Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 27th October –  2nd November 2025

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This week’s main discussions include …

CBDC? Computer says no …

I find it so interesting the debate about CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), stablecoins (a digital currency backed by real world assets) and cryptocurrencies (a digital currency backed by the decentralised network of everyone). This is the biggest battleground for the future of how we trade and are paid, and the losers appear to be…

The end of search engines and browsers

I’ve written for years about “the end of …” somethings a lot. The death of cards; the end of cash; the branchless future; the murder of the keyboard; and more … and they’ve all come true. We are cashless, cardless and branchless today, although I still love my keyboard. Sure, I can record voice memos…

Bankers and climate change: a disaster waiting to happen?

Warning: if you work for a bank, this is a rant and you probably won’t like it Over the last decade or so, there’s been a big rise of Greentech and Green Fintech. Unfortunately, the banking industry isn’t listening. I wrote a book about it, along with over twenty other contributors, and the gist is…

PNBL or BNPL?

My friend Ron Shevlin was putting some shade on Starbucks app this week. The reason is that some claim Starbucks is a bank because their prepaid app is so popular. Ron claims it is just PNBL – Pay Now, Buy Later – and is nothing to do with being a bank. The thing about his view…

The next wave of tech change

I just got a whole new set of tech phrases from a Gartner report. Giving my interpretation, here we go: Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is a proposed framework for Device Direct connectivity using satellite and cellular communication combination. The framework enables partnership between satellite (specifically low Earth orbit [LEO]) providers and terrestrial mobile operators…

 

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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...