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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Monzo allowed customers to open accounts from everywhere including Buckingham Palace … with no authentication Digital bank Monzo has just been fined £21 million by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), after onboarding customers claiming to live at 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and even its own premises. A lack of address verification…
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Agentic finance. What is that? For me, it is where you can designate your financial life to an intelligent, connected network. The core of that network is: who are you? There is you and then there is your digital twin. There are two you’s: the physical you and the digital you. So we have to…
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I just received an interesting report by Deloitte about API Banking and Banking-as-a-Service … the things I talked about back in the 2000s. The report is called the future of money movement, although I would argue it is the present of money movement along with embedded finance and open banking, which are also mentioned in…
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WARNING: THIS BLOG IS POLITICAL I often talk about the tech billionaires who control our lives. Why blog about this today? Well, a few disturbing developments. One is Elon Musk – you probably already know about his issues – thinking of launching a new American political party; but the other, and more intriguing, is an…
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Agentic finance. What is that? For me, it is where you can designate your financial life to an intelligent, connected network. The core of that network is: who are you? There is you and then there is your digital twin. There are two you’s: the physical you and the digital you. So we have to…
Read MoreI just received an interesting report by Deloitte about API Banking and Banking-as-a-Service … the things I talked about back in the 2000s. The report is called the future of money movement, although I would argue it is the present of money movement along with embedded finance and open banking, which are also mentioned in…
Read MoreWARNING: THIS BLOG IS POLITICAL I often talk about the tech billionaires who control our lives. Why blog about this today? Well, a few disturbing developments. One is Elon Musk – you probably already know about his issues – thinking of launching a new American political party; but the other, and more intriguing, is an…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace? The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential…
Read MoreI just booked a hotel stay in London the other day, confirmed with PayPal but then, shortly after checking my PayPal account, it showed two transactions. Thinking I had paid for the booking twice, I raised a dispute with hotels.com and PayPal about two charges. Now, as regular users of PayPal would know, it’s not…
Read More“All the work I’ve done in my life will be obsolete in a few years.” Steve Jobs This statement is pretty fundamental to life as we know it. Everything you do is worth nothing tomorrow. It is only worth something today. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that’s why…
Read More
There are many fintechs I follow closely: Stripe, Adyen, Klarna, Nubank, Ant Group to name just a few. London and the UK in general has been at the centre of all of this, and is home to almost 30 fintech unicorns, with many more rising. The thing is that, as these firms mature, things change….
Read More
I’ve been wondering a lot lately about the balance between privacy and permission in banking. The fact is that we don’t want people having our account details and yet, on certain occasions, it is necessary. So, what to do? In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, the dichotomy between privacy and permission access has emerged as…
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I just received the latest World Economic Forum’s Future of Fintech report so, here’s a summary: The fintech industry is transitioning from rapid expansion into a phase of sustainable growth, increased collaboration and broader market reach. The fintech sector is experiencing a customer growth rate of 37% from 2022-2023, down from 55% in 2020-2021 reflecting a…
Read MoreMonzo allowed customers to open accounts from everywhere including Buckingham Palace … with no authentication Digital bank Monzo has just been fined £21 million by the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), after onboarding customers claiming to live at 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and even its own premises. A lack of address verification…
Read MoreAgentic finance. What is that? For me, it is where you can designate your financial life to an intelligent, connected network. The core of that network is: who are you? There is you and then there is your digital twin. There are two you’s: the physical you and the digital you. So we have to…
Read MoreI just received an interesting report by Deloitte about API Banking and Banking-as-a-Service … the things I talked about back in the 2000s. The report is called the future of money movement, although I would argue it is the present of money movement along with embedded finance and open banking, which are also mentioned in…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace? The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential…
Read MoreI just booked a hotel stay in London the other day, confirmed with PayPal but then, shortly after checking my PayPal account, it showed two transactions. Thinking I had paid for the booking twice, I raised a dispute with hotels.com and PayPal about two charges. Now, as regular users of PayPal would know, it’s not…
Read More“All the work I’ve done in my life will be obsolete in a few years.” Steve Jobs This statement is pretty fundamental to life as we know it. Everything you do is worth nothing tomorrow. It is only worth something today. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that’s why…
Read MoreI’ve been wondering a lot lately about the balance between privacy and permission in banking. The fact is that we don’t want people having our account details and yet, on certain occasions, it is necessary. So, what to do? In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, the dichotomy between privacy and permission access has emerged as…
Read More
Trust in the news services has dropped from 51% to 35% over the last decade, according to Oxford University’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report. The headline paragraph can be summarised as it’s 2025 and we live in a time of deep political and economic uncertainty, changing geo-political alliances, climate breakdown and many destructive conflicts around the…
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For most of the last decades, I’ve been having arguments about control versus freedom; government versus the individual; the state versus the libertarian. It began in earnest with the launch of bitcoin, where my position is always that you cannot have money without government. Then, as most of you will know, the question is: which…
