Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The macro view of 2026 from a Swiss Private Bank (EFG)

Continuing with this year’s outlook, I was also impressed by EFG’s report on the top themes for 2026. EFG is a Swiss Private Bank, and their view of this year falls into three main categories as articulated by Moz Afzal, Chief Investment Officer of EFG, in the opening section. As we frame our outlook for…

What will happen in 2026?

Welcome to 2026, the year of the Horse in the Chinese New Year, which arrives in February. A Year of the Horse symbolizes forward momentum, encouraging bold actions and the pursuit of dreams. That sounds pretty good, but what’s gonna happen? Well, many are making bold predictions – I used to, but now get them…

Happy Holidays!

It is the end of the year and so, to start with, we need a Christmas cracker joke. Me: I just met Father Christmas and told him to change his bank account or lose. My friend: Santa dare? Me: No, Lloyds. If that is not enough for you, here is a short poem: 2025: Yield…

The Top 10 Blogs of 2025

Every year I visit the analytics engine to see which blogs got the most visits. This list is this year’s although, interestingly, the blog entry with the most clicks generally is the one I wrote about who invented WiFi. Regardless, the list this year is interesting as it is mainly about fintech firms like Klarna,…

A quick review of #fintech 2025

I get regular emails with facts and stats, and one that I subscribe to regularly is from Fintech Global. Fintech Global provides research and, more importantly, connects senior decision-makers via industry-leading conferences. Enough of the advertising as what intrigues me more is facts and stats, and their research gives an interesting reflection of the world…

The Finanser’s Week: 15th December – 21st December 2025

This week’s main discussions include … Did 2025 really happen? (the year of deep fake) 2025 has been the year of AI and AI hype from Agentic AI to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) to Robots, chatbots and more but, for me, it has been the year of Deep Fake AI. It all started with the…

The arguments for and against digital identification

For many years, I’ve been among the fintech influencers arguing for a digital identity system. Most people reply that they don’t want one. Even an anonymous encrypted one. They fear that governments will find ways to track and trace them, and so it does not work. Their fears are slightly irrational as, if you use…

A great example of a terrible UX (#Barclays)

Every three months my accountant asks me to send them my bank statements to do the company’s VAT returns. It’s annoying but hey, no one can access my bank account except me. But then something happened recently. The company’s bank accounts are with Barclays, and they changed the interface or did something so that, when…

Did 2025 really happen? (the year of deep fake)

2025 has been the year of AI and AI hype from Agentic AI to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) to Robots, chatbots and more but, for me, it has been the year of Deep Fake AI. It all started with the story of the French woman who got duped into a fake AI relationship with Brad Pitt…

Wells Fargo: from Pony Express to a pioneer of women’s rights

You may know Wells Fargo, one of the largest American banks. I know them well, having worked with some of their key people over the years. Their brand is all based around the old Pony Express … Note: stamp is dated 1940 … but you may not know their real history, so here we go….