In this week’s podcast Colin Lambert and Galen Stops tackle the tricky question of ‘if things are as bad in FX as some will have us believe, why are outside firms still investing?’ With three investment deals in the past week to discuss there is plenty for them to get their teeth into and, listeners will be pleased to hear, plenty for our two podcasters to disagree on. For example, is Lambert right when he says he thinks banks should – and probably are – looking at creating a new round of consortia to incubate firms to challenge the existing fintechs?

While Stops is more sceptical about the prospects, Lambert has a real bee in his bonnet about firms paying to access what is effectively their own data and wonders if the strategic investment teams at the banks are thinking the same? On the subject of data, Stops is keen to question Lambert on the value of data in FX swaps and the two manage to agree that this product set is probably from where the next level of success for the platforms emanates – although it is very much a question of timing…and pricing.

The podcast closes out with Stops trying (and failing) to commiserate with Lambert who reveals he has been on the end of some “robust feedback” in the past week over his attitude to two legal cases working their way through the New York courts. As always, he has an answer of course, but he does find time to highlight the paradox of two courtrooms in the same building exonerating and finding guilty, people effectively carrying out the same conduct.