Welcome to The Finanser by Chris Skinner. The Finanser discusses all things fintech, finance, banking, technology and, most importantly, the future. Chris Skinner has been voted the most influential technologist in Britain and received a lifetime achievement award for his visionary approach to the future of money from the Payments Association. He has advised the…
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One of the things I have always struggled with is that most books about finance are either informative or entertaining. Very few manage to be both. That was the motivation behind writing Diary of a Ponzi Scheme. Rather than producing another business book explaining cryptocurrencies, tokenisation, digital currencies and central bank digital currencies, I wanted…
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I blogged in February that Stripe might buy PayPal. That prediction is now coming true after a reported $53 billion bid by Stripe, backed by private equity firm Advent International, to acquire the OG, and this is far more than just another fintech acquisition. If it succeeds, it would probably be the most significant deal…
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Every now and again I look at the week’s fintech headlines and realise they tell a much bigger story than anyone intended. This week was one of those weeks. One headline celebrated the UK cementing its position as Europe’s fintech powerhouse, with 24 unicorns collectively worth almost $160 billion. Another reported that PayEm, a fintech…
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Why are we still talking about branch or not to branch? The debate about bank branches has become oddly polarised. One side argues that branches are an expensive relic of the twentieth century. The other insists they remain the heart of community banking. The reality, as always, is more nuanced. The future probably belongs to…
Read More
I blogged in February that Stripe might buy PayPal. That prediction is now coming true after a reported $53 billion bid by Stripe, backed by private equity firm Advent International, to acquire the OG, and this is far more than just another fintech acquisition. If it succeeds, it would probably be the most significant deal…
Read MoreEvery now and again I look at the week’s fintech headlines and realise they tell a much bigger story than anyone intended. This week was one of those weeks. One headline celebrated the UK cementing its position as Europe’s fintech powerhouse, with 24 unicorns collectively worth almost $160 billion. Another reported that PayEm, a fintech…
Read More
Whilst most of the world is still debating whether AI should sit inside an app, Tencent – the Chinese Tech Titan – has quietly embedded an intelligent assistant inside one of the largest digital ecosystems on the planet. To appreciate why this matters, you first need to understand the scale of the platform. WeChat, known…
Read More
For years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in politics and government, as I blogged the other day, and it’s now gone…
Read More
Yesterday, there were a few headlines that caught my attention as they are all related. The first two were about stablecoins and whether you can trust them: Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to joint regulation of systemic stablecoin issuers BIS report flags stablecoins’ flaws, dollarization risk For the past few years, the…
Read More
I was thinking about the companies I reference often as hot fintech start-ups and then realised that they are no longer start-ups. They are companies building the infrastructure, intelligence and operating systems that banks, businesses and consumers increasingly depend upon. Who are they? At the top of the league sits Stripe. Worth around $180 billion,…
Read More
There are moments when an unexpected event reveals more about the world than years of official speeches and carefully crafted reports. The recent leak of Peter Thiel’s invitation-only network, Dialog, feels like one of those moments. This is not because it exposes some great conspiracy, but because it offers a glimpse into the conversations taking…
Read More
For years, one of fintech’s favourite hobbies has been complaining about regulation. Every new rule is another obstacle. Another compliance cost. Another reason why innovation was supposedly impossible. Startups would proudly describe themselves as moving fast and breaking things, while regulators were portrayed as the people standing in the way of progress. Then something interesting…
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I see a story about Revolut every day, several times a day. As one of the most remarkable success stories in modern banking, it’s not surprising. In just a decade, it has grown from a prepaid travel card into a financial super app serving tens of millions of customers across dozens of countries and a…
Read MoreI blogged in February that Stripe might buy PayPal. That prediction is now coming true after a reported $53 billion bid by Stripe, backed by private equity firm Advent International, to acquire the OG, and this is far more than just another fintech acquisition. If it succeeds, it would probably be the most significant deal…
Read MoreWe’ve been told that artificial intelligence is going to make banking faster, cheaper, safer and smarter. Now the people who regulate the financial system are starting to ask a different question. What if AI becomes the biggest systemic risk since the global financial crisis? That isn’t coming from technology sceptics. It’s coming from the Bank…
Read MoreWhilst most of the world is still debating whether AI should sit inside an app, Tencent – the Chinese Tech Titan – has quietly embedded an intelligent assistant inside one of the largest digital ecosystems on the planet. To appreciate why this matters, you first need to understand the scale of the platform. WeChat, known…
Read MoreFor years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in politics and government, as I blogged the other day, and it’s now gone…
Read More
I noticed a post from Andreas Horn this week announcing that he was leaving IBM after eight years helping shape its AI strategy. It wasn’t a resignation post. It was a reflection on what he had learned, and his observations neatly capture where we are in the AI revolution. His biggest lesson was that almost…
Read MoreYesterday, there were a few headlines that caught my attention as they are all related. The first two were about stablecoins and whether you can trust them: Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to joint regulation of systemic stablecoin issuers BIS report flags stablecoins’ flaws, dollarization risk For the past few years, the…
Read More
One of the more interesting articles I read over the weekend wasn’t about artificial intelligence, stablecoins or digital banks. It was about something far more uncomfortable: regret. Specifically, the financial regrets people reach in their sixties. At first glance, the list looks predictable: people wish they had saved more, invested earlier, worried less about spending on…
