Welcome to The Finanser by Chris Skinner. The Finanser discusses all things FinTech, finance, banking, technology and, most importantly, the future. To make an enquiry about having Chris write or speak for you, here’s an illustration of his presentations … … Chris Skinner has regularly forecast the changes in finance driven by technology. He is…
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Someone came up with the idea of running a series of events called Dinner with Skinner … no idea who would have thought that up … and so I run and moderate many discussions with fintech firms and bankers around the topics chosen by sponsors. The latest one was looking at a key question: how…
Read More
I was reading stories over the weekend of hundreds of branch closures planned by banks. This has been forecast for years – back in the 1990s, it was clear that branch based distribution was unsustainable and costly – but it has finally hit. When I was a lad, for example, there were over 20,000 bank…
Read More
I’m always looking for innovations in new banks and spent some time with MYbank, the bank created by Ant Group in 2014. My first visit was in 2017, and the bank was doing well. Focusing upon SMEs, the bank shot to massive growth volumes, making a staggering $30 billion in loans in first quarter 2022…
Read More
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has sent Goldman Sachs a proposal to end their partnership within the next year, leaving Apple to find a new backer for its financial products. The Apple Card program was launched in 2019 to great fanfare but, within a year, Goldman Sachs was lamenting losses and costs for the partnership….
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Things we’re reading today include … Adyen to act as global acquiring bank for Klarna (finextra.com) Exploring Saudi Arabia’s Fintech Renaissance: A Documentary Journey with Riyadh’s Visionary Leaders | The Fintech Times The Fintech Files: Bitcoin’s $100bn weekly jump is not just FOMO (fnlondon.com) Today’s AI funding rush reminds me of the fintech investing hype…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bitcoin price at $100,000 in 2024? Crypto execs say bull run has begun (cnbc.com) Crypto collapse: SEC brings regulatory clarity to Kraken and Celsius (davidgerard.co.uk) A fast growing UK fintech says it will outpace Starling soon (cityam.com) Swiss bank Banque Pictet admits hiding Americans’ income from IRS (cnbc.com) Qatar…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … How to exorcise Europe’s zombie banks (ft.com) Metro Bank: What’s going on and is my money safe? – BBC News British digital pound ‘will raise risk of bank runs’ (telegraph.co.uk) The surprisingly powerful programming language loved by Stripe (efinancialcareers.co.uk) Hackers extorting fintech unicorn Tipalti, threaten to leak data of…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … When you’ve already offended customers, is it a good idea to tell them: “go f**k yourself”? This blog often talks about Elon Musk, but then it also looks at the activities of Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and more. They all share several things: billionaries, visionaries, autism and a…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … After Goldman, a murky future for the Apple card – Fintech News A fintech might replace Goldman Sachs as Apple Card issuer (9to5mac.com) Zepz, a $5 billion fintech unicorn, is laying off more staff (cnbc.com) Debanking saga spills into US as customers fume over closure of bank accounts (gbnews.com)…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Fintech firm SoFi set to exit cryptocurrency business | Reuters Crypto finally feels the full force of the law (msn.com) EY’s annual fintech census finds the number of new startups emerging has dropped dramatically – Startup Daily How Deutsche Bank Is Helping Companies Finance Their Path To Net Zero…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … When you’ve already offended customers, is it a good idea to tell them: “go f**k yourself”? This blog often talks about Elon Musk, but then it also looks at the activities of Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and more. They all share several things: billionaries, visionaries, autism and a…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … When we talk about customer journeys, what do we mean? I was struck by one slide in a presentation the other day. The slide stated this: I need a mortgage … to buy a house Why did this strike me? Probably because you realise, from the customer view,…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … Massive innovations in SME finances using the latest tech #SFF In case you didn’t notice, this week was the week of the #SingaporeFinTechFestival. Although I was in Asia last week, this week I’ve been invited to be in America and so could not attend. Nevertheless, my good friends…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Are we cashless and branchless now? I’ve just been travelling Asia and went on a trip where the entrance to the first attraction – the batcave! – was two ringgits. That’s Malaysian currency and the equivalent of around half a dollar. As per usual these days, I have…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The rise and fall of a cryptopunk How could I not make a blog about Sam Bankman-Fried who, yesterday, was found guilty of running a Ponzi scheme smash-and-grab using cryptocurrency? Well, I couldn’t, so here it is. Yesterday Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the tousle-haired mogul who founded the FTX…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The