Good Company: Richard Crook – Why Banks Love Friction (And How to End It)

"We've taken it for granted that banks are involved in payments, but that's not a given monopoly. And I think that's where the world is changing."After spending years inside the traditional banking machine at giants like UBS and RBS, Richard Crook realised that the future of finance was happening outside the banks. Today, as the CEO of Deus X Pay (DXP), he is operating at the bleeding edge of digital assets, using stablecoins to completely eradicate the friction of cross-border payments.In this episode of Good Company, Michael Wilson sits down with Richard to cut through the tech hype and talk about real-world utility. They discuss why stablecoins are the ultimate "killer app" for the Global South, the paradox of regulation, and why the traditional correspondent banking system's days are numbered.The Highlights:The "Aha" Moment: How Richard went from making public markets efficient at UBS to witnessing the ICO bubble at RBS, realizing that the tokenization of assets was a completely new, revolutionary way to form capital.The Three-Decade Arc: Why the blockchain industry is currently entering the second decade of a massive 30-year transition, moving past the digital dollar to put equities, debt, and real-world assets on-chain.Reversing the Banking Flow: Why moving large sums of money globally is broken, and how stablecoins are finally allowing businesses to bypass the endless hops, delays, and fees of correspondent banks.The Regulation Paradox: Why the industry absolutely needs regulation to build trust (the "airline safety" rule), but why progressive regulators must stop traditional banks from weaponizing those rules to build monopolies.The Real Sustainability Debate: Moving past outdated energy critiques of crypto to discuss the social impact of DXP: providing banking access to the Global South as traditional correspondent banking aggressively retracts.The Quick-Fire Round: The hard lesson he learned about prioritising people, his backup career on a sailboat, and why he’d want to grab a pint in an airport lounge with polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.The Soundtrack "London Calling": The story behind his choice of The Clash, and the striking parallels between the global anxieties of 1979 and the economic climate today."It is very easy to change someone's mind, but actually to change their heart is much harder."Listen now for a masterclass on the future of global money, leading through rapid change, and the true utility of digital assetsGood Company. Real conversations with interesting people.*