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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Your morning coffee purchase travels through 15 countries in 0.3 seconds. It’s not magic. It’s a global network of invisible digital pipes and two college dropouts saw their world-changing potential. Two brothers. Meet Patrick and John Collison: the architects of our digital future. 2010: the Collisons spot a problem: Online payments are a maze of…
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The BBC just interviewed Tony Blair. Who? Oh yea, some politician from the last century. The interview is quite interesting, particularly the point that, when Mr Blair stood down, Britain had been led by just three people over 28 years. Now the country has just moved onto their sixth prime minister in eight years. Interestingly,…
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As it’s the quiet summer, I’ve been watching too much on Netflix, Prime, Disney and Apple. Yes, I subscribe to them all. It’s interesting that the content is either about love, hate, fear, happiness and other emotions. The one thing that links nearly all the ones I watch is money, because money is power. Whether…
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Sorry to keep blogging about APP (Authorised Push Payments) fraud, but it’s a big topic of my friends right now in Britain, and Jeremy Light just published a great post on LinkedIn that provides more insight. Here’s his thoughts: The PSR’s Authorised push payment (APP) scams performance report for 2023 contains some extraordinary data. Published…
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Your morning coffee purchase travels through 15 countries in 0.3 seconds. It’s not magic. It’s a global network of invisible digital pipes and two college dropouts saw their world-changing potential. Two brothers. Meet Patrick and John Collison: the architects of our digital future. 2010: the Collisons spot a problem: Online payments are a maze of…
Read MoreMany of you have probably been relaxing for the past month and missed the fact that there was a major event in Mumbai: the Global Fintech Fest. It impressed me that they managed to persuade Shri Narendra Modi, Honourable Prime Minister of India, to deliver a keynote on Friday. What did he say? Well, you can…
Read MoreEarlier this year, we launched a new book Intelligent Money: When Money Thinks For You, which is doing well and reviews are good. The premise of the book? If you can decentralise money and make it intelligent with AI, what do regulators and banks do? Well worth a read but I am biased, but some people aren’t….
Read MoreMy blog the other day about asking what’s going to change is the wrong question was inspired by the quote from Jeff Bezos and this report from Team8: an unconventional view of the future of fintech https://team8.vc/rethink/fintech/2030-and-beyond/ They delve into three areas: What won’t change? What do we believe are the ‘immutable physical laws of…
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If you haven’t noticed, Apple recently launched a new feature called Tap-to-Pay. It seems like a quiet thing, but it’s not. In fact, the new open network offers the opportunity to actively use cryptocurrencies through Apple. There has been a lot written about it, but a recent post by Mike Kelly on LinkedIn* grabbed my attention…
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I seem to have been immersed in APP fraud recently, mainly because the UK government is introducing new laws to manage such fraud on October 7. What is APP fraud? It is an Authorised Push Payment. It’s basically where you pay for something voluntarily which is not real, such as a parcel delivery that is…
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For some reason, I’ve just been bombarded with emails about the secret memo from venture capital firm Sequoia, about their investment twenty years ago in YouTube. Maybe it’s because it’s only just come to light or maybe it’s because it provides the secret sauce of how to achieve a successful early funding round. For me,…
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I find it weird as my news waves have recently been drowning in pay-by-bank PR and marketing. Finally, I decided to see what this pay-by-bank news was all about and it turns out that it’s the USA finally allowing A2A payments. Wow, big news … not. The thing about the USA is that their payments…
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I find it hard to believe that two years ago I was writing about a fintech bloodbath and, two years later, it continues. The drying up of funding, the post-pandemic recession, the way in which the markets were moving from funding to divesting. It seemed a bit unreal. So, has it got better? No. In…
Read MoreThe BBC just interviewed Tony Blair. Who? Oh yea, some politician from the last century. The interview is quite interesting, particularly the point that, when Mr Blair stood down, Britain had been led by just three people over 28 years. Now the country has just moved onto their sixth prime minister in eight years. Interestingly,…
Read MoreMany of you have probably been relaxing for the past month and missed the fact that there was a major event in Mumbai: the Global Fintech Fest. It impressed me that they managed to persuade Shri Narendra Modi, Honourable Prime Minister of India, to deliver a keynote on Friday. What did he say? Well, you can…
Read MoreEarlier this year, we launched a new book Intelligent Money: When Money Thinks For You, which is doing well and reviews are good. The premise of the book? If you can decentralise money and make it intelligent with AI, what do regulators and banks do? Well worth a read but I am biased, but some people aren’t….
