Chris Skinner's blog Shaping the future of finance

I finally finished writing my new book. I’m not going to say too much about it, as it now has to go through a lengthy editing cycle and will be released next year. A key theme in the new book is financial inclusion and, to those …

Things we’re reading today include … City warns transition deal ‘disappearing by the day’ as May heads to Brussels  Fintech market moves beyond lending Wi-fi security flaw ‘puts devices at risk of hacks’ Financial regulator warns of growing debt among young people Uncertainty over Brexit …

I recently stumbled across a marketing campaign being run by UBS, which tries to answer the hardest questions in the world. The questions cover everything from equality to politics and, to illustrate what they are debating, here are a few examples: Why is there such a …

Things we’re reading today include … A Bank of England rate hike would be ‘extraordinary’ step for Britain’s Brexit economy As the quartet breaks up, central banking leadership flux looms Lloyds shareholders’ court case over HBOS takeover set to begin Can the UK make the …

The top blog posts of the last fortnight include … The next ten years of technology from Gartner and Skinner I just spotted that Gartner have made a series of ten bold predictions for IT 2018 and beyond. They are summarised nicely by Forbes and …

Things we’re reading today include … Who is John Flint? The new HSBC boss knows the business inside out UK banks plan biggest squeeze on consumer credit since 2008 Lloyds Bank swoops on Zurich’s UK pensions and savings business Equifax removes webpage after malware issue …

I’ve blogged on some of the themes I’m going to cover below, but the story gets clearer and clearer in my head the more I blog about and talk about it, so this version may be a little clearer than some that have gone before. …

I find it interesting as we move towards Open Banking and Open APIs through regulations at both the UK and EU levels. The push is for data sharing with trusted third parties with user consent. All well and good, you would think, but several surveys …

I blogged about the FinTech themes that came out of the Celero conference the other day and forgot to mention that I recently joined a one-day retreat at Payments International in London, as a facilitator. I don’t do such intimate work very often, where I …

This quote If you’re getting something for free, you are the product has been floating around for a while, and normally is related to Facebook and Google. It’s all about the fact that these companies are selling you to advertisers as clickbait. Facebook, Google, Twitter …

Following on from talking around the big ten tech themes last Friday, I thought I would follow up with five FinTech themes for right now.  This came out of a keynote speech I gave at Celero’s 9th annual technology conference in Canada last week. It was …

Things we’re reading today include … Swedish challenger bank Handelsbanken commits to UK but wants Brexit clarity Have we learned our lessons from the financial crisis? Don’t bank on it EU raids Polish and Dutch banking groups over fintech access Staley scrutinised as Barclays faces …

I just spotted that Gartner have made a series of ten bold predictions for IT 2018 and beyond. They are summarised nicely by Forbes and are: By 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual- and voice-search will increase digital commerce revenue …

Things we’re reading today include … Goldman Sachs boosts post-Brexit plans with Frankfurt office deal Fearless Girl statue firm faced down in equal pay row Exclusive: SEC’s corporate filing system vulnerable to denial of service attacks – memo Robo advice: buy, buy, buy Iceland PM …

I was talking about space exploration with a colleague the other day. They looked at me rather incredulously and wondered if I was a little bit barking mad. No, I’m quite serious, I explained, and put the case for the view that my children will …

Things we’re reading today include … Soaring rates of ‘shadow banking’ add to fears of Chinese debt, warns World Bank Orange is launching Orange Bank on November 2 Foiled £250m Brazil bank robbery ‘would have been biggest in the world’ U.S. lawmakers seek to shut …

I get lots of input from many sources, and one of the ones I like is the innovation survey of banking produced annually by EFMA with Accenture. It also usually proves to be one of the most read items on my blog – here’s the …

Things we’re reading today include … Employee lenders are one of the fastest-growing areas of UK fintech EU banks are not taking Brexit risks seriously enough, warns BoE Wells Fargo boss should be fired, says senator The bank that wants to employ more disabled workers: …

There’s a report coming out later today that sets out the Corporation of London’s Brexit plans, and the deal the City wants with Europe. There is also something that occurs to me which might protect the City’s interests more than anyone expects. It is the …

Things we’re reading today include … Bank of England tells lenders to find £116bn to help prevent bailouts Exclusive: U.S. mulls further Wells Fargo sanction over sales abuses – source Banks to switch to real-time payments from Australia Day Bank of England sets out bank …

I’ve said continually that firms like Google and Amazon will never open a bank. I still believe that this will be the case – Facebook and Apple also fall into this view – and mainly hold this view because these companies would find full service …

Things we’re reading today include … Two thirds of consumers don’t want to share financial data in blow to ‘open banking’ revolution Equifax reviews its top lawyer’s role in executive stock sales: WSJ Three million small businesses still don’t accept cards, despite move away from …