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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The European Central Bank just published a speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and, underneath all the central banker language, is a pretty simple message: stablecoins are starting to look less like a crypto experiment and more like a new form of private money. More importantly, because stablecoins are…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … “Intelligent Bank” is officially launched I spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I…
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We are living through the third great revolution in modern business. The first revolution automated administration through mainframes and databases. The second digitised services through smartphones, apps, APIs and cloud. The third revolution is now intelligence: machines that can write, analyse, reason, create and increasingly act on our behalf. That is why so many people…
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The key thrust of my new book is the intelligence revolution. More on that tomorrow but the basics are that we are living through the third technology revolution of finance and banking. The first began with automating the mundane with mainframes from the 1950s onwards (back office efficiencies fifty years ago); moving to making the…
Read More
We are living through the third great revolution in modern business. The first revolution automated administration through mainframes and databases. The second digitised services through smartphones, apps, APIs and cloud. The third revolution is now intelligence: machines that can write, analyse, reason, create and increasingly act on our behalf. That is why so many people…
Read MoreThe key thrust of my new book is the intelligence revolution. More on that tomorrow but the basics are that we are living through the third technology revolution of finance and banking. The first began with automating the mundane with mainframes from the 1950s onwards (back office efficiencies fifty years ago); moving to making the…
Read MoreI was thinking more about this third revolution of financial technologies. The first was very much focused upon automation administration using mainframe computing; the second moved from pure cost reduction to the changing dynamics of how to leverage productivity and cost using the network effects of connectivity, and driven by cloud and mobile; the third…
Read MoreNow that Intelligent Bank has finally launched during my trip to China with Hauwei, here is more about what it means, as written by an AI friend … Intelligent Bank: The Third Financial Technology Revolution argues that banking is entering a third major era of technological change. The first revolution was automation, driven by mainframes, SWIFT, Visa…
Read MoreI spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I could not officially tell everyone that it was released until today! Here is…
Read More
The funny thing about AI in banking is that the headlines are completely wrong. Every week there’s another breathless prediction claiming that AI will “replace banks”, “eliminate core systems” or “create autonomous financial institutions”. Reading these articles, you would think that we are just months away from robo-banks running the global economy whilst human bankers…
Read More
What is a Sputnik moment? A Sputnik moment is the moment the world suddenly wakes up and realises someone else may have leapt ahead technologically. The phrase comes from 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into space. Technically, it was just a metal sphere orbiting the Earth. Politically and psychologically,…
Read More
I spent the morning thinking about the bank of the future. It’s something I do every day. You could be simple and say that it’s embedded, invisible, everywhere, all the time. And that is true. But that is today’s bank, not tomorrows. I then have this debate about currencies. What currency do we believe in?…
Read More
I gave a keynote this week about my new book called The Intelligent Bank, which is offically launching next week in China! Walking off stage afterwards I realised something quite important: we are no longer debating the future of banking. We are living through it. The problem is that many banks still think the conversation…
Read MoreWe are living through the third great revolution in modern business. The first revolution automated administration through mainframes and databases. The second digitised services through smartphones, apps, APIs and cloud. The third revolution is now intelligence: machines that can write, analyse, reason, create and increasingly act on our behalf. That is why so many people…
Read MoreThe key thrust of my new book is the intelligence revolution. More on that tomorrow but the basics are that we are living through the third technology revolution of finance and banking. The first began with automating the mundane with mainframes from the 1950s onwards (back office efficiencies fifty years ago); moving to making the…
Read MoreI was thinking more about this third revolution of financial technologies. The first was very much focused upon automation administration using mainframe computing; the second moved from pure cost reduction to the changing dynamics of how to leverage productivity and cost using the network effects of connectivity, and driven by cloud and mobile; the third…
Read MoreNow that Intelligent Bank has finally launched during my trip to China with Hauwei, here is more about what it means, as written by an AI friend … Intelligent Bank: The Third Financial Technology Revolution argues that banking is entering a third major era of technological change. The first revolution was automation, driven by mainframes, SWIFT, Visa…
Read MoreI spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I could not officially tell everyone that it was released until today! Here is…
Read MoreThe funny thing about AI in banking is that the headlines are completely wrong. Every week there’s another breathless prediction claiming that AI will “replace banks”, “eliminate core systems” or “create autonomous financial institutions”. Reading these articles, you would think that we are just months away from robo-banks running the global economy whilst human bankers…
Read MoreWhat is a Sputnik moment? A Sputnik moment is the moment the world suddenly wakes up and realises someone else may have leapt ahead technologically. The phrase comes from 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into space. Technically, it was just a metal sphere orbiting the Earth. Politically and psychologically,…
