Welcome to The Finanser by Chris Skinner. The Finanser discusses all things fintech, finance, banking, technology and, most importantly, the future. Chris Skinner has been voted the most influential technologist in Britain and received a lifetime achievement award for his visionary approach to the future of money from the Payments Association. He has advised the…
Read More
I often write about Trekonomics, and how our future world might play out based upon a Utopian or Dystopian future. In a Utopian future, Gene Rodenberry – the creator of Star Trek – envisaged humans exploring space to improve humanity. Star Trek is a Utopian future without money, where people trade on the basis of…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … Is fintech complicating the process of payments? Everything I read talks about simplified customer experience in payments and yet, when I look at it, the process of payments is becoming far more complicated. You made a payment in the old world with a bank note or cheque, and…
Read More
Everything I read talks about simplified customer experience in payments and yet, when I look at it, the process of payments is becoming far more complicated. You made a payment in the old world with a bank note or cheque, and it was a simple transaction over the counter. Cash involved two parties: the customer…
Read More
Ten years ago, I was honoured to be invited to the Next Web conference in the Netherlands where I delivered a keynote about sentient banking. The idea is that the bank knows more about your lifestyle and living than you or your partner does. A decade later, thanks to Agentic AI and imminent AGI, we…
Read More
Everything I read talks about simplified customer experience in payments and yet, when I look at it, the process of payments is becoming far more complicated. You made a payment in the old world with a bank note or cheque, and it was a simple transaction over the counter. Cash involved two parties: the customer…
Read MoreI’m discussing a lot about digital currencies these days, and the future of CBDCs, Stablecoins and Crypto. The conversation generally goes along the lines of central banks issuing digital currencies is really unnecessary. No one wants them and no one trusts them. The whole thing is just a scam for governments to track and trace…
Read MoreDiscover how fintech is transforming small business, from mobile payments and AI tools to why the next unicorn might be run from home. I’ve run a small, independent business for almost 25 years. It’s been fun and most of it has been rewarding, except for the accounting, banking and paperwork. No one enjoys that behind-the-scenes…
Read More
After recently attending conferences in Zurich and Paris, with most of the audience coming from the banking community, this week is Money2020 in Amsterdam and the discussions are very different. What’s the difference? Well, bankers debate regulations and fintechs discuss innovations. It constantly strikes me that, during the 2000s, I spent most of my time…
Read More
Some years ago an elderly gentleman entered the lobby of one of Britain’s biggest banks demanding to talk to someone about the £5 million he had been given by David Cameron. A senior manager at the bank took the gentleman to a consultation room, and it turned out that the man had been notified of…
Read More
I hate criticising other people’s work, but I do read some complete claptrap about the future. For example, I just got a report about the future of payments in 2040, that starts with a term Order-to-Cash cycle and then paints a scenario of someone buying an automated car. That was the first few paragraphs and,…
Read More
I just ran across an item from 1994 written by Carmen Hermosillo talking about cyberspace, the internet and the future. It is quite something but TL:DR, so here are a few highlights: Introducing Humdog: Pandora’s Vox Redux (1994) “When I went into cyberspace I went into it thinking that it was a place like any…
Read More
After lots of discussions about how AI is transforming financial services as a new, foundational technology that has massive granularity of use cases, it doesn’t always work. In a very major public about face, Klarna says it doesn’t work. This is the company that saved millions by getting rid of two of five staff. Now,…
Read More
Just continuing the AI theme, it’s really interesting to see what Stripe – latest valuation over $90 billion – is doing with the technology. Effectively, it’s tried to create a GPT for payments. The reason they are pushing the envelope is after seeing great results in earlier developments using traditional machine learning models. These resulted…
Read MoreEverything I read talks about simplified customer experience in payments and yet, when I look at it, the process of payments is becoming far more complicated. You made a payment in the old world with a bank note or cheque, and it was a simple transaction over the counter. Cash involved two parties: the customer…
Read MoreI’m discussing a lot about digital currencies these days, and the future of CBDCs, Stablecoins and Crypto. The conversation generally goes along the lines of central banks issuing digital currencies is really unnecessary. No one wants them and no one trusts them. The whole thing is just a scam for governments to track and trace…
Read MoreDiscover how fintech is transforming small business, from mobile payments and AI tools to why the next unicorn might be run from home. I’ve run a small, independent business for almost 25 years. It’s been fun and most of it has been rewarding, except for the accounting, banking and paperwork. No one enjoys that behind-the-scenes…
Read More
I’ve recently blogged about bank IT outages … Bank IT outages … let’s talk about the bank systems Jenga … and it is getting more and more common. For example, in the UK, Barclays suffered 33 system failures between January 2023 and February 2025, according to data from the House of Commons Treasury select committee….