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I spend every day being more and more amazed at what AI can do, particularly with video. From my bedroom, I can create a whole marketing campaign with high-end advertising in just a few days. To illustrate this, I was amazed at this advert for Kalshi, a prediction markets FinTech: Aired during the NBA Finals…
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I would love to walk into a bank’s boardroom with my opening slide explaining: “Step confidently into the future of Web3 with Zond, a quantum-resistant Layer-1 blockchain* engineered to transcend today’s security limitations and safeguard your dApps, from DeFi protocols to NFT marketplaces, while powering the next generation of smart contracts in tomorrow’s digital economy.”…
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I’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…
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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 &…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 MoreWARNING: THIS BLOG IS POLITICAL I often talk about the tech billionaires who control our lives. Why blog about this today? Well, a few disturbing developments. One is Elon Musk – you probably already know about his issues – thinking of launching a new American political party; but the other, and more intriguing, is an…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace? The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential…
Read MoreThe Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential themes. Our banknotes have celebrated notable historical figures since 1970, when William Shakespeare…
Read More“All the work I’ve done in my life will be obsolete in a few years.” Steve Jobs This statement is pretty fundamental to life as we know it. Everything you do is worth nothing tomorrow. It is only worth something today. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that’s why…
Read MoreThere are many fintechs I follow closely: Stripe, Adyen, Klarna, Nubank, Ant Group to name just a few. London and the UK in general has been at the centre of all of this, and is home to almost 30 fintech unicorns, with many more rising. The thing is that, as these firms mature, things change….
Read More
You may not have spotted it but Jamie Dimon, the CEO and Chair of JPMorgan, who was dressed down in t-shirt and jeans, made a recent appearance at a tech summit on AI organised by Databricks. The 40-minute interview is over here on YouTube, and took the form of a fireside chat with Ali Ghodsi,…
Read MoreI would love to walk into a bank’s boardroom with my opening slide explaining: “Step confidently into the future of Web3 with Zond, a quantum-resistant Layer-1 blockchain* engineered to transcend today’s security limitations and safeguard your dApps, from DeFi protocols to NFT marketplaces, while powering the next generation of smart contracts in tomorrow’s digital economy.”…
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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…
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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 MoreThings we’re reading today include … Monzo fined £21m after customers used No 10 and Buckingham Palace as addresses UniCredit doubles its equity stake in Commerzbank to 20% Metaplanet Eyes Digital Bank in Bitcoin Expansion Plan Pay by Bank: driving the future of seamless and secure payments The Legal Landscape of Cryptocurrency: Insights on XRP’s…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Revolut banking license in doubt as deadline set to slip Major UK bank to disappear from high street with five million customers impacted Labour is acting like communist China, says Lloyds Bank chief Charlie Nunn There are now more than half a billion mobile money accounts in the world,…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bitcoin investor (Roger Ver?) moves $8 billion worth of crypto after 14 years Secret Service Builds International Network to Fight Crypto Crime The transformative power of AI in fintech – Lloyds Banking Group Stripe’s first employee, the founder of fintech Increase, sort of bought a bank British fintech Zilch…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace? The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Tech Billionaires Launch Erebor Bank for Crypto Startups Post SVB Collapse British banking chiefs take a leaf from Elon Musk’s DOGE Monzo Co-Founder Jason Bates Plots to Build the Revolut of Private Banking By Reviving a Disgraced Monaco Bank Elon Musk’s X to offer investment and trading in ‘super…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include …. AI robots at US bank get their own social media and email accounts ‘Bank of Wokeness’ to ditch historical figures from banknotes to reflect diversity Santander buys major high street rival as bank customers promised massive boost TSB faces another risky IT migration as Santander eyes UK bank Banker…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank of England to redesign banknotes – and wants your help Regulation is slowing down fintech, says Tech Secretary Deutsche Bank Reportedly Plans Crypto Custody Service Why Tether dominates the stablecoin market Quantum Threats to Cryptocurrency: Navigating the Race to Quantum-Resistant Solutions Peter Thiel joins tech billionaires backing new…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Circle applies for US trust bank license after bumper IPO Robinhood Expands Cryptocurrency Suite in Europe, US Klarna accelerates shift to digital bank ahead of second IPO attempt French bank hit after insider helped SIM swap scammers Is Nigel Farage right about the Bank of England? BBVA launches a…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace? The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential…
Read More
This week’s main blog discussions include … Is fintech young or old? I just received the latest World Economic Forum’s Future of Fintech report so, here’s a summary: The fintech industry is transitioning from rapid expansion into a phase of sustainable growth, increased collaboration and broader market reach. The fintech sector is experiencing a customer growth…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Are you fit to lead your bank if you don’t understand tech? I would love to walk into a bank’s boardroom with my opening slide explaining: “Step confidently into the future of Web3 with Zond, a quantum-resistant Layer-1 blockchain* engineered to transcend today’s security limitations and safeguard your…
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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 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 MoreThis 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…
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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…
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