Welcome to The Finanser by Chris Skinner. The Finanser discusses all things FinTech, finance, banking, technology and, most importantly, the future. To make an enquiry about having Chris write or speak for you, here’s an illustration of his presentations … … Chris Skinner has regularly forecast the changes in finance driven by technology. He is…
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A major Global Bank registered a trademark this week for a “ChatGPT like” service to help clients with investment advice although global finfluencer Paolo Sironi thinks they aren’t taking “FU” into account in their algorithms. It seems our quizmaster Rik might have been spending a bit too much time with ChatGPT this week as he busts…
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After yesterday’s post, I felt inspired to write a poem about AI. Here goes: Have we invented the technology to replace us? Have we thrown humanity under a bus? If technology can talk, what does it have to say? If technology can walk, how will it play? We have AI and robots today…
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I recently hosted a meeting of C-suite bankers to talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in banking. It was a great discussion and my summary would be: it’s scary and exciting. As I blogged about the other day, AI may be our future or our doom. Which way do we look? The meeting had a theme…
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When I wrote Digital Human, the book was partly inspired by Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Hariri. Yuval’s moved on since then, written several more great books, and is now focused upon artificial intelligence (AI). So, I just watched a fascinating presentation from Yuval at the Frontiers conference. Most of the…
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Things we’re reading today include … Wall Street Banks Are Using AI to Rewire the World of Finance Fintech giant Stripe is getting into the credit game Why clients should be cautioned about fintech services Treat Crypto as Securities by Default, European Parliament Study Says Bank of England’s warning to anyone who uses £20 and…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Swiss National Bank keynote explores if Bitcoin could oust fiat currencies Generative AI is Coming for Insurance British digital bank Monzo hits monthly profitability for the first time after spike in lending Quantum computing is no longer science fiction Crypto Is On The Up In 2023, So What Is…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Wall Street prepares to take on established crypto companies China to gain most from restrictive US crypto regulations: Coinbase CEO Hong Kong and UAE central banks collab on crypto rules, fintech development Key linkages between banks and the non-bank financial sector Fintech Unicorn Revolut Needs a Plan B Klarna’s…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Silence speaks volumes as Switzerland still reels from bank meltdown HSBC opts for Innovation in rebranding of Silicon Valley Bank UK Bank of England spends £150,000 on measuring carbon footprint of cash AmEx is experimenting cautiously with generative AI for fintech Crypto Now Braced For A $1.1 Trillion Fed…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Social media sites are wild west for shopping fraud, says UK bank JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon deposed over bank’s Jeffrey Epstein ties Fintech firm Klarna halves net loss in first quarter as it races toward profitability China releases white paper for Web3 development; Bullish sign for crypto? Joint…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Some challenger banks are challenged I’ve written quite a lot about Revolut and Monzo, as well as many other challenger banks. Now, as we hit hard times with rising inflation, interest rates and a recession looming in so many markets what’s the state of the fintech nation? Well, it’s challenging…
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After yesterday’s post, I felt inspired to write a poem about AI. Here goes: Have we invented the technology to replace us? Have we thrown humanity under a bus? If technology can talk, what does it have to say? If technology can walk, how will it play? We have AI and robots today…
Read More
I recently hosted a meeting of C-suite bankers to talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in banking. It was a great discussion and my summary would be: it’s scary and exciting. As I blogged about the other day, AI may be our future or our doom. Which way do we look? The meeting had a theme…
Read More
When I wrote Digital Human, the book was partly inspired by Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Hariri. Yuval’s moved on since then, written several more great books, and is now focused upon artificial intelligence (AI). So, I just watched a fascinating presentation from Yuval at the Frontiers conference. Most of the…
Read More
European Union and United States diplomats are meeting today, for the fourth time, to work out how to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). The EU Commission expects agreement in the European Union this year on the first AI law, in what some see as a global race to manage these new technologies. The key is how to…
Read More
There is a huge debate around whether cryptocurrencies are securities or not. Should they be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or not? This has come to a head recently, as the SEC decided to tackle Ripple and Coinbase as deviants. Ripple Effects From SEC Suit Could Strengthen Coinbase Litigation Ripple v. SEC:…
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I’ve written quite a lot about Revolut and Monzo, as well as many other challenger banks. Now, as we hit hard times with rising inflation, interest rates and a recession looming in so many markets what’s the state of the fintech nation? Well, it’s challenging for challengers. Some are doing well, but many are being called out for…
