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…
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I remember presenting to a major global bank twenty years ago about the dangers of social media and particularly Facebook. My thinking was that I could find one of their senior managers in a branch or call centre and discover, through their posts, everything about them. Their phone number, where they live, their partner’s details,…
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I was at a presentation last week where a guy from Canada shared the Wealthsimple story. I was not familiar enough with it, although I had heard of them, but the guy showed their advert and it cracked me up. #mustwatch For decades, Canadian banking has been dominated by a handful of powerful institutions with…
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I have spent much of the last few years listening to people asking the wrong question about artificial intelligence. Will AI take my job? Will AI replace bankers? Lawyers? Accountants? Programmers? Journalists? Consultants? The question assumes that AI competes with professions. Increasingly, I think it competes with something else entirely: normality. That thought struck me…
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Britain is replacing its heroes with wildlife and, judging by the reaction, you would think the Bank of England has announced that Winston Churchill is being retrospectively defeated by a hedgehog. Out go Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing and in comes a barn owl, a bumblebee, a puffin and a hedgehog, although the…
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I was at a presentation last week where a guy from Canada shared the Wealthsimple story. I was not familiar enough with it, although I had heard of them, but the guy showed their advert and it cracked me up. #mustwatch For decades, Canadian banking has been dominated by a handful of powerful institutions with…
Read MoreGlobal trade is breaking apart. The winners won’t be the ones who move. They’ll be the ones who connect. For years, the global trade conversation has been dominated by one question: where should we move our supply chains? China is risky, America is unpredictable, Europe is expensive and geopolitical tensions are making international commerce look…
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We have spent the last few years obsessing over artificial intelligence that sits in front of the customer – chatbots that summarise documents, copilots that draft emails, and interfaces that appear to know everything. But finance does not run on language. It runs on transactions, cash flows, liquidity, risk and trust. After spending time examining…
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Nubank wants to go global but not like Revolut. Everyone assumes Nubank wants to be like the next Revolut. They’re wrong. Revolut wants to build one financial superapp for the world. Nubank is building something different: a global banking empire that does not require Nubank to be the bank. That sounds like a subtle distinction,…
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The interesting story is no longer simply whether bitcoin goes to $50,000, $100,000 or $500,000, but whether the technologies created around crypto are becoming the foundations of a new financial system. If that is right, it raises a much bigger question: what is the money in that system? For most of our lives, the answer…
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I just did an interview with LVTX about the future of payments. Sharing it here, fyi: What is one of the biggest structural inefficiencies in the payments and financial services ecosystem that still hasn’t been solved? One of the biggest structural inefficiencies in financial services today isn’t payments or settlement. It’s digital trust. The fact…
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You are reading this as your data is harvested. On average, your personal data is collected 271 times a day. I know who you are. I know what you are doing. I will look for you. I will find you. Most of us think surveillance involves CCTV cameras, governments, police databases and, perhaps, the slightly…
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There are always two sides to a coin and, right now, the two sides of our technological future could hardly look more different. On the one side are the technologists who want us to build more, compute more, automate more and move faster. Artificial intelligence will transform everything, robots will do much of the work,…
Read More
I was playing around with some numbers the other day, comparing the world’s biggest banks with the world’s biggest fintech firms, when something struck me. We keep comparing them using all the obvious measures: customers, revenues, profits, assets and market capitalisation. Who’s bigger? Who’s growing faster? Are the fintechs really disrupting the banks or are…
Read MoreI was at a presentation last week where a guy from Canada shared the Wealthsimple story. I was not familiar enough with it, although I had heard of them, but the guy showed their advert and it cracked me up. #mustwatch For decades, Canadian banking has been dominated by a handful of powerful institutions with…
Read MoreGlobal trade is breaking apart. The winners won’t be the ones who move. They’ll be the ones who connect. For years, the global trade conversation has been dominated by one question: where should we move our supply chains? China is risky, America is unpredictable, Europe is expensive and geopolitical tensions are making international commerce look…
Read More