Read MoreAfter recently attending conferences in Zurich and Paris, with most of the audience coming from the banking community, this week is Money2020 in Amsterdam and the discussions are very different. What’s the difference? Well, bankers debate regulations and fintechs discuss innovations. It constantly strikes me that, during the 2000s, I spent most of my time…
Read More
Following the Swiss meeting, I was then honoured to moderate an opening panel at EBAday with representatives of JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank. We had a wide ranging discussion but, similar to the details of CRD VI, a lot of regulations came up as top-of-mind. MCiA, EUID, CRDVI, PSD3, EUAI etc and it did intrigue me…
Read MoreSome years ago an elderly gentleman entered the lobby of one of Britain’s biggest banks demanding to talk to someone about the £5 million he had been given by David Cameron. A senior manager at the bank took the gentleman to a consultation room, and it turned out that the man had been notified of…
Read MoreI just ran across an item from 1994 written by Carmen Hermosillo talking about cyberspace, the internet and the future. It is quite something but TL:DR, so here are a few highlights: Introducing Humdog: Pandora’s Vox Redux (1994) “When I went into cyberspace I went into it thinking that it was a place like any…
Read More
There’s a very interesting analysis of the cyber attacks on Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods on the BBC this week. If you have access to their iPlayer, then it’s well worth a watch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002d2lh/inside-the-high-street-cyberattacks If you don’t, then here’s the summary as it illustrates our fragile digital world today. In April, Marks &…
Read MoreI’m discussing a lot about digital currencies these days, and the future of CBDCs, Stablecoins and Crypto. The conversation generally goes along the lines of central banks issuing digital currencies is really unnecessary. No one wants them and no one trusts them. The whole thing is just a scam for governments to track and trace…
Read MoreThere’s a very interesting analysis of the cyber attacks on Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods on the BBC this week. If you have access to their iPlayer, then it’s well worth a watch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002d2lh/inside-the-high-street-cyberattacks If you don’t, then here’s the summary as it illustrates our fragile digital world today. In April, Marks &…
Read More
We talk a lot about AI these days or, as some call it, A1 or Al (yes, Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al) and we have now moved on to other terms including Generative AI, Agentic AI and AGI which stands for Artificial General Intelligence. The thing is that these terms…
Read More
Whilst walking the dog, I’ve been entertained by a fascinating series of podcasts on BBC Sounds called Fool’s Gold. It tells the story of two detectorists – folks who search everywhere using metal detectors – who found gold dating back to the 8th century. Very rare gold. 300 or more coins plus some jewellery. It’s…
Read More
Surfing as usual, I stumbled across a new report by Citi talking about Digital Dollars, and how banks and public sector would drive blockchain adoption. So, what does the digital dollar mean? Citi’s view is that “2025 has the potential to be blockchain’s ‘ChatGPT moment’ for adoption in the financial and public sectors. A supportive…
Read More
There’s a brand new book on the block, which I wish I had written: who is Satoshi Nakamoto? It’s actually not called that. It’s called: The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto by Benjamin Wallace, but you get the idea. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin…
Read More
I just downloaded the Chainalysis annual cryptocrime report and, as usual, it is fascinating. Ask almost any politician or banker about cryptocurrencies and they’ll say they all encourage crime except Donald Trump, but that’s because he is supposedly a criminal. Here is a synopsis of the report taken from their introduction: According to our metrics…
Read More
Cryptoassets, smart contracts, stablecoins, tokenisation and the two different types of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – retail CBDCs and wholesale CBDCs. The world of finance and technology is quite confusing. Add onto this AI, APIs, BNPL, blockchain (Layer 1 and Layer 2), DLT [distributed-ledger technology], machine learning and more, and you get the idea….
