This week’s main blog discussions included …
Financial sanctions: a reality check
Some friends were applauding Visa and MasterCard’s decision to throw Russia off their payments networks over the weekend. Both companies handle 90% of all debit and credit card payments outside of China – and their announcements will deal another significant blow to the Russian economy. It …
This BBC article … The remarkable items that have been used as currency … got me thinking about tokenisation. The article discusses the use of shells, specifically the seasnail shell called a cowrie, and how it became a global currency by around 1200BC. Although the …
Start with the way people behave, not how you design
Thinking about process redesign, I remember when the ATM was invented. I wasn’t there – I’m not that old – but I remember reading about the great debate they had as banks didn’t believe people would be able to remember a PIN. The BBC reports that …
Has the pandemic transformed banking to be digital forever?
Question: Has retail banking transformed to be digital forever? Answer: No. I’ve always said that banking can never be purely digital as it needs a human touch. It needs the ability to talk to someone as money is the second most important thing in our …
I watch the world through the lens of the network, and have noticed that China is leading the world with digital currencies. The digital yuan is ready for release in time for the winter Olympics and a CBDC is likely to be launched in China …
This week's major news headlines included ...
- U.S. Treasury launches campaign to educate public about crypto risks
- White House launches comprehensive plan for cryptocurrency regulation
- Key takeaways from Biden's executive order on cryptocurrencies
- China is ahead of developed countries when it comes to its central bank digital currency
- Russia turns to China as PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and AmEx suspend payments
- Trading in NFTs spiked 21,000% to more than $17 billion in 2021, report says
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...