I spotted a fascinating post from Stephany Kirkpatrick on LinkedIn that gets straight to the heart of one of the biggest opportunities and failures facing wealth management today. Stephany is a successful founder and entrepreneur who founded Orum in 2019, sold it to Stripe in 2025 and has now started another venture called Pretty Smart…
Read MoreNubank wants to go global but not like Revolut. Everyone assumes Nubank wants to be like the next Revolut. They’re wrong. Revolut wants to build one financial superapp for the world. Nubank is building something different: a global banking empire that does not require Nubank to be the bank. That sounds like a subtle distinction,…
Read MoreI just did an interview with LVTX about the future of payments. Sharing it here, fyi: What is one of the biggest structural inefficiencies in the payments and financial services ecosystem that still hasn’t been solved? One of the biggest structural inefficiencies in financial services today isn’t payments or settlement. It’s digital trust. The fact…
Read MoreYou are reading this as your data is harvested. On average, your personal data is collected 271 times a day. I know who you are. I know what you are doing. I will look for you. I will find you. Most of us think surveillance involves CCTV cameras, governments, police databases and, perhaps, the slightly…
Read MoreThere are always two sides to a coin and, right now, the two sides of our technological future could hardly look more different. On the one side are the technologists who want us to build more, compute more, automate more and move faster. Artificial intelligence will transform everything, robots will do much of the work,…
Read MoreI was playing around with some numbers the other day, comparing the world’s biggest banks with the world’s biggest fintech firms, when something struck me. We keep comparing them using all the obvious measures: customers, revenues, profits, assets and market capitalisation. Who’s bigger? Who’s growing faster? Are the fintechs really disrupting the banks or are…
Read More
There is something wonderfully contradictory happening in banking right now illustrated by the main news headlines I picked out yesterday. Banks are racing to put artificial intelligence into the heart of their operations because it makes them faster, cheaper and more productive, while at the same time warning their customers that artificial intelligence creates new…
Read MoreI have spent much of the last few years listening to people asking the wrong question about artificial intelligence. Will AI take my job? Will AI replace bankers? Lawyers? Accountants? Programmers? Journalists? Consultants? The question assumes that AI competes with professions. Increasingly, I think it competes with something else entirely: normality. That thought struck me…
Read MoreHave we all gone completely mad? Seriously. We live in a world where people struggle to pay their mortgages, governments drown in debt, banks worry about inflation and central bankers agonise over interest rates. Meanwhile, a piece of cardboard featuring a cartoon monster can be worth more than most people earn in their entire lives….
Read MoreThe interesting story is no longer simply whether bitcoin goes to $50,000, $100,000 or $500,000, but whether the technologies created around crypto are becoming the foundations of a new financial system. If that is right, it raises a much bigger question: what is the money in that system? For most of our lives, the answer…
Read MoreThere are always two sides to a coin and, right now, the two sides of our technological future could hardly look more different. On the one side are the technologists who want us to build more, compute more, automate more and move faster. Artificial intelligence will transform everything, robots will do much of the work,…
Read More
I have spent this week looking at the systemic implications of AI, cloud and digital currencies, but there is an obvious question left hanging over all of this. If you are the CEO of a bank or fintech, what are you supposed to do about it? The answer is not to become an expert in…
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Digital money doesn’t have a passport. For millenia, money has been organised around geography. The dollar belongs to America, sterling to Britain, the euro to Europe and the yen to Japan. Banks are licensed nationally, central banks provide national monetary anchors, governments guarantee deposits nationally and regulators supervise institutions largely through national legal frameworks. Digital…
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I’ve recently written quite a bit about the GENIUS Act, the GRANITE Act and the CLARITY Act in the United States. Well, yesterday was the crucial day as the CLARITY Act moved through the Senate or, rather, it didn’t. The USA has spent years arguing that cryptocurrency needs regulatory clarity and the Digital Asset Market…
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I’ve written a lot about the Crypto President and the friction between the Trump administration’s legislation ranging from the GENIUS Act to GRANITE to CLARITY and you really could not make this stuff up. Will Donald Trump be the Crypto President? America is creating a war with Europe over digital money Donald Trump, the President…
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There is a problem with the way we talk about cryptocurrency. Every time there is a major fraud, hack, Ponzi scheme or spectacular collapse involving crypto, the headlines quickly become another indictment of cryptocurrency itself: crypto is a scam; bitcoin is for criminals; digital currencies are dangerous … the whole thing should be shut down….
