Chris Skinner's blog Shaping the future of finance

Due to various connections, I was asked to deliver the opening keynote speech at the United Nations High Level Political Forum last week (some coverage here). It was one of those rare occasions where I got nervous, looking out at the faces of dignitaries from …

Things we’re reading today include … French financial regulator wants more flexible market rules U.S. proposes barring big tech companies from offering financial services, digital currencies City regulator fines balloon to £320m in six months Will Mark Carney and George Osborne vie for the top …

The main blog headlines are … Two weeks to pay someone? Luxury! Being raised on Monty Python, an old sketch popped into my head (The Four Yorkshire Men) and led to a thought. A grandfather and grandson are at the dinner table … Grandfather: Ah, when …

A lot of discussion at the United Nations, where I’ve been all week (blogging about that next week), has raised the question of Libra, the Facebook digital currency. I’m avoiding calling it a cryptocurrency, as it’s more a stablecoin that is focused upon transactions, which …

A few years ago, I posted a guest article from Philippe Gelis, co-founder and CEO of FX firm Kantox, on Why FinTech Banks will rule the world. It was very popular and made my top ten posts of 2015, and Philippe has been kind enough …

Things we’re reading today include … Digital banks seek to turn popularity into profits At a Grim Moment for Banking Jobs, Citigroup Says It’s Hiring HSBC urged to apologise after boss praised Chinese regime Kids empty their parents’ bank account trying to buy Lionel Messi …

I often talk about the world changing thanks to young people who can code. My examples include John and Patrick Collison, Stripe, who were 19 and 21 when they started their business; Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, who were in their mid-20’s when they created …

Things we’re reading today include … What’s the point of a bank if it won’t accept cash? Piper Jaffray buys rival investment bank Sandler O’Neill for $485m Critics round on Deutsche Bank for golden parachutes Deutsche Bank bosses fitted for £1,200 suits as thousands lose …

The next day, the grandson came to visit his grandfather again, and immediately returned to the conversation of yesterday. Grandson: Granddad, you know you were talking about how money and banking used to be. Well, I think it’s a lot better today. Granddad: How so, …

Things we’re reading today include … Big ax falls as Deutsche Bank to lay off 18,000 in $8.3 billion ‘reinvention’ What went wrong at Deutsche Bank? Deutsche Bank shares rise as 18,000 global job cuts begin One-fifth of sole traders close down within a year …

Being raised on Monty Python, an old sketch popped into my head (The Four Yorkshire Men) and led to a thought. A grandfather and grandson are at the dinner table … Grandfather: Ah, when I was a lad, life was very different. Grandson: In what way, …

The main blog headlines are … How can you be AI with DD? No, I don’t mean Attention Deficit Disorder, which would be ADD, but I mean Artificially Intelligent with Dumb Data. Now, I know I moan on and on about fragmented legacy systems, but …

No, I don’t mean Attention Deficit Disorder, which would be ADD, but I mean Artificially Intelligent with Dumb Data. Now, I know I moan on and on about fragmented legacy systems, but I honestly have no idea how a bank could ever be able to …

Things we’re reading today include … In Brexit Britain, battling home lenders chase risk and pensioners Nearly half of global wages received by top 10%, survey finds Osborne thinks he could run the IMF. Maybe gaslighting a country is a useful skill | Faiza Shaheen …

Building on yesterday’s blog about reports that are useful, I just found another one from UK Finance (formerly the British Bankers Association) on how they see AI in banking, released last week. The report is in two parts that address what they see as the …

An interesting report came out this week saying that UK consumers would access mobile banking apps more often than branches in the next two years. It got covered on the BBC, Sky News and lots of other media, but I was thinking in the next …

Things we’re reading today include … The rise of the CEO as social justice warrior | Jill Priluck Wall Street looks to earnings after strongest June in decades Breakdown of global trading system is looming, Australian economist warns Japan payment systems: paper qualifications Why Facebook’s …

I was talking to a Securitisation conference the other day. Securitisation? What’s that? Well, I could explain but if you don’t know google it and you’ll find it’s one of those areas of financial markets that destroyed economies a decade ago and left us all …

I’ve been involved in finance and technology for a long, long time. Originally, I was a technologist; then a financial technologist; and now a FinTech guy. However, I see the FinTech piece as being irrelevant. Whether it’s FinTech or TechFin, it’s all still just finance …

Things we’re reading today include … Deutsche Bank in wealth management hiring spree What first-home buyers should know about ‘bank of mum and dad’ Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pays out $38bn in divorce settlement Catch-22 and the real and immediate danger of Brexit Fearing stock market …

The main blog headlines are … Platform, marketplace, ecosystem … buzzword bingo! I encounter lots of banter about platforms, marketplaces and ecosystems, and do wonder in the flippant way people use them interchangeably whether they really understand what they are talking about. I’m sure many …

I was having an interesting conversation with a guy who had joined a big bank having previously worked in Big Tech. The guy was headhunted by the bank to be a gamechanger (GC), and had been gifted the ability to do almost whatever he wanted …