintech’s Expanding Horizons
Already technological innovation has up-ended 20th century ways of trading and banking. The mobile-only stock trading app Robinhood charges no fees for trades, and peer-to-peer lending sites like Prosper and Lending Club promise to reduce rates by opening up competition for loans to broad market forces. Technologies being designed that should reach fruition by 2020 include mobile banking, mobile trading on commodities exchanges, digital wallets (like Apple (AAPL) and Google’s (GOOG) developing mobile wallet systems), financial advisory and robo-advisor sites like LearnVest and Betterment, and all-in-one money management tools like Mint and Level.

New Tech in Fintech
In the olden days, individuals and institutions used the invisible hand of the market – represented by the signaling function of price – to make financial decisions. New technologies, like machine learning, predictive behavioral analytics and data-driven marketing, will take the guess work and hocus pocus out of financial decisions. “Learning” apps will not only learn the habits of users, often hidden to themselves, but will engage users in learning games to make their automatic, unconscious spending and saving decisions better. On the back end, improved data analytics will help institutional clients further refine their investment decisions and open new opportunities for financial innovation.

Fintech Users
Who uses fintech? There are four broad categories: 1) B2B for banks and 2) their business clients; and 3) B2C for small businesses and 4) consumers. Trends toward mobile banking, increased information, data and more accurate analytics and decentralization of access will create opportunities for all four groups to interact in heretofore unprecedented ways.

Source: Retrieved 04-05-2017 from: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fintech.asp

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VIDEO – What is ‘FinTech’ – http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fintech.asp