NicoMoney

Forget São Paulo. Forget Mexico City. The most exciting neobank story on earth right now is playing out across 7,641 islands where half the adults don't have a bank account but almost every single one of them carries a smartphone. I've been covering fintech for over two decades. Sat through the Revolut roadshow. Watched Monzo's coral card become a London status symbol before the company nearly ran out of money. Filed copy from Bloomberg's newsroom the morning Klarna's valuati

Recent events highlight just how thin the line has become between politics, war, and financial markets. A single statement, social media post, or ultimatum can move billions of dollars and shift global sentiment within hours. Once again, Donald Trump finds himself at the centre of it all. Markets Driven by Politics Not long ago, markets were surging on a wave of optimism. Reports of potential talks with Iran and hints of a possible “breakthrough” triggered a sharp reversal. O

Watching a film used to come with a built-in level of focus. Whether in a theatre or at home, the experience was generally linear. You pressed play, and for the next two hours, the film had your attention. Laptops have replaced living rooms, and films now exist alongside a constant stream of notifications, messages, and open tabs. The “second screen” is no longer secondary; it’s part of the viewing environment. Films are increasingly shaped around that reality. The change sho

If you thought the era of "higher for longer" interest rates was behind us, the bond markets just issued a brutal reality check. This week, the UK's financial landscape shifted violently. Ten-year gilt yields - the benchmark for what it costs the government to borrow money - surged to 5% . That is the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. At NicoMoney , we’re stripping away the jargon to explain why your mortgage, your energy bills, and the Chancellor’s hair are all

Contemporary culture has developed a habit of looking backward with increasing precision. Not just revisiting past styles, but reconstructing them with texture, grain, typography, and emotional tone recreated in near-perfect detail. What once felt like influence now feels closer to replication. This tendency is often described through hauntology, a term popularised by cultural theorist Mark Fisher. His argument focused less on nostalgia itself, and more on a culture struggli

Courtesy of Swatch; Getty Images The queues started before dawn. Hundreds of people outside Swatch stores in London, Paris, Tokyo — lining up for a bioceramic chronograph that retailed at £220 and looked, unmistakably, like an Omega Speedmaster. Watch purists were appalled. Sneaker kids were confused but intrigued. And somewhere in the Swatch Group's Biel headquarters, Nick Hayek Jr. was probably quite pleased with himself. Because this was never a hype drop. It was a corpora