Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Is AI all it’s cracked up to be?

Reading an interesting research report by Deutsche Bank about AI, where they are saying that we entering the trough of disillusionment. They hype is over and reality is hitting hard. They enjoy playing with the idea and call it: Disillusionment: beauty is in the AI of the beholder Dislocation: AI of the storm Distrust: AI…

How do we regulate the future?

I was thinking of the move from the rotary telephone to the touchtone phone to the mobile phone. Similarly, the upgrade from gramophone to record player to CD and streaming. These things have changed our lives over decades so that we now take them for granted today. But, when watching movies from the past century,…

The Finanser’s Week: 16th February – 22nd February 2026

This week’s main discussions include … The future is right here, right now In the last day, I’ve been blown away by two developments coming out of China. One is an AI movie sequence that’s only 15 seconds long; the second was the Spring Festival celebration to welcome the New Year of the Fire Horse….

Why punish the mule, when you want the rider?

The BBC has run many reports about how people accidentally become money mules through their ignorance: It’s not easy money. This scam wrecks your credit I got quick cash in my account but it was too good to be true I became a money mule by mistake A key point here is that, in statistics…

Sport, trade and Visa

I got an interesting update on Monday from Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) on the impact that an event has on local community. Their data shows the positive impact that the Winter Olympics is having in Italy: Overseas Visa cardholder visits rose by more than 60%, with the largest share of visitors coming from the…

The future is right here, right now

In the last day, I’ve been blown away by two developments coming out of China. One is an AI movie sequence that’s only 15 seconds long; the second was the Spring Festival celebration to welcome the New Year of the Fire Horse. If you haven’t seen them, you need to, because both show how technology…

Bored of Jeffrey Epstein? Bear in mind he was a banker … or was he?

I’ve avoided talking about the Epstein files on this blog. The main reason is that it’s appalling how wealth, power and connections can get away with anything they want. The worst part of it, for me, was a report that alleges that Donald Trump watched a 13-year-old girl give birth to a baby girl who…

Is Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, “full of sh*t”?

When the Genius Act was signed off last year by President Trump, I said that it was positioned to keep the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Now, a new debate arises after Jamie Dimon (Chair of JPMorgan) and Brian Armstrong (CEO, Coinbase) had a spat at Davos. Did you hear about it? Probably…

The Finanser’s Week: 9th February – 15th February 2026

This week’s main discussions include … The Fat Finger Syndrome I was intrigued to read that a major cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Bithumb, had an internal error where an employee sent customers a prize that should have been 620,000 Korean won (around $423) to 695 qualifying customers, but instead credited accounts with 620,000 bitcoins…

The Fat Finger Syndrome

I was intrigued to read that a major cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, Bithumb, had an internal error where an employee sent customers a prize that should have been 620,000 Korean won (around $423) to 695 qualifying customers, but instead credited accounts with 620,000 bitcoins – equivalent to over $40 billion. How a major crypto…