Read MoreMy blog the other day about asking what’s going to change is the wrong question was inspired by the quote from Jeff Bezos and this report from Team8: an unconventional view of the future of fintech https://team8.vc/rethink/fintech/2030-and-beyond/ They delve into three areas: What won’t change? What do we believe are the ‘immutable physical laws of…
Read MoreI seem to have been immersed in APP fraud recently, mainly because the UK government is introducing new laws to manage such fraud on October 7. What is APP fraud? It is an Authorised Push Payment. It’s basically where you pay for something voluntarily which is not real, such as a parcel delivery that is…
Read More
I realised today that I’ve talked lots and lots about Asia, Africa, Europe and the South Americas banking, fintech and digital state. But I haven’t written much about the USA. So, today’s the day! With a colossal $176 trillion in Household Financial Assets and $128.5 trillion in non-cash payments, the U.S. banking sector stands as a…
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When I was a lad, we had one bank account that we opened when we were going to university and you stayed with that bank for life. Today, I have many bank accounts and credit and debit cards. I use Wise, Revolut, Monzo, Lloyds, American Express, Millennium, HSBC and more. Then you add in pensions…
Read MoreI find it weird as my news waves have recently been drowning in pay-by-bank PR and marketing. Finally, I decided to see what this pay-by-bank news was all about and it turns out that it’s the USA finally allowing A2A payments. Wow, big news … not. The thing about the USA is that their payments…
Read More
Anton Golib, Founder & President of SwissAssetDAO, just dropped an interesting update on DAO. What is a DAO? Well, let’s turn to Wikipedia: A decentralised autonomous organisation, sometimes called a decentralised autonomous corporation, is an organisation managed in whole or in part by decentralised computer program, with voting and finances handled through a blockchain. In general…
Read MoreEarlier this year, we launched a new book Intelligent Money: When Money Thinks For You, which is doing well and reviews are good. The premise of the book? If you can decentralise money and make it intelligent with AI, what do regulators and banks do? Well worth a read but I am biased, but some people aren’t….
Read MoreMy blog the other day about asking what’s going to change is the wrong question was inspired by the quote from Jeff Bezos and this report from Team8: an unconventional view of the future of fintech https://team8.vc/rethink/fintech/2030-and-beyond/ They delve into three areas: What won’t change? What do we believe are the ‘immutable physical laws of…
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As someone who has been involved in bitcoin since 2011, you would think I would have retired by now to a beach in the Caribbean. Instead, I am still working as hard as ever, as most of my crypto hodling went south (checkout my crypto archives here). Speaking of which, there is a brand new…
Read MoreAnton Golib, Founder & President of SwissAssetDAO, just dropped an interesting update on DAO. What is a DAO? Well, let’s turn to Wikipedia: A decentralised autonomous organisation, sometimes called a decentralised autonomous corporation, is an organisation managed in whole or in part by decentralised computer program, with voting and finances handled through a blockchain. In general…
Read More
I don’t like blogs on a Saturday – we should be relaxing – but this X update from one of the Winklevoss twins (Tyler) caught my eye and so I just thought I would leave it here. Here’s what Tyler posted: Today, the Fed confirmed that Operation Choke Point 2.0 remains in full swing, provided…
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In a long feature, Bloomberg describes how Donald Trump has become a crypto fan. Trump Bitcoin 2024: How NFTs Made Him a Crypto Cheerleader – Bloomberg My reading: it’s based on his vanity. The cryptoworld created a whole range of NFT trading cards of Trump a few years ago and, because it made a lot…
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I met the bank I debanked the other day. They apologised to me, as they knew I was talking about them during my presentation, and explained: “we cannot serve our customers because of the regulators”. This made me wonder, as the reason why I debanked them is their interrogations of my dealings in cryptocurrencies. It made…
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I was quite amazed to see an item across my desk last week with the headline: Investors in cryptocurrency are more likely to be psychopaths Seriously? The headline is based on a report of a survey, published in the journal Plos One, who canvassed over 2,000 Americans of whom 30 per cent said they owned…
