Opinion

We teach our children to read and write. It’s a priority. Why don’t we teach them to understand money? Surely financial literacy is as important as basic literacy? Some people get this, and some people don’t, but I woke up to this big time reading a few recent articles. For example, Claer Barrett writes in…

I got a link to a bunch of Albert Einstein quotes the other day, one of which was: “Time does not exist. We invented it.” Some guy called Albert pic.twitter.com/JS9JMfEyJk — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) August 28, 2021 It made me think. Oh dear. Don’t make me think. Over the past year and a half, I…

I was watching Match of the Day the other day and realised how much football moves and changes. Teams of yesteryear are now champions of Europe, whilst teams that were my shining lights growing up are now shadows of their former selves. I wonder if that’s what we’re seeing today in banking and finance? In…

I see five major groups squeezing the financial markets these days. The first one is obvious: it’s the FinTech start-up community, which is now valued as a third of all banking value. The second is clear too: it’s the Big Tech firms like Facebook and Amazon, who are launching their own currencies and putting pressure…

I had a fascinating conversation the other day, and shouldn’t share it here but hey, it’s my blog. I was talking about my understanding of SWIFT and how Yawar Shah, Chair of the Association, is killing it. I must admit, it had not occurred to me re the politics of SWIFT, until that discussion, as…

Is it just me, or is the world a scary place at the moment? For most of my life, the world has been harmonising, working together to create global trade and destroy barriers. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the opening of China to world trade and the growth of the United Nations sustainability goals,…

This headline caught my attention the other day: Bank loyalty costs savers £1.6 billion a year in missed interest The detail: There’s £246.5 billion ($340 billion) languishing in accounts paying no interest at all … A survey of 2,000 adults across the UK, with 42 percent of respondents stating that they didn’t think it was…

Mark Carney stood up at COP26, alongside Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock) and Jane Fraser (CEO of Citigroup). Together they announced that the financial industry has pledged $130 trillion of assets to solve climate challenges. Woo-hoo! Thanks. Trouble is that it’s a lie. Larry Fink and Jane Fraser run two companies leading the end of…

I often contact companies due to issues with their services. When I contact them, it inevitably means that something in their digital services has broken. It is then an opportunity to delight and provide a customer experience that exceeds exceptions. However, it normally means anger and annoyance as you wait on the phone for an…

The discussions of today’s COP26 interested me, as it’s all about the money. Today is the day that all of the world’s finance ministers meet to discuss their dedication to climate change. They had this before – in Paris six years ago they promised $100 billion to be given to poorer nations to focus upon…