Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 29th April – 5th May 2019

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The main blog headlines are …

Banking in the Cloud

One of the surprises I have had in my discussions with banks that are doing digital well, is how all of them seem profoundly committed to cloud-computing. Some more than others, as one of the banks I spoke to wants to achieve over 80% of …

Cloud sense … dollars and cents

Talking of cloud computing, I’ve spent years backing up my various PCs and photo libraries. Invariably, a labour of love, I didn’t trust public cloud services like Google and Microsoft to look after my stuff properly. Then, gradually, over time, more and more of my …

Smile to pay … and cry for credit

There were two headlines recently that arrived side-by-side: Will telephone bank passwords become obsolete? Does my new biometric bank card really mean the death of the Pin? Neither headline is particularly news – voice recognition for telephone banking and biometric bank cards have been floating …

How will UK FinTech fare in the future?

I just chaired a nice session at the Innovate Finance Global Summit (IFGS) focused upon the future of UK FinTech. For some reason, the question they asked us to focus upon was: What is holding the UK back in the global investment landscape? I didn’t …

200 currencies and 30,000 banks … are they really needed?

As I travel non-stop, I have one trusty little zip-bag in my travel case. It’s a zip-bag full of cables and converters, mainly to keep my phone fully charged all the time. Plug converters for America, Europe, UK and Australia, and cable converters between Apple …

 

And the top news headlines this week are …

RBS takes aim at former subsidiary Worldpay - Financial Times

UK lender launches payment processing business aimed at small and medium-sized businesses

Danske Bank and IBM bring AI to banking IT - Computer Weekly

Artificial intelligence partnership is designed to reduce the risk of major IT outages and keep the bank’s customers happy

Four banks hit by online glitch as customers unable to log in - Sky News

Two banking groups have apologised after customers experienced problems accessing their online accounts.

Barclays’ investment bankers have fallen out of the Premier League - The Guardian

In 2009, Bob Diamond and BarCap were the financial sector’s Man Utd. Now investors want the unit brought to heel Cast your mind back a decade, to the spring of 2009. The UK was four months into its first recession in 18 years, the banking crisis had reached its zenith

RBS begins global hunt for CEO to replace McEwan - Reuters

Royal Bank of Scotland is searching for a new chief executive after Ross McEwan resigned, signaling a fresh start as it heads for full private ownership after a state bailout.

Brexit will slow UK economy for rest of 2019, forecaster warns - Guardian

Uncertainty over future will cut growth and prevent interest rate rise, says EY Item Club The slow-burn impact of Brexit on the British economy will be a drag on growth for the rest of 2019, blocking the Bank of England from raising interest rates, a leading economics forecaster has warned.

Is a cheaper but longer mortgage worth it to get on the ladder? - Guardian

The rapid extension of mortgage terms from 25 to 40 years means different things for different people As the cost of buying a property continues to exceed the budgets of many homebuyers, the prospect of paying less – but for much, much longer than previous generations – has emerged. Recent

UBS seeks to claw back lost ground with DWS tie-up - Financial Times

Swiss-German alliance would create new European champion

Financial watchdog dawn raids reach highest in 8 years - Financial Times

FCA undertook 25 dawn raids in 2018, nearly double the previous year

DBS posts record quarterly profit, powered by lending income - Reuters

DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Southeast Asia's biggest lender, beat market estimates on Monday to post a record quarterly profit, as strong net interest income offset weakness in wealth management, brokerage and investment banking fees.

 

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Chris M Skinner

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...

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