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Some years ago, I was talking about corporate transformation and the move from command-control to coach-counsel organisations. Command-control are businesses that run in a military style. You do what I tell you to do and obey the rules. Coach-counsel was far more developmental. How can I help you achieve your dreams. Some described the former…
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On the one hand we want order and control; on the other, we don’t want to be ordered or controlled. We want governance, but we don’t want to be governed. We appreciate structure, but we don’t want to have that structure tell us what to do. The issue is a basic one: how far can…
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I did a search of “Jamie Dimon” the other day, and was intrigued by the results. It reached everything from how cryptocurrencies are dangerous to Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender connected to everyone from Prince Andrew to Jes Staley, formerly with JP Morgan and CEO of Barclays. The search made me realise how much…
Read MoreI recently hosted a meeting of C-suite bankers to talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in banking. It was a great discussion and my summary would be: it’s scary and exciting. As I blogged about the other day, AI may be our future or our doom. Which way do we look? The meeting had a theme…
Read More
Technology is making catfishing a new art form that is getting better every single day. What is catfishing? Catfishing refers to when a person takes information and images, typically from other people, and uses them to create a new identity for themselves. Therefore, I was struck by this when a tweet by my friend Dave Birch noted…
Read MoreOn the one hand we want order and control; on the other, we don’t want to be ordered or controlled. We want governance, but we don’t want to be governed. We appreciate structure, but we don’t want to have that structure tell us what to do. The issue is a basic one: how far can…
Read MoreI did a search of “Jamie Dimon” the other day, and was intrigued by the results. It reached everything from how cryptocurrencies are dangerous to Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender connected to everyone from Prince Andrew to Jes Staley, formerly with JP Morgan and CEO of Barclays. The search made me realise how much…
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After Brexit, I hear and read a lot of negative things about doing business with Britain these days. The latest is Revolut complaining that Britain doesn’t like them. That’s not true. It’s more to do with Revolut cannot deliver their accounts on time (they blame the regulator for this) and cannot get the banking licence…
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Some predict that, in the near future, the world will be run by AI robots, even Liverpool football team! The thing about AI is that it is only as good as the input it is given. For example, ChatGPT couldn’t give answers to any questions you ask it, without those answers being previously written by…
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I’ve met many FinTech founders and the one thing they have in common is youthful optimism (even those over 30), but I was taken with an article written by Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian the other day asking why so many so many under 30-year-old founders face jail. You see the thing about youthful optimism…
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As an advocate of digitalisation, I am finding myself more and more conflicted these days. Apps don’t work; settings change; updates mess up my services; processes break and cannot be repaired without a reset; I can’t make a payment as there is no WiFi or mobile data; I can’t get home as FreeNow and Uber…
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The World Bank released a free report the other day titled: FinTech and the Future of Finance. It’s an interesting read and I was going to summarise it, when I discovered on LinkedIn that my friend Richard Turrin had already done the job. Here you go: “The World Bank” delivers a great read on fintech and…
Read MoreThere is a huge debate around whether cryptocurrencies are securities or not. Should they be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or not? This has come to a head recently, as the SEC decided to tackle Ripple and Coinbase as deviants. Ripple Effects From SEC Suit Could Strengthen Coinbase Litigation Ripple v. SEC:…
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It’s interesting how countries and regions are responding to all of the interest in cryptocurrencies. The European Union is the latest to make a move with DAC8. What’s DAC8? It is the new eighth directive on administrative cooperation. That’s fun, isn’t it? The new Directive is all about tax transparency rules for any platform or…
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It’s interesting how countries and regions are responding to all of the interest in cryptocurrencies. The European Union is the latest to make a move with DAC8. What’s DAC8? Well, it stands for Directive on Administrative Co-operation. The European Commission has proposed new tax transparency rules for all service providers facilitating transactions in crypto-assets for…
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With the wake up and shake up talk hitting the radar every day about AI, it should make all of us wake up and shake up when the person who founded OpenAI, the foundation of ChatGPT, launches a currency. The currency is called Worldcoin, and uses eye biometrics to operate and recognise identities. According to their…
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After my blog the other day, about the issue with decentralised finance having a lack of governance – who do you call if you lose your bitcoin? – several readers responded by asking: who do you call if you lose your cash? But this is the point. People are using cryptocurrencies as an investment asset….
