Chris Skinner's blog Shaping the future of finance

I’ve written so much that you would think there was nothing more to write. But there always is. One thing about all I’ve written that is consistent is leadership. What seems to be annoying me the most is a lack of leadership or, rather, a …

Things we’re reading today include … Bank of England ‘addicted’ to creating money, say peers Why the Bank of England has its head in the cloud over data security Online banking and gaming services hit by internet outage JPMorgan Becomes The First Big Bank To …

That old expression that what goes up must come down applies to so many things. An umbrella goes up and down, dependent upon the weather. Company executives who are going up will come down, most times. And businesses that appear to be bullet-proof can stumble …

Things we’re reading today include … Challenger Bank Five-Year Progress Report Why Jack Dorsey’s Square may become the go-to small business bank Capital One Adding 3,000 Tech Staff To Build On Cloud Banking Leadership Challenger bank Revolut bets on travel rebound Yapily raises $51 million …

Not sure about you, but I would really like to fly to the moon. It seems mad, but flying anywhere seemed mad a century ago. Flying around the world is a reality today, as long as there’s no pandemic, so flying around the solar system …

Things we’re reading today include: Digital-only banks will nab 6.5 out of 10 digital account openings in pandemic rebound Big banks are getting even bigger, raising alarms in Washington UBS Outshines Wall Street Peers. Now Do It Again Central Bank Digital Currencies Will (Not) Make …

I’ve been isolating too much and watching too much TV. Binging on Netflix, Amazon Prime and such like, almost every film I watch seems to be the same. Good versus Evil and Order versus Chaos. Half of society seems determined to make everything sunny and …

Things we’re reading today include … Australia’s biggest bank promises no one will be kicked out of their home until February 2022 Thousands of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland customers locked out of their accounts Danske Bank introduces carbon neutral mortgage A scandal cost …

For the last more than a decade, all I’ve ever heard bankers say is that bitcoin is a scam, a Ponzi scheme, purely useful for money launderers, paedophiles and terrorists. So, why are banks now offering bitcoin services? For me, this is one of the …

Things we’re reading today include … Bunq raises $228m at $1.9bn valuation Bank of America Approves Bitcoin Futures Trading for Some Clients With open banking, the FinTech-SME love story is just beginning Will China’s digital yuan help Hong Kong go cashless? Don’t bank on it …

The main blog discussions this week included … You need to add physical to digital, not vice versa I had a long drive last week and noticed five or six massive warehouses by the side of the motorway. It made me reflect on a new …

A final thought for the week on bank transformation. I often talk to banks. Some I’ve spoken to for decades. It shocks me that, after decades, they still have exactly the same issues. Fragmentation of data; an organisation built over decades with systems that are …

Things we’re reading today include … Fed’s Powell ‘legitimately undecided’ on central bank digital currency Radius, Now LendingClub, Bank Review Digital bank Revolut valued at $33 billion in funding round led by SoftBank and Tiger Global Deutsche Bank’s Spanish mis-selling scandal widens Bank of England …

I see more and more stories about banks messing up customer accounts, system outages, data mismanagement, issues with technology and more. This is the one thing a bank cannot mess up. Airlines may mess up a booking; Amazon may mess up a delivery; BT or …

Things we’re reading today include … The ECB starts work on creating a digital version of the euro 80 central banks looking at digital currencies Banks on Wall Street report bumper second-quarter profits Cryptocurrencies don’t yet pose a threat to financial stability, Bank of England’s …

After a year and a half, I presented my first keynote with a physical audience yesterday. It’s FinTech Week London! It’s a whole week, in London, talking about FinTech. That’s a surprise, huh? The interesting thing is that, after people have been locked up for …

Things we’re reading today include … Starling Bank supercharges its marketing with electric car tie-up Europe’s central bank has a plan — now comes the hard part Elon Musk turned down banking to work 120 hour weeks in tech The marketplace where your bank details …

I had a long drive last week and noticed five or six massive warehouses by the side of the motorway. It made me reflect on a new warehouse world. I’ve already lamented the loss of main street stores and likely end of malls but, equally, …

Things we’re reading today include … Fashionable digital transformation specialists keep leaving banks Bank profits are poised to surge as the pandemic recedes Central bank cryptocurrencies: Bank of International Settlements says lets work together The European Central Bank focuses on climate change ‘Death By A …

Several friends have been sharing very personal stories online recently about their childhood, their challenges, their career mistakes, their changes, their everything. I’m not one of those. I’m a private guy, and guess the one thing I’ve shared that most people appreciated is my blog …

Things we’re reading today include … 11:FS, Starling, Snoop and Zopa among the big British Bank Awards 2021 winners Britons may have their bank account and social media monitored Banks have helped the scammers to thrive ECB to crack down on dangerous risks in banks’ …

This week’s main blog discussions included … Hello, would you like to be our CEO? I was imagining if I walked into a big bank job today. You are hired as CEO of Mega-Global-Bank PLC. What’s going on? Well, number one, no-one has any idea …

My yesterday blog about COVOID idiocrasy annoyed a few people. I was accused of writing a common tabloid ranting column, railing against the government. Yea … … so? So? So … so, I wrote it with a point. How are they implementing these COVOID regulations? …

Things we’re reading today include … China’s central bank is ‘quite worried’ about global risks from some digital currencies BofA Debuts Crypto Research Team in Latest Wall Street Push Turkish bank Akbank resumes services after major blackout Revolt Against Bank Fees Mints a $3 Billion …

I’m reflecting on COVID rules. As a guy who lives in Europe, the rules are that I need to fill in passenger locator forms, get a pre-flight COVID test (fit to fly), and a landing form registered with a QR code. It’s challenging and clunky, …

I grew up as an Englishman. Then I became British. Now, I’m a European. But then we had Brexit and all the other stuff. Yet now I live in Poland. I believe in a world of the future that has no borders, no flags, no …

Things we’re reading today include … Chime, A Banking App, Has Been Suddenly Closing Accounts, Sometimes Not Returning Customers’ Money Bank of England searches for new CIO amid once-in-a-generation project Atom Bank reaches £3bn mortgage completions and £1bn savings mark Deutsche Bank Steals UBS Wealth …

I was imagining if I walked into a big bank job today. You are hired as CEO of Mega-Global-Bank PLC. What’s going on? Well, number one, no-one has any idea where the economy is going. There’s a global pandemic. Everything is up in the air, …