Read MoreI was at a presentation last week where a guy from Canada shared the Wealthsimple story. I was not familiar enough with it, although I had heard of them, but the guy showed their advert and it cracked me up. #mustwatch For decades, Canadian banking has been dominated by a handful of powerful institutions with…
Read MoreGlobal trade is breaking apart. The winners won’t be the ones who move. They’ll be the ones who connect. For years, the global trade conversation has been dominated by one question: where should we move our supply chains? China is risky, America is unpredictable, Europe is expensive and geopolitical tensions are making international commerce look…
Read MoreIt’s SIBOS week and so lots of research and news announcements. Two caught my attention though, as I always look forward to what McKinsey and Cap Gemini are saying in their payments reports. The both tell the same story from different angles, namely that the payment is disappearing. Not disappearing in the sense that we…
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For many years, McKinsey has been the go-to firm for advice and Gartner for research but, with AI, why bother? In fact, there is a lot of debate about whether AI will replace consultants and research firms such as McKinsey and Gartner. The thing is that this conversation misses the bigger change. What’s that? It…
Read MoreI spotted a fascinating post from Stephany Kirkpatrick on LinkedIn that gets straight to the heart of one of the biggest opportunities and failures facing wealth management today. Stephany is a successful founder and entrepreneur who founded Orum in 2019, sold it to Stripe in 2025 and has now started another venture called Pretty Smart…
Read MoreThe interesting story is no longer simply whether bitcoin goes to $50,000, $100,000 or $500,000, but whether the technologies created around crypto are becoming the foundations of a new financial system. If that is right, it raises a much bigger question: what is the money in that system? For most of our lives, the answer…
Read MoreYou are reading this as your data is harvested. On average, your personal data is collected 271 times a day. I know who you are. I know what you are doing. I will look for you. I will find you. Most of us think surveillance involves CCTV cameras, governments, police databases and, perhaps, the slightly…
Read MoreThere are always two sides to a coin and, right now, the two sides of our technological future could hardly look more different. On the one side are the technologists who want us to build more, compute more, automate more and move faster. Artificial intelligence will transform everything, robots will do much of the work,…
Read More
MasterCard just produced an interesting range of views about the future of shopping and money using visionaries like my friend Theo Lau, who alerted me to the report. Download the report here. A quick summary. We have spent the last years talking about artificial intelligence as though the big change is that we will have…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … How Ukraine’s biggest bank is run in a war zone New automated bank screening could create ‘surveillance state’ across EU Epstein-linked banks face judgment day as Trump deteriorates Banks say Healey is planning Budget tax raid on their profits Poland’s central bank crisis exposes European hypocrisy China has banned…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Kraken parent eyes EU license with bank acquisition The Shockwaves of US Inflation on Asian Markets and Cryptocurrency EU Banking Regulator Takes Over Key Oversight of Circle’s USDC Stablecoin Neobanks beat other fintechs to profit thanks to SME lending gap Bank of America profits drop 17% after $1.2bn money…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Citi profit tops estimates on higher investment banking, services and wealth revenue Bank of America fined $1.2bn over failing to stop money laundering Bank Bosses Are Too Optimistic About the AI Boom Russia’s largest bank Sberbank secures approval to trade crypto Zcash Continues to Outperform Every Other Major Cryptocurrency…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank of France Survey Finds French Business Uncertainty Surges in September Banking watchdogs ramp up AI scrutiny as stability fears mount, sources say China gives green light to Visa for local clearing organisation after years-long wait Latvia Emerges as Top EU Fintech Hub with Over 20 New Licences Issued…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Revolut takes aim at Amex and JPMorgan Most countries unprepared for bank failures, watchdog