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As the global superpower that I grew up with, America has dominated everything in my life. I’ve worked for American companies; I watch American movies; I use American tech for almost everything I do … in fact, as a Brit, I’m so American that the only thing I don’t do is pronounce a Z as…
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I’ve talked a lot about a global basket of digital currencies becoming the norm. Then, as I started developing ideas for my next book – CeFi vs DeFi – I realised that the way the world is moving is to have both. Why can’t we have stablecoins based on a basket of USD and RMB…
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I was quietly annoyed by one of the headlines I saw the other day: Using crypto for crime is not a bug — it’s an industry feature It’s an attack on the whole idea of cryptocurrencies in an opinion piece by Financial Times columnist Jemima Kelly. She talks about being heckled for saying that crypto…
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Over the past years the financial industry has had a weird relationship with the cryptocurrency industry. The former was launched thousands of years ago; the latter just over a decade ago. Maybe that’s why. But, during my experience, we started with financial markets saying cryptocurrencies didn’t matter; then that the technology, namely blockchain, mattered but…
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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expected former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga to be elected president of the World Bank as nominations drew to a close. It is not surprising as, when nominations closed at 6pm in Washington yesterday, there were no other publicly declared candidates. Who is Mr. Banga? According to Wikipedia, Ajay…
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I’ve been subscribed to Make My Money Matter for a while. It’s a movement started by Comic Relief co-founder Richard Curtis – he of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame – and is trying to put pressure on pension funds to influence financial institutions to only invest in things that protect our future, as in…
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Last year I invited Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, to write a monthly column explaining her motivations and methods. You can read those, and other climate and ESG related blogs, here. One specific column she contributed was asking how they could justify breaking bank windows. Extinction Rebellion lobbied HSBC and Barclays Bank specifically in…
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I was surprised to be voted one of the leading thinkers on Climate Change by Thinkers360 … Delighted to find myself as one of the top thinkers about #ClimateChange 2022 from @thinkers360https://t.co/gKj0JwICSZ — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) January 3, 2023 It’s probably based on my last book, and I don’t think of myself as a climate…
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I haven’t written about Green Finance for a while, but then saw this over on Bloomberg and couldn’t resist sharing. The need for a global greenwashing framework by Tim Quinson, Bloomberg Greenwashing may be the biggest risk to the future of ESG investing, but there’s no firm agreement on what it means in a legal…
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I’ve been talking a lot about DeFi, CeFi and HyFi, and someone said: what about ReFi? ReFi? What’s that? Well, ReFi is all about Regenerative Finance, a system to rebuild Earth. Therefore, I’m pleased to share a second post by Letty Prados. Last month, I shared her introduction about ReFi. Here is Part II! Exploring Regenerative Tokenomics. If you…
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The biggest banks in the world are regularly advertising their green credentials, whilst killing the world. They claim to invest in green projects, which are trivial to the amounts they are lending to companies creating emissions and destruction. It’s kind of like a family where you say aren’t we good and then spending the evenings…
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For those who follow my thinking, you will know that the latest theme is how can we use technology to make the world a better place (if you don’t, read Digital for Good). The themes are about ESG, climate change, purpose and more, but it came home to me when thinking about children. Children are…
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I listened to the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, speaking at her Conservative Party conference. She mentioned “growth” 29 times. I know what it is like to live somewhere that isn’t feeling the benefits of economic growth … Low growth isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. Low growth means lower wages, fewer opportunities and…
Read MoreAfter yesterday’s post, I felt inspired to write a poem about AI. Here goes: Have we invented the technology to replace us? Have we thrown humanity under a bus? If technology can talk, what does it have to say? If technology can walk, how will it play? We have AI and robots today…
Read MoreEuropean Union and United States diplomats are meeting today, for the fourth time, to work out how to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). The EU Commission expects agreement in the European Union this year on the first AI law, in what some see as a global race to manage these new technologies. The key is how to…
Read More
2023 is proving to be a really weird year. On the back of a pandemic, we have a world where interest rates are rising, business is contracting, tax is going up and confidence is going down. I cannot see anywhere in the world that is stable or normal. We have war in Europe; China has…