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July 4 is always when my American friends give Britain the middle finger and proudly celebrate Paul Revere’s midnight ride that led to Independence Day on July 4, 1776. Great … but what about bank independence day? Most central banks, including the Federal Reserve, are independent of government control. Why and, more importantly, why is…
Read MoreYour morning coffee purchase travels through 15 countries in 0.3 seconds. It’s not magic. It’s a global network of invisible digital pipes and two college dropouts saw their world-changing potential. Two brothers. Meet Patrick and John Collison: the architects of our digital future. 2010: the Collisons spot a problem: Online payments are a maze of…
Read MoreMany of you have probably been relaxing for the past month and missed the fact that there was a major event in Mumbai: the Global Fintech Fest. It impressed me that they managed to persuade Shri Narendra Modi, Honourable Prime Minister of India, to deliver a keynote on Friday. What did he say? Well, you can…
Read MoreEarlier this year, we launched a new book Intelligent Money: When Money Thinks For You, which is doing well and reviews are good. The premise of the book? If you can decentralise money and make it intelligent with AI, what do regulators and banks do? Well worth a read but I am biased, but some people aren’t….
Read MoreMy blog the other day about asking what’s going to change is the wrong question was inspired by the quote from Jeff Bezos and this report from Team8: an unconventional view of the future of fintech https://team8.vc/rethink/fintech/2030-and-beyond/ They delve into three areas: What won’t change? What do we believe are the ‘immutable physical laws of…
Read More
As a commercial strategist* (I don’t like the term futurist), I am always looking for what might change tomorrow. Most of the time I’ve been right and, if you don’t believe me, checkout this link: https://thefinanser.com/2020/12/what-is-the-future Today, most of the big things that are changing are political (new governments in USA, UK, France …); economic…
Read MoreI realised today that I’ve talked lots and lots about Asia, Africa, Europe and the South Americas banking, fintech and digital state. But I haven’t written much about the USA. So, today’s the day! With a colossal $176 trillion in Household Financial Assets and $128.5 trillion in non-cash payments, the U.S. banking sector stands as a…
Read More
Having written a book about how fintech can make finance good for the world, the biggest issue is those banks investing in fossil fuel firms. It’s not investing in fossil fuel firms that is the issue, but it’s investing in NEW fossil fuel firm projects. Now, who would do that when we know the planet is…
Read MoreI find it hard to believe that two years ago I was writing about a fintech bloodbath and, two years later, it continues. The drying up of funding, the post-pandemic recession, the way in which the markets were moving from funding to divesting. It seemed a bit unreal. So, has it got better? No. In…
Read More
For those who are fans of Black Mirror, I just got news of the forthcoming Netflix Series 7. As usual, it is a dark anti-tech futuristic vision, but I was particularly intrigued by the script of Episode 3: the Trust Token*. The theme is that, in the near future, as Earth globalises and integrates, we ditch…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Trump Pledges To Make US The ‘World Capital’ In Cryptocurrency | Barron’s (barrons.com) ECB to challenge American, Chinese payment systems with digital euro (crypto.news) Visa to launch pay-by-bank payments, an alternative to credit cards (cnbc.com) ‘I used Bank of Mum and Dad to fund my start-up – I lost…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank fraud reimbursement limit set to be slashed by thousands under new plans | Personal Finance | Express.co.uk Why is the UK slashing the maximum banks must refund to fraud victims? | Banking | The Guardian Deutsche Bank chief tells Germans: Work longer and harder – POLITICO Chinese banks’…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … BBVA secures UK approval to acquire TSB Bank in hostile takeover bid (cityam.com) UK reportedly poised to slash amount banks must refund to fraud victims | Banking | The Guardian Lloyds Bank hit by online service issues as Microsoft reports outage (cityam.com) Chinese central bank’s $56bn debt purchase sparks…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Viral ‘Chase Bank ATM Glitch’ promised people free money – but left them in thousands of debt and facing jail | The Independent Ukraine is working to legalize cryptocurrency to fill its coffers. – UBN Lloyds Bank partners with Cleareye.ai to provide trade finance tech solutions (retailbankerinternational.com) Lloyds Bank…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … TikTokers go wild over Chase bank ‘glitch’ – but they are in for a rude awakening | Daily Mail Australian bank weighs ban on office-hours drinking after trader misbehaviour Commonwealth Bank CEO labels Greens’ tax policy ‘insidious populism’ after firm’s $9.8bn profit | The Guardian Post Office handles record…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Intelligent Money is now audible Earlier this year, we launched a new book Intelligent Money: When Money Thinks For You, which is doing well and reviews are good. The premise of the book? If you can decentralise money and make it intelligent with AI, what do regulators and banks do?