Sean Robinson

Banking Weekly 2026-09-27 – 2026-10-04 Digital bank consolidation moved from speculation to real deal talk this week, with Nubank's pursuit of Monzo and renewed Commerzbank-HVB merger chatter both signaling that scale, not just growth, is now the industry's priority. The Big Three 1. Monzo weighs sale to Nu as Advent eyes minority stake Reports put a potential Nubank bid for Monzo at $13 billion, which would be the Brazilian fintech's largest-ever deal, while private equity firm Advent is...

Banking Weekly 2026-09-19 – 2026-09-26 The week belonged to a possible £10 billion Nubank-Monzo tie-up, with stablecoin rulemaking and bank-hyperscaler AI deals filling out the rest of the story. The Big Three 1. Monzo in talks on sale to Nubank at about £10 billion valuation, Sky News reports Sky News reports that UK digital bank Monzo is in talks to be acquired by Brazil's Nubank at a valuation of up to £10 billion. If confirmed, it would be one of the largest neobank M&A transactions to...

Every hiring process I've sat in claims to be looking for the best candidate. Ask "best against what" and you mostly get a blank look, because nobody's actually defined it. They're ranking people against each other on a shortlist, not against the team those people are meant to join. I think about it more like finding product-market fit than finding the smartest person available. You can build something brilliant and still watch it die because nobody wanted it. Hire someone brilliant who...