Read More
Not sure if you noticed, but this week the U.S. Congress House Committee on Financial Services had a day investigating stablecoins, led by Chairman French Hill. The hearing was entitled ‘Navigating the Digital Payments Ecosystem: Examining a Federal Framework for Payment Stablecoins and Consequences of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency’ , and invited various…
Read MoreI often write about Trekonomics, and how our future world might play out based upon a Utopian or Dystopian future. In a Utopian future, Gene Rodenberry – the creator of Star Trek – envisaged humans exploring space to improve humanity. Star Trek is a Utopian future without money, where people trade on the basis of…
Read MoreTen years ago, I was honoured to be invited to the Next Web conference in the Netherlands where I delivered a keynote about sentient banking. The idea is that the bank knows more about your lifestyle and living than you or your partner does. A decade later, thanks to Agentic AI and imminent AGI, we…
Read MoreThere are hundreds of articles online about “the death of” something, maybe thousands. I’ve written several of them covering everything from the death of cards (debit and credit) and keyboards to the end of branches, cash, banks and more but they are all still here, so let’s not expect their expiration to be too fast….
Read MoreI’m discussing a lot about digital currencies these days, and the future of CBDCs, Stablecoins and Crypto. The conversation generally goes along the lines of central banks issuing digital currencies is really unnecessary. No one wants them and no one trusts them. The whole thing is just a scam for governments to track and trace…
Read MoreDiscover how fintech is transforming small business, from mobile payments and AI tools to why the next unicorn might be run from home. I’ve run a small, independent business for almost 25 years. It’s been fun and most of it has been rewarding, except for the accounting, banking and paperwork. No one enjoys that behind-the-scenes…
Read MoreFollowing the Swiss meeting, I was then honoured to moderate an opening panel at EBAday with representatives of JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank. We had a wide ranging discussion but, similar to the details of CRD VI, a lot of regulations came up as top-of-mind. MCiA, EUID, CRDVI, PSD3, EUAI etc and it did intrigue me…
Read More
I wandered back into the old world of EU regulations the other day in Switzerland, debating CRD VI and the demand that banks must have branches in every EU country when they offer full service banking, including deposits and lending. Well, that’s one interpretation. The whole thing is about the new Capital Requirements Directive, the…
Read More
The year is 2100. Earth is still here, but the Elon Musk vision is now delivered. What is that vision? Read on … Earth in 2100 is a place of automation. Everything is connected. Robots are everywhere. Self-driving aeroplanes and cars move goods and services. More than this, the world is run on a network….
