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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Being raised on an independent island, I learned lots about British history. For my GCSE’s, it was all about learning Henry VIII’s story of leaving the Holy Empire of Rome to marry Anne Boleyn and the story of the first and second World Wars. We knew nothing about Europe, let alone the rest of the…
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At Money2020 Amsterdam I met Airwallex, a company that has risen rapidly from nowhere to the top of the heap. I was a bit embarrassed not to know much about them but, in 2018, Stripe offered $1.2 billion to acquire Airwallex. At the time, their revenues were just $2 million. Stripe’s Patrick Collison negotiated directly and…
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This week’s main discussions include … Spacecoin: a currency for astronauts? I just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? What’s the next tech revolution?…
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I just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? My initial reaction was the idea that this is launching a cryptocurrency for those who want…
Read More
At Money2020 Amsterdam I met Airwallex, a company that has risen rapidly from nowhere to the top of the heap. I was a bit embarrassed not to know much about them but, in 2018, Stripe offered $1.2 billion to acquire Airwallex. At the time, their revenues were just $2 million. Stripe’s Patrick Collison negotiated directly and…
Read MoreI just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? My initial reaction was the idea that this is launching a cryptocurrency for those who want…
Read MoreAre we giving up on dating and instead putting all of our demands onto digital people who are programmed to behave and speak exactly how we want? A new survey of 2,000 British men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 produced by Equimundo, a US-based non-profit organisation, found that men have simply…
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I started a theme two years ago, in prep for the next new book, about how we can trust people digitally. In a deep fake world, we cannot. A good example is the Hong Kong staffer who transferred $25m to an account after talking with her deep fake CFO in a video call. The critical…
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I really hate subscription services online. There are many that automatically renew without me knowing and, even worse, there are those that you sign up to without even knowing. A good example is one I discovered on my bank account the other day. Apparently I had signed up for a service that costs £3:00 a…
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As usual, clicking over LinkedIn, I got a chart that made me sit back and smile a bit. What chart? This one: Source: Brice Groche, LinkedIn The chart outlines the revenue models of Europe’s digital finance firms, and what it made me realise is the big difference in strategies of challenger banks and start-ups. When…
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I just stumbled across a rich vein of information from the Bank of England on Fintech! Interestingly, they state that their “work focuses on three cross-cutting technologies: artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledger technology (DLT), and quantum computing”. Urmmm … what about crypto and CBDCs? Anyways, the bank makes clear that it is committed to support…
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I’ve talked for some time about bot-to-bot payments in the Agentic AI world. The idea is that you won’t have to think as money thinks for you, and payments will transfer automatically without intervention. Moving this forward is a recent announcement from Google, which has developed the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open framework that enables agents…
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Building on yesterday’s blog about Project Nemo, it’s worth mentioning the Purple Pound. Every year, Britain celebrates Purple Tuesday – in case you missed it, it was last week – and it is all about recognising the massive community in all countries who are financially challenged. 78% of people who have disabilities find it difficult to…
Read MoreI just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? My initial reaction was the idea that this is launching a cryptocurrency for those who want…
Read MoreAre we giving up on dating and instead putting all of our demands onto digital people who are programmed to behave and speak exactly how we want? A new survey of 2,000 British men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 produced by Equimundo, a US-based non-profit organisation, found that men have simply…
Read MoreI wanted to expand on my theory of a third technology revolution. The first technological revolution was the mainframe. It automated core administrative processing between back and front office. It is the infrastructure that built SWIFT, Visa and MasterCard. It’s the core platform of most banks, with almost half of them running on COBOL mainframe…
Read MoreI take pride in how many things I’ve predicted in payments and finance. that have come true from Digital Banking to cloud to BaaS to crypto and more, but I didn’t predict a lot of things, such as the financial crisis of 2008, the sovereign debt crisis that followed and the pandemic that came after…
Read More
Just stumbled across an update from Stephen Klein, one of the leading voices on LinkedIn. He wrote a fascinating update about how the digital billionaires are insuring themselves for the possible impact of an apocalypse and are spending billions on this. Mark Zuckerberg has spent millions on a compound in Hawaii that covers 1,400 acres. Underground tunnels…
Read MoreI started a theme two years ago, in prep for the next new book, about how we can trust people digitally. In a deep fake world, we cannot. A good example is the Hong Kong staffer who transferred $25m to an account after talking with her deep fake CFO in a video call. The critical…
