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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On Friday, for the second month running, UK banks payment systems were down. Last month it was Barclays. This month, it is Lloyds, TSB and Nationwide, and probably more. The issue is a joint one: there is no branch anymore and online help services continually tell you that you are 19th in the queue, and…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … European regulation strangulation, part 2 America innovates, China replicates and Europe regulates I often find the maze of European regulations hard to follow and track. It’s ok if you’re tracking one – like that Payment Service Directives and Regulations – but when you’re trying to track many, it’s…
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Microsoft just unveiled a new chip called Majorana1 that it says will enable the creation of quantum computers able to solve “meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades”. Two months ago Google unveiled Willow, a chip that “can reduce errors exponentially as we scale up using more qubits” and can process a computation “in under five minutes…
Read More
America innovates, China replicates and Europe regulates I often find the maze of European regulations hard to follow and track. It’s ok if you’re tracking one – like the Payment Service Directives and Regulations – but when you’re trying to track many, it’s an ever changing cauldron. Right now, I’m trying to work out with…
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I recently came into some funds and, being conscious of the financial services compensation scheme (FSCS) limiting bank insurances of deposit accounts to £85,000 (€100,000 EU; $250,000 USA) have had to open new accounts to move things around. In general, the remote account opening experience with newer neobanks is pretty good. On the other hand,…
Read MoreI find times interesting, as so many fintechs had an amazing ride in the 2010s but, in the 2020s, it seems not. Fintech took a hammering in 2023 with investing down 48% compared to 2022, which was also a bad year … … and now we move into 2025 and reflect on 2024 where it…
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I found a fun meme on Facebook about passwords. Passwords. What??? When I was a lad, we didn’t have passwords and usernames. What has the world become? Well, it’s become a world of people who are dumb and stupid and create passwords that are ridiculous and easily hackable. For example, the world’s most popular passwords are 123456,…
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I saw a fascinating pair of columns on City AM last week. One was advocating London as the UK fintech unicorn centre of Europe: London named Europe’s ‘unicorn capital’ for fintechs … whilst the other claimed the new UK Labour government policies were scaring fintech founders out of the UK and into Europe, in this…
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After our Valentine Day shenanigans, it is interesting to think about the other side of love. The dark side. The fake love. The reason I mention this is that I keep reading about romance fraud, and wondering how people can be suckered into such scams. For example, there was a recent headline about a French…
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Almost every day these days is an AI headline, but this video really struck me. It is showing the selfies we would have taken in historical times: Can you imagine? The reason it struck me is that you have to wonder today what is real online and what is not. The more our networked system…
Read More
I see a lot of people writing that Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is dead. That saddens me a little, as I created the term twenty years ago – have I mentioned this before? – but I agree. It is now past its prime. It was replaced by open banking. Then there was embedded finance and today it is…
Read More
There’s been a bunch of headlines in the last week of online banking failures whilst, at the same time, another group of headlines of bank branch closures because customers should use digital banking. Barclays hit by major IT outage on tax deadline day – BBC News Moment customers surge around Barclays’ cash machines for ‘free…
Read More
In an excellent article on LinkedIn, Priscilla Russo laments the state of Agentic AI from a payments point of view. Bearing in mind that 2025 is the year of Agentic AI – a world where AI agents do everything for you on your behalf – it is clear that we have a dichotomy between the open…
Read MoreOn Friday, for the second month running, UK banks payment systems were down. Last month it was Barclays. This month, it is Lloyds, TSB and Nationwide, and probably more. The issue is a joint one: there is no branch anymore and online help services continually tell you that you are 19th in the queue, and…
Read MoreI recently came into some funds and, being conscious of the financial services compensation scheme (FSCS) limiting bank insurances of deposit accounts to £85,000 (€100,000 EU; $250,000 USA) have had to open new accounts to move things around. In general, the remote account opening experience with newer neobanks is pretty good. On the other hand,…
Read MoreI made this headline immediately challenging for anyone not in my space, as it incorporates all the TLAs (three letter arconyms) to confuse and abuse you. A fascinating release from Europe’s Central Bank announced that they aim to move soon to distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlements for payments last week. What did the announcement say?…
Read MoreI found a fun meme on Facebook about passwords. Passwords. What??? When I was a lad, we didn’t have passwords and usernames. What has the world become? Well, it’s become a world of people who are dumb and stupid and create passwords that are ridiculous and easily hackable. For example, the world’s most popular passwords are 123456,…
Read More
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, held an internal town hall meeting last week and got onto the subject of working from home (WFH). It turns out he doesn’t like it. In a lengthy foul-mouthed rant, he tells staffers that it’s full of sh*t. Here’s a short part of the tirade, as discovered by Barron’s…
Read MoreAlmost every day these days is an AI headline, but this video really struck me. It is showing the selfies we would have taken in historical times: Can you imagine? The reason it struck me is that you have to wonder today what is real online and what is not. The more our networked system…
Read MoreI see a lot of people writing that Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is dead. That saddens me a little, as I created the term twenty years ago – have I mentioned this before? – but I agree. It is now past its prime. It was replaced by open banking. Then there was embedded finance and today it is…