…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Alcohol Policy at ANZ Bank Up for Review as CEO Seeks Change – Bloomberg Basel III puts banking sector recovery at risk, FN panel warns (fnlondon.com) 15 Ways to Plug Your Bank’s Cybersecurity Risks (thefinancialbrand.com) Visa, Crown Agents Bank Launch ‘Last-Mile’ Payments Partnership (pymnts.com) Australia Leads the World in…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank-Fintech Partnerships Sparks Concern for Banking Regulators (natlawreview.com) Unit launches business continuity tool for bank partners of fintechs that fail | Banking Dive AI in Fintech Market to Reach USD 58.7 Billion by 2034, Growing at 15.9% CAGR – Future Market Insights, Inc. (accesswire.com) TSB Launches Emergency Flee Fund…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Intelligent Money is now audible Earlier this year, we launched a new book Intelligent Money: When Money Thinks For You, which is doing well and reviews are good. The premise of the book? If you can decentralise money and make it intelligent with AI, what do regulators and banks do?…
Read MoreThe main blog discussions this week include … Which European country worries the most about money? I just got pinged with some research about which countries are trying to save money the most from Finansvalp, a Swedish price comparison service and information site that writes about and compares banking services. Usually I ignore such surveys…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Is the fintech bloodbath over? I find it hard to believe that two years ago I was writing about a fintech bloodbath and, two years later, it continues. The drying up of funding, the post-pandemic recession, the way in which the markets were moving from funding to divesting….
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Does the US Presidential race hinge on crypto? I don’t like blogs on a Saturday – we should be relaxing – but this X update from one of the Winklevoss twins (Tyler) caught my eye and so I just thought I would leave it here. Here’s what Tyler…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Multisensory payments: is this the future? I just spotted a new innovation in India from Paytm, who I consider friends of mine after interviewing their founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma for Digital Human a few years ago. What’s the innovation? Talking payments. The Paytm soundbox – which works both online and…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … With great power, comes great threat #Revolut #PayPal With great power, comes great responsibility. It’s a quote from Spiderman, but actually not. It’s from Spiderman’s Uncle Ben. Well, it’s not tbh. It’s from Voltaire … or is it? Wherever it is from, it’s a great phrase. So, here’s…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The CrowdStrike issue and its impact on Microsoft I was talking with my 8 year-old son and said that the whole world had just stopped. He asked what do you mean? I replied that everything stopped. Airlines, banks, shops, trains, hospitals and more. He asked what happened? I…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The CIO managing a $17 billion budget and $10 trillion of transactions PER DAY I just spotted a great article about JPMorgan’s CIO who manages a $17 billion budget (last time I looked, it was $11 billion). That sort of budget makes most fintechs look like small fry….
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … July 4th? It’s bank independence day! July 4 is always when my American friends give Britain the middle finger and proudly celebrate Paul Revere’s midnight ride that led to Independence Day on July 4, 1776. Great … but what about bank independence day? Most central banks, including the…
Read MoreThe main blog discussions this week include … A financial offer to die for I attended a meeting this week presenting a variety of startups and their ideas. All of them were great, but one stood out for me: Fairwill. Obviously playing on the word farewell, Fairwill provides an exit policy for humans … as…
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Global 100 - 2024 Winner
Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023
Best Financial Markets Advisor of the Year 2023