Read MoreI really hate subscription services online. There are many that automatically renew without me knowing and, even worse, there are those that you sign up to without even knowing. A good example is one I discovered on my bank account the other day. Apparently I had signed up for a service that costs £3:00 a…
Read MoreAs usual, clicking over LinkedIn, I got a chart that made me sit back and smile a bit. What chart? This one: Source: Brice Groche, LinkedIn The chart outlines the revenue models of Europe’s digital finance firms, and what it made me realise is the big difference in strategies of challenger banks and start-ups. When…
Read MoreI just stumbled across a rich vein of information from the Bank of England on Fintech! Interestingly, they state that their “work focuses on three cross-cutting technologies: artificial intelligence (AI), distributed ledger technology (DLT), and quantum computing”. Urmmm … what about crypto and CBDCs? Anyways, the bank makes clear that it is committed to support…
Read MoreI just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? My initial reaction was the idea that this is launching a cryptocurrency for those who want…
Read More
I asked AI to tell me about the future of banking the other day. It responded with a great set of answers: The future of banking is being reshaped by technology, shifting customer expectations, and new regulatory and economic realities. Here are the key trends that will define the next 5–10 years: 💡 1. Banking…
Read More
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…
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Paying with crypto is traceable but favoured by fraudsters. Is it the solution or the problem? Fraudsters never know how their action impacts their victim, until confronted by the person they’ve defrauded. Is crypto the solution? After all, unlike fiat currencies, all blockchain-based transactions can be traced for history. So, is crypto the solution to…
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Watching Sibos from afar – I haven’t been invited for a while due to being too provocative – I was not surprised to see that Quantum computing, AI, CBDCs, stablecoins, tokenization and blockchain are all making the headlines, as these are all the themes I spend my time presenting about around the world. Cybersecurity, AI…
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I’ve just created a platform to tokenize idols. Any idol and even bits and pieces related to them. You can tokenize Taylor Swift’s underwear; tokenize Rory McIlroy’s golfing glove; tokenize Ryan Reynolds Wrexham shirt; or even tokenize Harry Kane’s big toe. After all, any part of an idol is worth something to a fan, so…
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It’s been really interesting watching the moves of Donald Trump to Make America Great Again by doubling down on the dollar being the reserve currency of the world forever more through the GENIUS Act. Well, that’s my take anyway. Add on to this that the Trump family made billions by launching World Liberty Financial, their very…
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As blogged yesterday, the GENIUS Act can open the doors for closed-loop networks using stablecoins that circumvent the traditional four-pillar model of issuer, acquirer, merchant and processor. Yes, it could save billions in interchange fees, but there’s another movement in stablecoins trying to change the world. This one is trying to get rid of SWIFT,…
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Short answer: possibly. Long answer: the GENIUS Act (the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act) gives a massive stamp on cryptocurrency tokens, stablecoins and protecting the US dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Oh, and it also creates a major opportunity for non-banks to become players in payment processing. For…
Read MoreBeing raised on an independent island, I learned lots about British history. For my GCSE’s, it was all about learning Henry VIII’s story of leaving the Holy Empire of Rome to marry Anne Boleyn and the story of the first and second World Wars. We knew nothing about Europe, let alone the rest of the…
Read MoreI just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? My initial reaction was the idea that this is launching a cryptocurrency for those who want…
Read MoreI wanted to expand on my theory of a third technology revolution. The first technological revolution was the mainframe. It automated core administrative processing between back and front office. It is the infrastructure that built SWIFT, Visa and MasterCard. It’s the core platform of most banks, with almost half of them running on COBOL mainframe…
Read MoreI take pride in how many things I’ve predicted in payments and finance. that have come true from Digital Banking to cloud to BaaS to crypto and more, but I didn’t predict a lot of things, such as the financial crisis of 2008, the sovereign debt crisis that followed and the pandemic that came after…
Read MoreI asked AI to tell me about the future of banking the other day. It responded with a great set of answers: The future of banking is being reshaped by technology, shifting customer expectations, and new regulatory and economic realities. Here are the key trends that will define the next 5–10 years: 💡 1. Banking…
Read More
I was reading McKinsey’s annual summary of what’s hot and what’s not in banking the other day. They pick on four areas: Technology The new consumer Capital efficiency Targeted M&A What got me is that this is just PEST in other words. What’s PEST? It’s the way we predict the future based upon Political, Economic, Social…
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Interestingly, as AI kills search engines and browsers, it also appears to be destroying the market for consultants and research firms. That’s not just a proposition but a reality, if you look at the share price performance of consulting and research firms this year. Whilst the likes of Accenture and Cap Gemini have dropped by…