Read More
Like many, I’m still working on the idea of authentication, verification and identification using immutable technologies or, more specifically, distributed ledger technologies (DLT). There are many firms active in this space, trying to create digital identity systems using DLT, but it is far more complicated than such a simple solution. The reason is that the…
Read MoreThere’s been a bunch of headlines in the last week of online banking failures whilst, at the same time, another group of headlines of bank branch closures because customers should use digital banking. Barclays hit by major IT outage on tax deadline day – BBC News Moment customers surge around Barclays’ cash machines for ‘free…
Read More
After many years we have had many discussions of many countries and many banks talking about launching many central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Today, only three countries have a live CBDC: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria. Doesn’t that feel a bit strange? Well, most governments are experimenting with CBDCs and SWIFT, to retain their control…
Read More
A quantum financial system, or QFS for short Maybe it’s the way my feeds are set up, but every day seems like a headline about cryptocurrency and AI these days. Take my daily things worth reading, and here’s a few examples just from last Monday. On crypto: Trump orders crypto working group to draft new…
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As a long-term and dedicated user of facebook and twitter since the 2000s, it is weird to find that, today, they are no longer useful tools. The feeds are now stacked with Mark Zuckerberg updates, Musk propaganda and worse. The only tool that’s still useful is LinkedIn, although there are issues there too. So it…
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Marc Andreessen announced that their office in London, opened only two years ago, would shut down and its got everyone talking. Is London finished? Is the UK’s claim of being a great tech economy over? Will it bring down the government? Well, there are differing views. Many believe it is due to the new Trump…
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Things we’re reading today include … Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology – The White House Trump Issues Executive Order to Boost Cryptocurrency Industry – The New York Times Trump orders crypto working group to draft new regulations, explore national stockpile | Reuters Davos 2025: Is the cryptocurrency era about to begin? | World…
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On Monday, the crypto-president of America takes office. Bearing in mind that I’ve said several times he will be the crypto-President it is interesting that, in the last few weeks, he will be more than this. He will be the Big Tech President. Here is why. We live in such interesting times. Digitalisation has creeped…
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Some years ago, I wrote a paper for SUERF. What’s SUERF? SUERF stands for Société Universitaire Européenne de Recherches Financières, which is French for the European University of Financial Research. It is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation that aims to promote discussion and understanding of financial and monetary issues. All well and good. The reason for…
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Donald Trump’s administration is expected to turn the US into a crypto-friendly hub using a range of changes to tax policies. Here’s the best guess of what that means. For some time I’ve talked about Donald Trump’s ambition to be the crypto President and, as his inauguration on January 20th approaches, it makes you wonder…
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So, I’ve already talked about payments, technology and mentioned cryptocurrencies but, this year, crypto deserves its’ very own singular entry. Cryptocurrencies are huge in 2025. This is not only because Donald Trump and Elon Musk will do their utmost to make America the Crypto Capital, but because – after sixteen years – cryptocurrencies are coming…
Read MoreMicrosoft just unveiled a new chip called Majorana1 that it says will enable the creation of quantum computers able to solve “meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades”. Two months ago Google unveiled Willow, a chip that “can reduce errors exponentially as we scale up using more qubits” and can process a computation “in under five minutes…
Read MoreI find times interesting, as so many fintechs had an amazing ride in the 2010s but, in the 2020s, it seems not. Fintech took a hammering in 2023 with investing down 48% compared to 2022, which was also a bad year … … and now we move into 2025 and reflect on 2024 where it…
Read MoreAfter many years we have had many discussions of many countries and many banks talking about launching many central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Today, only three countries have a live CBDC: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria. Doesn’t that feel a bit strange? Well, most governments are experimenting with CBDCs and SWIFT, to retain their control…
Read MoreAlmost every day these days is an AI headline, but this video really struck me. It is showing the selfies we would have taken in historical times: Can you imagine? The reason it struck me is that you have to wonder today what is real online and what is not. The more our networked system…
Read More
I shared a post the other day by Usman Sheikh, a serial investor based in Dubai. The post is asking the question whether AI can replace consultants although, to be more pointed, specifically McKinsey. How could that happen? McKinsey have the best and brightest minds in the world: they only hire graduates at the top of…
Read MoreIn an excellent article on LinkedIn, Priscilla Russo laments the state of Agentic AI from a payments point of view. Bearing in mind that 2025 is the year of Agentic AI – a world where AI agents do everything for you on your behalf – it is clear that we have a dichotomy between the open…
Read MoreA quantum financial system, or QFS for short Maybe it’s the way my feeds are set up, but every day seems like a headline about cryptocurrency and AI these days. Take my daily things worth reading, and here’s a few examples just from last Monday. On crypto: Trump orders crypto working group to draft new…
Read More
I feel like a continual splurge of Musk is happening, ever since Donald Trump became President, but the latest is really interesting as Elon Musk is now in control of the Treasury department payments system that runs America. According to The Washington Post, longtime Treasury official David Lebryk is “expected to leave the agency soon”, despite…