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I just shared a speech by Christopher J. Waller, member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, that started with this comment: “Climate change is real, but I do not believe it poses a serious risk to the safety and soundness of large banks or the financial stability of the United States.”…
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I’ve had this thing about decentralised finance for some time. The reason? Libertarians say that we can now have money without government. From my side, I argue that’s wrong. You can’t have money without government. The question is: who is the government? You cannot have money without government, but the government can just as easily…
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I recently had a chat with the folks of Machine Lab. Here’s what happened … An acclaimed author and independent commentator whose insights on financial markets and fintech are second to none, Chris Skinner was one of the founding minds behind the world’s first mobile bank and has advised some of the most prominent CEOs and leaders…
Read MoreOver the past years the financial industry has had a weird relationship with the cryptocurrency industry. The former was launched thousands of years ago; the latter just over a decade ago. Maybe that’s why. But, during my experience, we started with financial markets saying cryptocurrencies didn’t matter; then that the technology, namely blockchain, mattered but…
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I was thinking the other day: why do we have money? Why are we slaves to the system? Can we break free? It made me think about whether anyone can live without money. After Googling the idea, it amazed me how many people do live without money. There’s even books about it. For example, in Life…
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I’ve seen so many updates about Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) lately that it’s obviously an inevitability. Maybe … Bear in mind we have CBDCs and cryptocurrencies. Are the two in competition or complimentary? I think that’s a really important question. The question is: which do you trust more? Trust in CBDCs is that, because…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … Some challenger banks are challenged I’ve written quite a lot about Revolut and Monzo, as well as many other challenger banks. Now, as we hit hard times with rising inflation, interest rates and a recession looming in so many markets what’s the state of the fintech nation? Well, it’s challenging…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Decentralised versus centralised On the one hand we want order and control; on the other, we don’t want to be ordered or controlled. We want governance, but we don’t want to be governed. We appreciate structure, but we don’t want to have that structure tell us what to…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Who’s afraid of big bad AI? I am getting more and more blown away by AI these days. Not only is ChatGPT able to write my blogs, but relationships are now run by deep fake robots. In a recent experiment, the US medical council did a blind test…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The issue with DeFi I’ve had this thing about decentralised finance for some time. The reason? Libertarians say that we can now have money without government. From my side, I argue that’s wrong. You can’t have money without government. The question is: who is the government? You cannot…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Why digital transformation fails I got a nudge that my good friend Jim Marous had just published a new report, sponsored by Qorus and Infosys Finacle. 💯 Jim Marous states that: “innovation is important in banking because it drives growth, allows organisations to stay competitive, and helps solve complex…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Money isn’t everything, but it sure beats whatever’s in second place I spotted a comment the other day that no matter how rich you are, you can never be satisfied. That’s humanity for you. It led to asking the question: why do multimillionaires still bother working? The answer…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Barry Banker and the Market of Doom I’ve been writing children’s stories for a while, and decided to try to apply my childish impishness to the seriousness of banking. That’s a true FinTech approach where we integrate the parent and child. So, here’s my attempt to create an exciting…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … Are we in another financial crisis? I claimed that the crisis of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Credit Suisse were isolated cases, specific to those institutions, and there is no financial contagion. Then we get all these headlines about Deutsche Bank being next. What’s going on? The decline and fall of the…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Invisible banking is the place to be A couple of headlines hit me recently. The first is that twitter is going to create a payments system: Twitter has begun applying for regulatory licences across the US and designing the software required to introduce payments across the social media…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Will Silicon Valley Bank kill the FinTech industry? “When you’re not working, what do you do to de-stress?” was the last question Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)*, took at an investor conference on Tuesday last week. “Cycling is my advice,” he replied. Three days later…
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Thinkers360 Thought Leader
Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023
Best CEO of the Year UK 2022
Best Digital Finance Provider of the Year UK 2022
Best Financial Markets Adviser of the Year UK 2022
Portal to the Knowledge Base of the Financial Services Club UK 2022
Financial Markets Advisor of the Year UK 2022
Best Financial Markets Adviser of the Year UK 2022
Portal to the Knowledge Base of the Financial Services Club UK 2022
Financial Markets Advisor of the Year UK 2022