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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…
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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…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Commonwealth Bank of Australia penalized over data-portability failures Central bank body BIS raises concerns of gold and stocks double bubble Bank of England cutting jobs as part of overhaul after critical Bernanke review Argentina’s Central Bank Set to Greenlight Crypto Services for Domestic Banks BIS Quarterly Review, December 2025…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Deutsche Bank moves into Revolut-branded Canary Wharf tower Visa shifts European HQ to Canary Wharf Former ballerina becomes youngest ever female self-made billionaire How do digital IDs work in India? How the bank behind London’s most expensive office lease unravelled Bank of England warns of AI bubble risk Cyber…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Spacecoin: a currency for astronauts? I just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? What’s the next tech revolution?…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Lloyds Bank pushes for AI and blockchain to transform UK homebuying Crypto investor Christopher Harborne donates record £9m to Reform UK Britain unveils fast-track licensing to boost fintech growth Poland raises corporate income tax on banks as president approves government bill BBVA’s CEO underscores the bank’s commitment to expanding…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … WEF Davos 2026: Economic Disruption and Digital Change 1 in 5 investors refuse to trust AI with money UK Passes Property (Digital Assets etc) Act Formally Recognizing Crypto as Property 3 of Fintech’s Newest Security Features Every Bank Should Be Standardizing Why the Budget let banks off the hook…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Russian couple ‘watched each other being tortured to death’ over £380,000,000 in crypto Bank of England warns of AI bubble risk Bank of England Governor says it has not forgotten lessons of financial crisis, as it eases capital rules Financial Stability in Focus: The FPC’s assessment of bank capital…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: Motley Fool’s five top fintech stock investments in 2025 What the OBBB (Omnibus Banking and Business Bill) Means for Fintech and Financial Services The billionaires and the bank boss: Italian prosecutors take aim Bitcoin Plunges Below $84,000 As Central Bank Speculation Fuels Losses German jobs agency brings in payment cards…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Santander chief warns AI will fuel banking jobs bloodbath What will the banks do for Britain after their great budget escape? Does Deutsche Bank’s 95% Stock Surge Signal More Room to Grow in 2025? City Bank transforming everyday banking for millions Capital rules for banks set to be eased…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Spacecoin: a currency for astronauts? I just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? What’s the next tech revolution?…
Read More
This week’s main discussions include … Those who built our digital world are digging our graves Just stumbled across an update from Stephen Klein, one of the leading voices on LinkedIn. He wrote a fascinating update about how the digital billionaires are insuring themselves for the possible impact of an apocalypse and are spending billions on…
Read More
This week’s main discussions include … What is an Intelligent Bank? I keep thinking about what an Intelligent Bank means. What is an Intelligent Bank? Well, strip it back to basics. An Intelligent Bank is a bank that is so embedded and intimate with my digital finance that it can predict what I should do,…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Why bankers hate changing core systems It is rare that bank mergers work due to IT systems. Lloyds has historically taken the approach of not bothering to migrate them; TSB, after leaving the Lloyds family, migrated to a Sabadell system and it cost them millions; Santander believes all acquired banks…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Do you need AI or a consultant? I was reading McKinsey’s annual summary of what’s hot and what’s not in banking the other day. They pick on four areas: Technology The new consumer Capital efficiency Targeted M&A What got me is that this is just PEST in other words. What’s…
Read MoreThis 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…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … UK Gov needs to bring back the Fintech mojo Giving away one of my trade secrets, I asked ChatGPT to give me suggestions about what to blog about and it came up with seven things: 🚀 1. The Rise of Embedded Finance 2.0 How non-financial platforms are evolving from…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … OK boomer! Mortgage by machines When I was a lad, to get a mortgage was a complex process. You would go to the bank for a meeting with the branch manager. The branch manager would assess you, your job security, work status and salary and, if all boxes…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Is crypto the solution or the problem? Paying with crypto is traceable but favoured by fraudsters. Is it the solution or the problem? Fraudsters never know how their action impacts their victim, until confronted by the person they’ve defrauded. Is crypto the solution? After all, unlike fiat currencies, all…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Key take-away from #SIBOS 2025: it’s no longer banking and payments Watching Sibos from afar – I haven’t been invited for a while due to being too provocative – I was not surprised to see that Quantum computing, AI, CBDCs, stablecoins, tokenization and blockchain are all making the headlines,…
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