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Being an optimist, I always think the future is bright – is it orange or yellow and blue? – yet, when looking back into the past, almost every year has something happening somewhere that moves the world’s axis. It’s like my favourite quote from Vladimir Ilyich Lenin who, after the Russian Revolution in 1918, said…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Trump orders creation of strategic cryptocurrency reserve Lloyds, Nationwide and Halifax among banks hit by app outage on payday (with quotes from some Chris Skinner guy) The £24m vanity project bound to stay locked in Bank of England’s vaults North Korean hackers ‘took just two minutes’ to pull off…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … European regulation strangulation, part 2 America innovates, China replicates and Europe regulates I often find the maze of European regulations hard to follow and track. It’s ok if you’re tracking one – like that Payment Service Directives and Regulations – but when you’re trying to track many, it’s…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Metro bucks the bank closures trend with plan to open over 100 new branches $300 Billion Gone! What’s Really Happening in the Crypto Market? Trump supporters lose $12bn as president’s cryptocurrency coin collapses FBI fingers North Korea for $1.5B Bybit cryptocurrency heist • The Register February 2025: Top five…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Almost $1 Trillion Loss Rocks Crypto as Trump Excitement Wanes Lloyds Bank overstated interest-bearing deposits to BoE by £44bn Metro Bank sells personal loan book in switch to specialist lending 84% of bank customers would switch for AI-powered insights BNY Teams With OpenAI to Bring ‘Transformational’ AI to Banking…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: Bitcoin price down: Cryptocurrency value plunges amid major market worries | The Independent Why is crypto down? Bitcoin value plunges below $90,000 HSBC invests €36m in London fintech ClearScore Is London’s IPO market due a fintech revival? | MoneyWeek German central bank plunges to record €19bn loss BofA CEO: Over-Regulation…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Monzo, Revolut, Starling or Chase? The best digital bank accounts, compared | The Independent How Monzo Bank Built a Cost-Effective, Unorthodox Backup System to Ensure Resilient Banking – InfoQ Banks downgrade top sustainability roles Commonwealth Bank boss makes admission about the future of cash | Daily Mail Better Cryptocurrency…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: ‘Worst hack in history’ as $1.5bn in cryptocurrency stolen | Money News | Sky News HSBC and other banks fined after using chat rooms to discuss gilt trades Four major City banks fined more than £100 million by watchdog Michael Saylor Urges US To Buy 20% Of BTC Supply, Use…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Why are CBDCs not working? After many years we have had many discussions of many countries and many banks talking about launching many central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Today, only three countries have a live CBDC: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria. Doesn’t that feel a bit strange? Well,…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … European regulation strangulation, part 2 America innovates, China replicates and Europe regulates I often find the maze of European regulations hard to follow and track. It’s ok if you’re tracking one – like that Payment Service Directives and Regulations – but when you’re trying to track many, it’s…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Why are CBDCs not working? After many years we have had many discussions of many countries and many banks talking about launching many central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Today, only three countries have a live CBDC: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria. Doesn’t that feel a bit strange? Well,…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … Is BaaS dead? I see a lot of people writing that Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is dead. That saddens me a little, as I created the term twenty years ago – have I mentioned this before? – but I agree. It is now past its prime. It was replaced by open…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Elon Musk now controls the American payments system I feel like a continual splurge of Musk is happening, ever since Donald Trump became President, but the latest is really interesting as Elon Musk is now in control of the Treasury department payments system that runs America. The challenges of…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Five key impacts of #Brexit five years on Five years ago, on 31 January 2020, the UK left the European Union. BBC Verify, the BBC’s fact checking service, just wrote a really interesting report on the impact. They cite analysis in five key areas: trade, immigration, travel, laws…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Digital Trust: How do you know you are you? For many years now, we have been talking about digital identity. The core is how to prove you are you. You have to be identified, verified, authenticated and approved. You would think with so many layers of monitoring access…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Britain’s recent budgets feel like a long walk on a short cliff I’m not going to make any political statements, but have been watching UK political activity for the past few months, as has Elon Musk and others. In particular, there have been two milestone budget events in…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions are all about 2025 and what people predict … The World in 2025 Welcome to 2025! As usual, at the start of the year, there are a whole raft of predictions as to what will happen. I used to write my own personal predictions and review them at the end…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … The Top Ten Blog Posts for 2024 2024 has been a bumper year for this blog. According to Google Analytics, the blog has 175,000 active users, an increase of 30% over 2023, with near 300,000 views and a million interactions and so, as usual, I share the most…
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2024 has been a bumper year for this blog. According to Google Analytics, the blog has 175,000 active users, an increase of 30% over 2023, with near 300,000 views and a million interactions and so, as usual, I share the most read blog entries at the end of the year. Here are the Top 10…
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