end of the smartphone? I’ve predicted the death of many things. The death of the keyboard, the death of the plastic card, the death of cash and cheques, the death of the branch, the death of main street and the death of the computer itself. Now, we…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Is Hamas funded by crypto? I hate stepping into controversy, and I know that this column is going to be really unpopular, but the latest reporting of terrorist funding using cryptocurrencies is seriously biased. This specifically relates to Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon respectively. The latest…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Forget cashless as cash is the only payment system that works During the summer, there’s been a lot of news about cash. A new €500 banknote is coming whilst, on the converse, a lot of people have been discussing life using cash. Is cash still relevant? Do we…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Generative finance, or GeFi for short We’ve had DeFi, CeFi, ReFi and more, but now it’s time for GeFi. If those phrases confuse you, we have Decentralised Finance versus Centralised Finance; we have Regenerative Finance, and now we have Generative Finance, or GeFi for short. What is GeFi?…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Gaming + AI + The Metaverse = ? I was asking the other day whether it is better or worse that my children play video games rather than watch movies, and the reaction was: time moves on. It surely does. The gaming industry is now bigger than Hollywood…
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At another recent conference McKinsey presented. Now it is easy to take a pop at McKinsey but they have produced some useful reports recently, specifically: McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2023 Fintechs: A new paradigm of growth So, I was interested in their presentation. One slide in particular stood out, titled: the four key drivers…
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In a guest column six years ago James Vaccaro, then Director of Corporate Strategy at Triodos Bank, introduced the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Banking to my community. Six years later, are they working? Apparently not. In a new guest column, James argues the industry efforts may be authentic, but they need better management to…
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I’ve predicted the death of many things. The death of the keyboard, the death of the plastic card, the death of cash and cheques, the death of the branch, the death of main street and the death of the computer itself. Now, we have the death of the phone. As I look to the future,…
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Everyone who knows me well, knows that I grew up with David Bowie as my real-life Hero. I saw him concert regularly, until he stopped touring in the 2000s, and loved the fact that not only did he produce unique music, but nearly every time it was performance and music. He was first to really…
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I’ve been sitting and thinking. Not a bad thing, but a dangerous thing. I’ve been sitting and thinking about AI, Artificial Intelligence. How will AI change banking and finance? Specifically, how could we use AI to change banking and finance? When I think about this, I think about how banking has changed since the last…
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Lots of discussions these days are about AI. AI this, AI that, AI movie, AI influencers, even AI pop. (the K-pop group Mave do not exist – they are generated by AI) Every day, these developments shock and intrigue me. But what does this mean for banking and finance? Well, I guess there are some…
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We’ve had DeFi, CeFi, ReFi and more, but now it’s time for GeFi. If those phrases confuse you, we have Decentralised Finance versus Centralised Finance; we have Regenerative Finance, and now we have Generative Finance, or GeFi for short. What is GeFi? It’s the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into finance. This all started with…
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When I was a lad – a good start for any commentary – we didn’t know nothing about money. I got pocket money from my dad but, if I begged hard enough and long enough, my dad would relent and buy me that Batman Corgi car I had been lusting after. At school, they taught…
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I was intrigued by The Financial Brand’s autumn (Fall) magazine about younger folks or, as some call them, Gen Z. Personally, I’m not a fan of demographics. You can throw people into buckets of ages, but not everyone of a certain age behaves the same way. Neverhteless, there are some interesting perspectives of how Gen…
Read MoreIn a guest column six years ago James Vaccaro, then Director of Corporate Strategy at Triodos Bank, introduced the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Banking to my community. Six years later, are they working? Apparently not. In a new guest column, James argues the industry efforts may be authentic, but they need better management to…
Read More
I recently was introduced to VDK Bank, a community bank based in Ghent, Belgium, by Rik Coeckelbergs. The bank has done something interesting, launching a three-sided coin. The idea is to triple your thinking. The three-dimensional bank focuses upon customer, community and then the third dimension is to think about how money impacts the planet….