Read MoreI was thinking about the companies I reference often as hot fintech start-ups and then realised that they are no longer start-ups. They are companies building the infrastructure, intelligence and operating systems that banks, businesses and consumers increasingly depend upon. Who are they? At the top of the league sits Stripe. Worth around $180 billion,…
Read MoreFor years, one of fintech’s favourite hobbies has been complaining about regulation. Every new rule is another obstacle. Another compliance cost. Another reason why innovation was supposedly impossible. Startups would proudly describe themselves as moving fast and breaking things, while regulators were portrayed as the people standing in the way of progress. Then something interesting…
Read More
Power used to be easy to understand. Kings inherited it; governments exercised it; central banks controlled money; banks allocated capital; corporations built wealth. The lines between politics, finance and business were reasonably clear. Each institution had its own role; each exercised power in different ways. Those lines have blurred almost beyond recognition. Today, political influence…
Read MoreFor years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in politics and government, as I blogged the other day, and it’s now gone…
Read More
I find it fascinating that one of the most interesting debates about the future of money in Britain is no longer being driven by the Bank of England, the Treasury or economists. Instead, it has become a political issue, largely thanks to Nigel Farage (the man who received £5 million from a crypto donor). What…
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For years, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) has sold itself as the future of finance: transparent, decentralised, unstoppable. Now one of the most respected security figures in crypto is saying: get out whilst you still can. Manuel Aráoz, co-founder of OpenZeppelin, believes AI has fundamentally changed the security equation in decentralised finance but his latest warning is…
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Barclays Bank wrote an article with the core message that tokenisation is moving finance from a world of messaging and reconciliation to a world of programmable, instantly settled value, which will be the most significant change to money since the arrival of electronic banking. They argue that tokenisation is the next major stage in the…
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I’ve just launched another new book! After the successful launch of Intelligent Bank with Huawei a few weeks ago I had, in the meantime, developed another book: Diary of a Ponzi Scheme. The scheme is all about Clint who creates a “Token Fund”. Investing in digital currencies and real world asset tokens, he suckers friends, contacts and his network…
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For the last twenty years, I have had many arguments with crypto advocates about Liberterian versus State governance. Now, the crypto guys are the government. During those years, people worried that politics would be captured by Wall Street, Big Oil or Big Tech, but the emerging power bloc is crypto money and artificial intelligence. These…
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The European Central Bank just published a speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and, underneath all the central banker language, is a pretty simple message: stablecoins are starting to look less like a crypto experiment and more like a new form of private money. More importantly, because stablecoins are…
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I spent the morning thinking about the bank of the future. It’s something I do every day. You could be simple and say that it’s embedded, invisible, everywhere, all the time. And that is true. But that is today’s bank, not tomorrows. I then have this debate about currencies. What currency do we believe in?…
Read MoreWhy are we still talking about branch or not to branch? The debate about bank branches has become oddly polarised. One side argues that branches are an expensive relic of the twentieth century. The other insists they remain the heart of community banking. The reality, as always, is more nuanced. The future probably belongs to…
Read MoreWhilst most of the world is still debating whether AI should sit inside an app, Tencent – the Chinese Tech Titan – has quietly embedded an intelligent assistant inside one of the largest digital ecosystems on the planet. To appreciate why this matters, you first need to understand the scale of the platform. WeChat, known…
Read MoreFor years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in politics and government, as I blogged the other day, and it’s now gone…
Read MoreI noticed a post from Andreas Horn this week announcing that he was leaving IBM after eight years helping shape its AI strategy. It wasn’t a resignation post. It was a reflection on what he had learned, and his observations neatly capture where we are in the AI revolution. His biggest lesson was that almost…
Read MoreYesterday, there were a few headlines that caught my attention as they are all related. The first two were about stablecoins and whether you can trust them: Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to joint regulation of systemic stablecoin issuers BIS report flags stablecoins’ flaws, dollarization risk For the past few years, the…
Read More
We are all worried about the threat of AI. AI will make humans redundant. AI will take all of our jobs. AI is an enemy. This always happens when technological innovation progresses humanity to a new level of thinking and working. In fact, every few years the world invents a new reason to panic about…
Read MoreOne of the more interesting articles I read over the weekend wasn’t about artificial intelligence, stablecoins or digital banks. It was about something far more uncomfortable: regret. Specifically, the financial regrets people reach in their sixties. At first glance, the list looks predictable: people wish they had saved more, invested earlier, worried less about spending on…
Read MoreI was thinking about the companies I reference often as hot fintech start-ups and then realised that they are no longer start-ups. They are companies building the infrastructure, intelligence and operating systems that banks, businesses and consumers increasingly depend upon. Who are they? At the top of the league sits Stripe. Worth around $180 billion,…
Read MoreThere are moments when an unexpected event reveals more about the world than years of official speeches and carefully crafted reports. The recent leak of Peter Thiel’s invitation-only network, Dialog, feels like one of those moments. This is not because it exposes some great conspiracy, but because it offers a glimpse into the conversations taking…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Crypto and Politico: One Step Beyond For years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Who are the top fintech firms of 2026? I was thinking about the companies I reference often as hot fintech start-ups and then realised that they are no longer start-ups. They are companies building the infrastructure, intelligence and operating systems that banks, businesses and consumers increasingly depend upon….
