Peter Horne
I have worked for over 30 years in product and technology development in the financial services industry and have worked in Australia, the USA, and Hong Kong. I have held senior positions at large financial services and banking firms, was CEO of a listed Australian company, and then focused on Asset Owner risk management models and associated software development.
I have advised and published on strategy, cryptocurrencies, and cybersecurity, and I have been a specialist peer reviewer for a major journal on cryptocurrency research and the use of those techniques in traditional finance. In 2015 I was credited by the New York Times for discovering the Lenovo Superfish Spyware.
I have retired from the financial services industry to focus on governance roles in ventures that deliver AI solutions for practical and commercial use.
I hold a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of New South Wales.
Recent Publications
Prepare for Change
NRI/Ausiex Research Paper - 2025
In my final collaboration with Patrick Salis, CEO of NRI(Nomura Research Institute)/Ausiex we completed the coda of the "Prepare for Change" series. In this research we reflect on the opportunities and issues of improving Australian Investor access to bonds in the near term.
ReadAustralian superannuation can be a source of national security capital
The Strategist: The Australian Strategic Policy Institute - August 2024
In this paper I co-authored with Bronte Munro we acknowledge the government's desire to engage private investors in defense activities and reinforce the importance of government learning to use the existing proven and prudent paths that are there to protect investors.
ReadPrepare for Change
NRI/Ausiex Research Paper - 2024
In my second collaboration with Patrick Salis, CEO of NRI(Nomura Research Institute)/Ausiex we continue with the theme "Prepare for Change". We draw attention to the emerging issue of the underutilisation of equity capital markets in Australia, the increasing concentration of the Australian economy into resources and services, and the continued decline of manufacturing industries.
ReadThe Cryptocore Forms Communities
January 2024
An essay looking at tech privacy and the crypto movement.
Read2023 Crypto Review
Northfield Client Newsletter, December 2023
A wry look back for clients on all things Crypto in 2023.
ReadPrepare for Change
NRI/Ausiex Research Paper - 2023
I was pleased to be invited to collaborate with Patrick Salis, CEO of NRI(Nomura Research Institute)/Ausiex on the production of their first annual research paper. This paper focuses on the intergenerational change that the financial services industry is facing over the next 5 years. While the data is from Australia, the theme is global.
ReadCryptocurrency meets OFAC in 2022
Northfield Client Newsletter, December 2022
The idea that crypto is a wild land of no regulations is talking off an old and wrong script. However it is still true to say that crypto still offers some interesting and new mechanisms for bad actors to operate, and these are exercising the regulators in new ways. And so the focus of this note is about some interesting developments in the way the USA is addressing these problems through the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
ReadDeFi: The Financial Fabric of the Metaverse
The Journal of Performance Measurement. Summer 2022.
Decentralized Finance, known colloquially in the cryptocurrency community as "DeFi," has been promoted as a form of finance that will replace traditional finance, or "TradFi" as described by the same community. The purpose of this paper is to look through the various claims to understand the technology and financial processes that underpin the DeFi phenomenon and separate the hyperbole from the true innovations so the reader can see what may be enduring and worth a professional's time to understand. The paper concludes that while there are important ideas starting to emerge from the DeFi phenomenon, there is also a lot of risk and very little that a prudent investor would consider as opportunities worth pursuing at this time. DeFi is the financial system of the metaverse, and while that's innovative, it is not a replacement of, nor an asset in, the traditional financial system.
ReadFew People Know...
Profile in the JPM. Spring 2022
Few people will know that I have been programming computers since I was 13 years old.
ReadThe Ukraine Crisis Puts the Focus on Crypto
Global Association of Risk Professionals. April 2022
Virtual currencies and DeFi are important enough in capital flows to be taken seriously - and controlled.
ReadMicro and Macroprudential Implications of Cryptocurrencies
Professional Risk Managers International Association (PRMIA) Boston Chapter. December 8, 2021.
Cryptocurrencies - Arriving into reality as fast as they leave it.
ReadIntegrated Crypto; And Why That's Good for Investors.
The Journal of Performance Measurement. Winter 2021-2022
Cryptocurrencies have found their way into many investment portfolios and will continue to find their way into many more. The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on the history and processes of these unconventional assets to show that their integration into conventional investment and oversight processes makes many of the highlighted dark market risks less relevant to investors, while also making some less discussed or understood technology and governance risks more relevant.
ReadResearcher Discovers Superfish Spyware Installed on Lenovo PCs
New York Times. February 19, 2015
Lenovo, the Chinese tech giant, was shipping PCs with spyware that tracks its customers' every move online, and renders the computers vulnerable to hackers.
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