"Digital or analog?" is the wrong question in the financial sector. Thanks to new advancements in technology, bank advisors have more time for their clients and are able to provide them with better advice, says Marco Abele, Head of Digital Private Banking at Credit Suisse Switzerland.

Digital currencies such as Bitcoin have been hailed as the future of financial systems. Cryptocurrencies’ decentralised system is reliant on blockchain technology – in short all transactions are encrypted and stored in a vast public ledger called blockchain.

BeatThatQuote was a British-based priced comparison website specialised in personal finance products. The company launched in 2005 and invited consumers to share their personal data in exchange for cash back and discounts. The company essentially redistributed wealth through its incentivisation process and financial intelligence.

Monitise provides the specialised technology needed by financial institutions and other businesses to create digital and mobile experiences – enabling them to forge closer relationships with their customers and reduce the demands on internal IT resource. The company was founded by Alastair Lukies and Steve Atkinson who foresaw the potential of using mobile phones for more than just basic messaging and voice communications.

The insurance industry in general has been slow to embrace digital. If you compare the customer experience you get from other areas - such as retail and travel - there's no doubt the insurance sector lags behind and is ready for change. Home and motor insurers are missing a trick – digital can be used to improve the perceptions that customers have about these 'grudge purchases'. Used well, digital can help to create happier and more informed customers, which in turn increases customer loyalty and advocacy – traditionally a problem area for the insurance arena.

Ever since FinTech found life outside of Silicon Valley, it was only a matter of time before London established itself as the most desirable location for FinTech growth. The UK capital received $539 million in venture capital investment in 2014, three times the amount raised in 2013 and accounting for over a half of all FinTech investments across Europe.

George Osborne's Budget had long been trailed as his last chance to impress before the May general election. Preceded by a series of early announcements and leaks, much of the material was known in advance.

Nick Hungerford is the co-founder and chief executive of investment management service Nutmeg.com. Since launching in 2012, Nutmeg has transformed the investment options available to the general public. The Nutmeg business model has already won a plethora of high acclaim, most notably being recognised as one of the 50 most innovative and disruptive brands in financial technology for 2014.

Nutmeg provides an online portfolio management service aimed at individual investors, offering portfolios starting from initial investments as small as £1000. As of 2015 the company had secured a total of 50 million dollars in funding and is moving from strength to strength.

Digital and mobile banking are the next big thing according to advisors and clients. But is it really where Swiss banks want to go? And should it be their priority? What clients expect from a Swiss private bank is security and discretion. They want a trusted relationship with their advisor and confidence that their wealth is safe and discretely protected. In this sense, digital can be a threat and must be handled with care. Rushing into it may pose risks to security and undermine that vital element of the client -bank partnership – trust.

Nobody can ignore Apple Pay. And nobody is ignoring Apple Pay. Must-have designer technology, heavy hitting icon brand and high profile merchant signings have finally aligned, like so many stars in the payments heavens. Together, and for once the use of the well-worn cliché seems justified, they deliver a 'user-friendly solution' that accelerates us several million light years towards payments nirvana.