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: Trump defends reported $1.4B cryptocurrency earnings: ‘Nothing illegal or wrong’ How is cryptocurrency changing politics? What Is Bitcoin Halving? How It Works And Its Impact On Bitcoin’s Price Starling Bank to cut jobs to simplify operations as profits dip European Union capital requirements on megabanks: the low road or the…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … UK Fintech Dominance: Unicorn Count Hits 24 with £121.8bn… After raising tens of millions, fintech PayEm acquired for just $500,000 JPMorgan Wants to Challenge Revolut, Monzo in Europe Bank Expansion Are US Banks Ready for Europe’s Fintech Invasion? HSBC stung by $162m of losses from fintech flop Zing Halifax…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … For whom the MiCA bell tolls: Crypto firms race to beat EU deadline Fintech industry welcomes FCA’s new crypto rules Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to joint regulation of systemic stablecoin issuers BIS report flags stablecoins’ flaws, dollarization risk Danske Bank extends AWS partnership for AI…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Crypto world rocked as new regulations push hundreds of platforms out of the European market, including giant Binance Atom Bank sale nears collapse Why would a building society buy Atom Bank? World Bank drops climate finance targets in renewed action plan Australian treasurer says alleged access of prime minister’s…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Ill-timed deregulation is weakening bank resilience Banks and UK Finance working on a voluntary digital verification service Brexit has made inflation worse, claims Bank of England chief economist Does the Lady Protect too much? The Bank of England recalibrates its approach to systemic stablecoins, but concerns remain JP Morgan…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … How technology has integrated politics and power There are moments when an unexpected event reveals more about the world than years of official speeches and carefully crafted reports. The recent leak of Peter Thiel’s invitation-only network, Dialog, feels like one of those moments. This is not because it…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Crypto and Politico: One Step Beyond For years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Who are the top fintech firms of 2026? I was thinking about the companies I reference often as hot fintech start-ups and then realised that they are no longer start-ups. They are companies building the infrastructure, intelligence and operating systems that banks, businesses and consumers increasingly depend upon….
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … How technology has integrated politics and power There are moments when an unexpected event reveals more about the world than years of official speeches and carefully crafted reports. The recent leak of Peter Thiel’s invitation-only network, Dialog, feels like one of those moments. This is not because it…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Why are people scared of AI? Almost every innovation is met by people who believe it will destroy our ability to earn a living. The Luddites feared mechanisation. Clerks feared computers. Bank managers feared the internet. Taxi drivers feared ride-sharing apps. Retailers feared ecommerce. And now everyone fears…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Diary of a Ponzi Scheme and it’s all about tokenisation I’ve just launched another new book! After the successful launch of Intelligent Bank with Huawei a few weeks ago I had, in the meantime, developed another book: Diary of a Ponzi Scheme. The scheme is all about Clint who creates a “Token…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Monzo, Revolut and Starling: the quiet emergence of Britain’s Banking Champions For years, the conversation around digital banks focused on whether they could survive. Today, the question is very different: what are they becoming? The latest results from Monzo, Revolut and Starling reveal something remarkable. These institutions are…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … “Intelligent Bank” is officially launched I spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … What banks are doing with AI The funny thing about AI in banking is that the headlines are completely wrong. Every week there’s another breathless prediction claiming that AI will “replace banks”, “eliminate core systems” or “create autonomous financial institutions”. Reading these articles, you would think that we…
Read MoreThis week’s blog discussions included … Everyone is lying to you about money I just discovered that Ben McKenzie is taking the cryptocurrency industry head-on. Many of you will remember Ben from The O.C. but he’s now a little bit more serious. In fact, he wrote a book: Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. Oh!…
Read MoreThis week’s blog discussions included … Let’s be honest: retail banking is broken Over the past decade, the industry has aggressively optimised for cost and digital efficiency and, in doing so, it has quietly dismantled the human infrastructure that made banking work for millions of people. Start with the facts. In the UK alone, more…
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