Read MoreI spent the morning thinking about the bank of the future. It’s something I do every day. You could be simple and say that it’s embedded, invisible, everywhere, all the time. And that is true. But that is today’s bank, not tomorrows. I then have this debate about currencies. What currency do we believe in?…
Read MoreI gave a keynote this week about my new book called The Intelligent Bank, which is offically launching next week in China! Walking off stage afterwards I realised something quite important: we are no longer debating the future of banking. We are living through it. The problem is that many banks still think the conversation…
Read MoreThe European Central Bank just published a speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and, underneath all the central banker language, is a pretty simple message: stablecoins are starting to look less like a crypto experiment and more like a new form of private money. More importantly, because stablecoins are…
Read MoreI spent the morning thinking about the bank of the future. It’s something I do every day. You could be simple and say that it’s embedded, invisible, everywhere, all the time. And that is true. But that is today’s bank, not tomorrows. I then have this debate about currencies. What currency do we believe in?…
Read More
I just discovered that Ben McKenzie is taking the cryptocurrency industry head-on. Many of you will remember Ben from The O.C. but he’s now a little bit more serious. In fact, he wrote a book: Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. Oh! That sounds a bit challenging, but why would an actor become an anti-crypto…
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The Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute (BISI) produced a document yesterday about the risk of cryptocurrency to democracy . Seriously? Cryptocurrency is a libertarian dream that gives all of us a democratic vote. What risk is there? Well, let’s dig into the detail as this is not about “innovation in payments” or “the future of…
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I just had an interesting podcast conversation about stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and tokenised deposits. Most people in finance think they understand the differences, but it’s worth pausing for a moment, because the distinctions really matter. At a very simple level: stablecoins are privately issued digital tokens (think USDC or Tether) backed by…
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I’ve been inundated with reports about stablecoins lately, and they all say the same thing … but in very different ways. So let me try and cut through the noise. Stablecoins are for wholesale commercial banking and trading today. They are not for the likes of you and me. But that will change. Let’s narrow…
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There’s a fundamental truth about money that we often forget: money only works because we all agree to use the same system. Whether it’s Visa, SWIFT or central bank money, the power of finance has always come from shared networks. The bigger the network, the more useful the money. This is why the latest working…
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Google’s latest research delivers a clear warning: the cryptography securing today’s cryptocurrencies is not future-proof. Advances in quantum computing are accelerating, and the resources needed to break core encryption (elliptic curve cryptography) are far lower than previously thought. This isn’t a distant, theoretical risk anymore. It’s a strategic, time-bound challenge. What’s changed? 20x efficiency gain: Google…
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I recently tried to cash in a bitcoin. It’s a physical bitcoin that is active, and I have the bitcoin address. Then I realised I had lost the private keys to use it and, well, you can guess. It made me realise that, if I wasn’t around, what would happen to my crypto investments? How would…
Read MoreThe European Central Bank just published a speech by Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and, underneath all the central banker language, is a pretty simple message: stablecoins are starting to look less like a crypto experiment and more like a new form of private money. More importantly, because stablecoins are…
Read MoreI was thinking more about this third revolution of financial technologies. The first was very much focused upon automation administration using mainframe computing; the second moved from pure cost reduction to the changing dynamics of how to leverage productivity and cost using the network effects of connectivity, and driven by cloud and mobile; the third…
Read MoreNow that Intelligent Bank has finally launched during my trip to China with Hauwei, here is more about what it means, as written by an AI friend … Intelligent Bank: The Third Financial Technology Revolution argues that banking is entering a third major era of technological change. The first revolution was automation, driven by mainframes, SWIFT, Visa…
Read MoreI spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I could not officially tell everyone that it was released until today! Here is…
Read MoreWhat is a Sputnik moment? A Sputnik moment is the moment the world suddenly wakes up and realises someone else may have leapt ahead technologically. The phrase comes from 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into space. Technically, it was just a metal sphere orbiting the Earth. Politically and psychologically,…
Read MoreI spent the morning thinking about the bank of the future. It’s something I do every day. You could be simple and say that it’s embedded, invisible, everywhere, all the time. And that is true. But that is today’s bank, not tomorrows. I then have this debate about currencies. What currency do we believe in?…
Read More
BEAR IN MIND I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR For the past three decades, investors have lived through an extraordinary illusion: the belief that globalisation makes the world safer. It doesn’t. It just made conflict more expensive. I always remember when the Iraq war began in the 1990s and my colleagues in the government defence…
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There are a number of themes that shape our view of the world. For me, Star Trek and Star Wars and lots of other sci-fi. I love visions of the future from Metropolis to Minority Report. There are others that are meant to frighten us too, such as Alien, The Terminator and Ex Machina. We…