Read MoreI hate criticising other people’s work, but I do read some complete claptrap about the future. For example, I just got a report about the future of payments in 2040, that starts with a term Order-to-Cash cycle and then paints a scenario of someone buying an automated car. That was the first few paragraphs and,…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Trump reports more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf, licensing fees Trump made $10million selling guitars, bibles, watches and sneakers – but his crypto firm was the most profitable of all ‘We’re being attacked all the time’: how UK banks stop hackers High street lender Metro Bank…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Is fintech complicating the process of payments? Everything I read talks about simplified customer experience in payments and yet, when I look at it, the process of payments is becoming far more complicated. You made a payment in the old world with a bank note or cheque, and…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Crypto nears systemic risk ‘tipping point’ – FSB chair Cryptocurrency and the never-ending casino of capitalism Shares of fintech Chime soar 66% in market debut NatWest appoints Dr Maja Pantic as first chief AI research officer Citi and Carlyle Group Partner on ‘Side-by-Side’ FinTech Fund Stripe continues crypto push…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: World Bank predicts worst decade for global growth since 60s Emerging cryptocurrency shakes up industry as potential alternative to bitcoin: ‘True innovation’ The Next Fintech Unicorns Will Be Built On Invisible Infrastructure UK fintech gets AI boost from regulator How 3 banks are capitalizing on AI European banks spend over…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … The British woman competing to run the world’s biggest bank Bitcoin braces itself for a quantum computing onslaught Starling launches AI chatbot Spending Intelligence in UK banking first Bank of London: How a $1bn unicorn lost its lustre China Bans Bank From Luring Depositors With Popular Labubu Dolls “At…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … The U.S. Government Has Known Satoshi Nakamoto’s True Identity for Years – A Lawsuit Could Finally Reveal It Spain Introduces Law to Acquire Crypto Exchanges’ Data, Seize Digital Assets M&S CEO contacted directly by hackers in ransom demand Trump-Musk feud shows what happens when unregulated money floods politics Top…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … How regulations are forcing banks to open branches I wandered back into the old world of EU regulations the other day in Switzerland, debating CRD VI and the demand that banks must have branches in every EU country when they offer full service banking, including deposits and lending….
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Stock exchange dealt another blow as £12bn fintech Wise ditches main London listing Fintech Chime readies IPO but faces drastically lower valuation ‘The ultimate liberty’: how Nigel Farage became a cryptocurrency convert Stablecoin issuer Circle raises $1.05 billion in upsized US IPO Coffee, jukeboxes and dementia clinics: is this…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Is fintech complicating the process of payments? Everything I read talks about simplified customer experience in payments and yet, when I look at it, the process of payments is becoming far more complicated. You made a payment in the old world with a bank note or cheque, and…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … How regulations are forcing banks to open branches I wandered back into the old world of EU regulations the other day in Switzerland, debating CRD VI and the demand that banks must have branches in every EU country when they offer full service banking, including deposits and lending….
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The rise and rise of ransomware There’s a very interesting analysis of the cyber attacks on Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods on the BBC this week. If you have access to their iPlayer, then it’s well worth a watch. If you don’t, then here’s the summary as…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … What economy would machines create? We talk a lot about AI these days or, as some call it, A1 or Al (yes, Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al) and we have now moved on to other terms including Generative AI, Agentic AI and AGI…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The regulation versus innovation debate continues I just attended two events – one fintech and one regulatory. The contrast could not have been more different. The fintech event was buzzing with activity and youth; the regulatory event was very serious and full of suits. It reminded me of…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … How China’s banks and fintechs are using AI to leapfrog the world For quite a while, I have been amazed by China’s innovations in fintech from Ant to WeBank. My first visit to a Chinese bank in the 1990s, they were using Abacuses to calculate transactions; now they…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … What would you do if you lost a billion dollars? Whilst walking the dog, I’ve been entertained by a fascinating series of podcasts on BBC Sounds called Fool’s Gold. It tells the story of two detectorists – folks who search everywhere using metal detectors – who found gold…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … How bad is deep fake fraud? I’m listening to a fascinating podcast from the BBC about Whisky Bandits. The scam is that you buy a cask of whisky for thousands of dollars, but the cask you bought does not exist. In other words, you just got a piece…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The issue with digital In my presentations these days are five key themes: the fintech revolution; cryptocurrency creation; distributed ledger technology; the AI world; and quantum disruption. I could add to the list – the metaverse, 6G+, robots, etc – but these are the top five in the…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … AI will create 170 million jobs while replacing 92 million … the question is: what jobs? Every day there are more and more headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) AI and its impact on life, the world and the future. The latest one is a good one, which is…
Read More