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During the summer, we are struck by massive wildfires taking place across the Americas and Europe. The devastation to Hawaii is specifically notable, but what about Greece, Tenerife and Canada and the rest. This is not normal. Then you go from wildfires in California to floods and mudslides in the same place. This is not…
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I was recently wondering which banks are the most green. Names come to mind like Co-operative Bank (UK), Triodos Bank (Netherlands), Alandsbanken (Finland), MyBank (China), Amalgamated Bank (America) and more, but they are few and far between. Some are committed and some are just paying lip service or, as we say, greenwashing. The difference is…
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I spotted an interview with Richard Curtis the other day about his campaign to change how pensions funds invest. The campaign is called Make my money matter and asks institutional investors, pension funds and banks to ensure that they invest in a sustainable way. Discussing this in an interview with Akshat Rathi in the podcast…
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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expected former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga to be elected president of the World Bank as nominations drew to a close. It is not surprising as, when nominations closed at 6pm in Washington yesterday, there were no other publicly declared candidates. Who is Mr. Banga? According to Wikipedia, Ajay…
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I’ve been subscribed to Make My Money Matter for a while. It’s a movement started by Comic Relief co-founder Richard Curtis – he of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame – and is trying to put pressure on pension funds to influence financial institutions to only invest in things that protect our future, as in…
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Last year I invited Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, to write a monthly column explaining her motivations and methods. You can read those, and other climate and ESG related blogs, here. One specific column she contributed was asking how they could justify breaking bank windows. Extinction Rebellion lobbied HSBC and Barclays Bank specifically in…
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I was surprised to be voted one of the leading thinkers on Climate Change by Thinkers360 … Delighted to find myself as one of the top thinkers about #ClimateChange 2022 from @thinkers360https://t.co/gKj0JwICSZ — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 3, 2023 It’s probably based on my last book, and I don’t think of myself as a climate…
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The cryptocurrency industry is maturing and, as it does so, the government, statists and regulators are diving in to control it, as are the banks and financial institutions. In fact, it intrigued me when talking with a major institution the other day that they said they could have been Coinbase, if only their management team…
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I’ve just been travelling Asia and went on a trip where the entrance to the first attraction – the batcave! – was two ringgits. That’s Malaysian currency and the equivalent of around half a dollar. As per usual these days, I have no cash and this was the first and only time in my one…
Read More
After Terra-LUNA, SBF and FTX, and the whole wild west of digital currencies, stablecoins are now in fashion as the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) outlined the UK plans for legitimising stablecoins yesterday. Bear in mind these are not CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), but currencies backed by CBDCs, fiat currencies or…
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How could I not make a blog about Sam Bankman-Fried who, yesterday, was found guilty of running a Ponzi scheme smash-and-grab using cryptocurrency? Well, I couldn’t, so here it is. Yesterday Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the tousle-haired mogul who founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was convicted of all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy after a…
Read More
I hate stepping into controversy, and I know that this column is going to be really unpopular, but the latest reporting of terrorist funding using cryptocurrencies is seriously biased. This specifically relates to Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon respectively. The latest violence taking place between Israel and Palestine is awful. No one can…
Read More
The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and creator of what many call a Ponzi scheme called FTX, has started in New York. FTX was a cryptocurrency exchange that, like MtGox a decade before, lost millions/billions of dollars of investor’s money. C’est la vie. There’s lots of reportage out there about the trial, the background, the…
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This is quite a complicated update, but it came to mind when I saw that JPMorgan analysts are predicting stablecoins could destabilise the traditional financial markets. This is because the Federal Reserve decided in April that money funds created for the sole purpose of accessing its overnight reverse repo facility, which is called ON RRP,…
Read MoreWhen I was a lad – a good start for any commentary – we didn’t know nothing about money. I got pocket money from my dad but, if I begged hard enough and long enough, my dad would relent and buy me that Batman Corgi car I had been lusting after. At school, they taught…
Read More
It’s coming. It’s been talked about for years. It’s finally here. Tokens. Physical and digital assets are being tokenized. In fact, maybe your DNA has been tokenized. Soon, everything will be tokenized. We talked about this years ago, but it’s notable that VISA, SWIFT, BNY Mellon and JP Morgan are now tokenizing. In a number…