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I gave a TEDx talk last year about the jobs our children will have in the future … … and it is a theme I keep returning to because I have twin boys who are ten years old now. The school they go to are now looking for a new Board member, so I wrote…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Fintech firms grew four times faster than traditional banks in 2025 Digital Bank Atom Catches Eye of UK Building Societies Should Europe enter the crypto race? BoE Economist Sees Tokenized Deposits Supplanting Stablecoins From money market funds to stablecoins: lessons for central banks CEO Says Firing the Entire HR…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … “Intelligent Bank” is officially launched I spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Why Britain’s fintech stars faded UK Fintech Hiring Set to Rise 14 per cent Fintech, once the ‘enfant terrible’ of finance, is growing up Islamic Fintech Is Having Its Moment – Why Are So Few Founders Building For It? Are We On The Precipice Of A Fintech IPO Bonanza?…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Huawei Unveils Upgraded Solutions to Drive Finance Toward Agentic Banking Citi’s 5-year comeback: How CEO Jane Fraser turned the bank’s chronic underperformance into decade-high revenue HM Treasury Publishes Findings of the UK Bank Ring-Fencing Review Project Agorá: a shared programmable platform for wholesale cross-border payments Tonik Becomes the First…
Read MoreThings we’re readihg today include … Deregulation hands top US and UK banks $1.3tn The £1tn Divergence: How Regulatory Loosening is Redrawing the Fintech Playing Field Goldman Sachs emerges as chief beneficiary of bank deregulation German media giant Bertelsmann gets banking licence Why JPMorgan Payments thinks like a fintech DBS Bank scales AI across 430…
Read MoreNow that Intelligent Bank has finally launched during my trip to China with Hauwei, here is more about what it means, as written by an AI friend … Intelligent Bank: The Third Financial Technology Revolution argues that banking is entering a third major era of technological change. The first revolution was automation, driven by mainframes, SWIFT, Visa…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Europe’s Banks Got An Emergency AI Warning From The ECB – Here Is What It Means For Fintech Metro Bank investors urged to reject executive pay report Bank Loans to UK Businesses Hit 28-Year Low Shawbrook weighs Aldermore bid as Firstrand looks to offload challenger bank Commonwealth Bank boss…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Kevin Warsh Sworn In As New Federal Reserve Chair, Capping Months-Long Saga Bank boss sorry after describing workers as ‘lower value human capital’ Banking reforms to boost investment by billions for British businesses Bank lending to UK businesses falls to lowest level in nearly 30 years Trump Executive Order…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … “Intelligent Bank” is officially launched I spent last week in China with Huawei. It was fantastic and, finally, it gave me the chance to announce and release my new book Intelligent Bank. Regular blog readers will know that I’ve been talking about this as the third fintech revolution but I…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … What banks are doing with AI The funny thing about AI in banking is that the headlines are completely wrong. Every week there’s another breathless prediction claiming that AI will “replace banks”, “eliminate core systems” or “create autonomous financial institutions”. Reading these articles, you would think that we…
Read MoreThis week’s blog discussions included … Everyone is lying to you about money I just discovered that Ben McKenzie is taking the cryptocurrency industry head-on. Many of you will remember Ben from The O.C. but he’s now a little bit more serious. In fact, he wrote a book: Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. Oh!…
Read MoreThis week’s blog discussions included … Let’s be honest: retail banking is broken Over the past decade, the industry has aggressively optimised for cost and digital efficiency and, in doing so, it has quietly dismantled the human infrastructure that made banking work for millions of people. Start with the facts. In the UK alone, more…
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This week’s main discussions include … If people do not trust the system, they will not use it I just got the LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) Risk Intelligence report which makes clear that we have crossed a line. Fraud is no longer something that happens at the edges of the financial system. It has…
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This week’s main discussions include … Will global fintech banks destroy traditional banking? I was recently interviewed by the International Finance Magazine about Revolut getting their UK banking licence and what this means to banks in general. Here’s the discussion: With Revolut securing a UK banking licence after years of scrutiny, do you see this as part…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Did the regulator just admit that banking is a mess? I’ve just read the regulatory roadmap that the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority released this week and realised that it is less a neat plan and more a recognition that the current system is broken and we’ve run out of…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Almost half of the world’s banks aren’t ready for ISO20022 Just got some interesting research from RedCompass Labs that states 44% of banks aren’t on track to meet ISO 20022’s structured address migration deadline in November 2026. It’s an important deadline as it marks a hard stop to the old SWIFT…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Money only works in a trusted, shared system … which is why blockchains don’t work There’s a fundamental truth about money that we often forget: money only works because we all agree to use the same system. Whether it’s Visa, SWIFT or central bank money, the power of finance…
Read MoreThis week’s main discussions include … Programmable liquidity: five foundations reshaping modern treasury I had a great chat the other day – the first in a series of three – with Quant’s Chief Product Officer Martin Hargreaves about programmable liquidity. What’s that? Read on … Programmable liquidity: five foundations reshaping modern treasury How is programmable…
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