warns Why China is importing a record amount of gold One more ex-banker jailed for rigging rates has conviction overturned 1MDB Has Proposal for Settlement With Deutsche Bank Tory tax break for banks has cost…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … AI and the big question: why would you ever call McKinsey or Gartner? For many years, McKinsey has been the go-to firm for advice and Gartner for research but, with AI, why bother? In fact, there is a lot of debate about whether AI will replace consultants and…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … National Trust urged to move to ethical bank Bank governor urges John Healey to use budget to allay market fears amid bond turmoil Lloyds to phase out Halifax brand and banking app Banking lobby welcomes Bowman’s plans to ‘modernise’ Fed supervision The future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency: what to…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Man Who Spent Millions on Rare Pokémon and Magic Cards Found Guilty of Stealing Over $50 Million in Crypto Pokemon collector guilty in US$55 million crypto hack Europol says quantum computing won’t break Bitcoin, but some wallets are exposed Crypto media firm Cointelegraph is looking for a buyer…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … AI and the big question: why would you ever call McKinsey or Gartner? For many years, McKinsey has been the go-to firm for advice and Gartner for research but, with AI, why bother? In fact, there is a lot of debate about whether AI will replace consultants and…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … What’s really happening with Nubank? Nubank wants to go global but not like Revolut. Everyone assumes Nubank wants to be like the next Revolut. They’re wrong. Revolut wants to build one financial superapp for the world. Nubank is building something different: a global banking empire that does not…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … How many employees does it take to create $1 billion of value? I was looking at some numbers comparing the world’s biggest banks with the world’s biggest fintech firms and realised that we may have been measuring the wrong thing. We normally compare banks and fintechs by customers,…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … What the FinTech Book Club thinks of “Intelligent Bank” The FinTech Book Club recently devoted its discussion to my latest book Intelligent Bank, and the overall reaction was strongly positive. That was a relief as I’m a good friend of these guys, but that does not make them…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … 25 years after 9/11: An attack on America, capitalism or the world? On Tuesday, 11th September 2001, I was flying back from Nice, France, after a conference. We arrived home and switched on the television. What we saw was horrific. At 8:46 that morning in New York, 13:46…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The true cost of AI (Part One) There is a rather awkward conversation beginning in boardrooms about artificial intelligence. For the last few years, the question has been what AI can do, how quickly companies can deploy it and how many people it might replace, but the question…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The SWOT of AI in banking I was sitting this morning and thinking about how fantastic Agentic AI, autonomous commerce and programmable money is. It is the focus of my next Pulp Finction book Birth of a Unicorn being released in December. The thing is that there is…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The TrustWeb: Revisiting the Origins of Moneykind Ten years ago, I wrote a series of blogs called The Origins of Moneykind. They accompanied the launch of Digital Human and explored a simple question: where does money come from? Looking back a decade later, I’m surprised how little I…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Crypto wanted to get rid of banks. Now they are banks. When Bitcoin launched in 2008, the whole idea was to get rid of banks and intermediaries. In 2026, they’ve learned the lesson I learnt years ago. That’s how the world works. You need intermediaries. The whole idea…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Innovators, Imitators and Idiots Warren Buffett observed years ago that every market eventually sorts itself into three groups: innovators, imitators and idiots. It is deliberately unfair but, like most good aphorisms, it contains more than a grain of truth. The innovators invent something genuinely new. The imitators wait until…
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