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Someone came up with the idea of running a series of events called Dinner with Skinner … no idea who would have thought that up … and so I run and moderate many discussions with fintech firms and bankers around the topics chosen by sponsors. The latest one was looking at a key question: how…
Read More
I’m always looking for innovations in new banks and spent some time with MYbank, the bank created by Ant Group in 2014. My first visit was in 2017, and the bank was doing well. Focusing upon SMEs, the bank shot to massive growth volumes, making a staggering $30 billion in loans in first quarter 2022…
Read More
We are living in a cost of living crisis. Boil this down to the essentials: can you afford to live? Many of us cannot. Energy bills have gone through the roof; basic essentials from food to shampoo are twice the cost they were; and the idea of a holiday for many has become a dream,…
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The internet isn’t working today. My phone is stuck on a screen saying trying to connect. My laptop has this continuing circle of stuckness. It is seriously annoying. When digital breaks down, it leaves you stranded. That’s OK. It’s cool. Except that, when you depend upon digital, it screws up your day, especially for those…
Read MoreI’ve just been travelling Asia and went on a trip where the entrance to the first attraction – the batcave! – was two ringgits. That’s Malaysian currency and the equivalent of around half a dollar. As per usual these days, I have no cash and this was the first and only time in my one…
Read More
If banking was delivered like a song, how would it feel? Would it have emotion and belief, or just be delivered as words and music by a robot? The difference between customer engagement and customer service is pretty much the difference between delivering a stage song and being on the stage. I am a huge…
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In a land known as Fed, there are two superheroes: AML and KYC. They fly around the world looking for villains attacking the financial markets and aim to zap them. It is a difficult task, and getting more and more difficult every day, but they try … and they fail. In 2009, the estimated annual…
Read MoreHow could I not make a blog about Sam Bankman-Fried who, yesterday, was found guilty of running a Ponzi scheme smash-and-grab using cryptocurrency? Well, I couldn’t, so here it is. Yesterday Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the tousle-haired mogul who founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was convicted of all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy after a…
Read More
Why am I writing about Poland? First answer, because I am married to a Polish lady. We met in a night club where she was on the dancefloor … I’ve always been attracted to Pole dancers. Second, because I moved to Poland five years ago and it is a fascinating country. One of Europe’s fastest…
Read MoreSomeone came up with the idea of running a series of events called Dinner with Skinner … no idea who would have thought that up … and so I run and moderate many discussions with fintech firms and bankers around the topics chosen by sponsors. The latest one was looking at a key question: how…
Read More
I was reading stories over the weekend of hundreds of branch closures planned by banks. This has been forecast for years – back in the 1990s, it was clear that branch based distribution was unsustainable and costly – but it has finally hit. When I was a lad, for example, there were over 20,000 bank…
Read MoreI’m always looking for innovations in new banks and spent some time with MYbank, the bank created by Ant Group in 2014. My first visit was in 2017, and the bank was doing well. Focusing upon SMEs, the bank shot to massive growth volumes, making a staggering $30 billion in loans in first quarter 2022…
Read More
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has sent Goldman Sachs a proposal to end their partnership within the next year, leaving Apple to find a new backer for its financial products. The Apple Card program was launched in 2019 to great fanfare but, within a year, Goldman Sachs was lamenting losses and costs for the partnership….
Read MoreAt another recent conference McKinsey presented. Now it is easy to take a pop at McKinsey but they have produced some useful reports recently, specifically: McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2023 Fintechs: A new paradigm of growth So, I was interested in their presentation. One slide in particular stood out, titled: the four key drivers…
Read More
Space … the final frontier … these are the voyages of the challenger bank Trekkie. Our mission: to boldly go where no bank has gone before. Today, we landed on planet Earth and decided to look at financial inclusion, and the role of banks in ensuring everyone has access to an account. In some countries,…
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I just chaired a major retailers conference in Malmo, Sweden. Not a payments conference or retail payments conference or merchants payments conference. A retailers conference. It surprised me how much of the discussion was about loyalty, customer engagement and customer retention, as those discussions rarely come up at payments conferences. In fact, when I listed…
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I was struck by one slide in a presentation the other day. The slide stated this: I need a mortgage … to buy a house Why did this strike me? Probably because you realise, from the customer view, that financial services has nothing to do with money. It is 100% to do with living a…
Read More
I was thinking about what it would be like to be a bank CEO right now. That happens quite often, and I often attend meetings where these things are discussed and the challenges that bank CEO’s face. The last great presentation I saw such insights was when we had the CEO of the British Bankers’ Association…
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Global 100 - 2024 Winner
Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023
Best Financial Markets Advisor of the Year 2023
