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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I’ve been talking about trust a lot lately, as that’s the basis of why you put money in a bank. You trust them. Why do you trust them? Well, it’s not because of their brand or their branch. It’s because they are licensed and promise to guarantee that they will not lose your money or,…
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It seems weird to debate a US presidential election based on attitudes towards cryptocurrencies but, as previously blogged, Donald Trump is very pro-crypto. His attitude turned with NFTs of his image. Nothing like narcissism. Back then, I was blogging about Donald Trump vs Joe Biden, and Biden looking like a loser. Now, we have Donald…
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Everyone seems to be talking about CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies. They are being launched to stem the tide of cryptocurrencies, but it makes you ask: what’s the difference. A CBDC is backed by a government; a cryptocurrency is backed by decentralised democracy. Not much difference there then. The Bank of England defines CBDC as…
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I just got a whole new set of tech phrases from a Gartner report. Giving my interpretation, here we go: Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is a proposed framework for Device Direct connectivity using satellite and cellular communication combination. The framework enables partnership between satellite (specifically low Earth orbit [LEO]) providers and terrestrial mobile operators…
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I’ve been talking about trust a lot lately, as that’s the basis of why you put money in a bank. You trust them. Why do you trust them? Well, it’s not because of their brand or their branch. It’s because they are licensed and promise to guarantee that they will not lose your money or,…
Read MoreEveryone seems to be talking about CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies. They are being launched to stem the tide of cryptocurrencies, but it makes you ask: what’s the difference. A CBDC is backed by a government; a cryptocurrency is backed by decentralised democracy. Not much difference there then. The Bank of England defines CBDC as…
Read MoreI just got a whole new set of tech phrases from a Gartner report. Giving my interpretation, here we go: Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is a proposed framework for Device Direct connectivity using satellite and cellular communication combination. The framework enables partnership between satellite (specifically low Earth orbit [LEO]) providers and terrestrial mobile operators…
Read MoreIt’s interesting that we have over 30,000 fintech start-ups worldwide but only a few we talk about a lot. Stripe, Klarna, NuBank, Alipay … sure, there are 300 unicorns but there are thousands of roadkill along the way. What surprises me is how many sneak out of the woods when you least expect it. By…
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…
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Many 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…
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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? Well worth a read but I am biased, but some people aren’t….
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My 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…
Read MoreI’ve been talking about trust a lot lately, as that’s the basis of why you put money in a bank. You trust them. Why do you trust them? Well, it’s not because of their brand or their branch. It’s because they are licensed and promise to guarantee that they will not lose your money or,…
Read MoreEveryone seems to be talking about CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies. They are being launched to stem the tide of cryptocurrencies, but it makes you ask: what’s the difference. A CBDC is backed by a government; a cryptocurrency is backed by decentralised democracy. Not much difference there then. The Bank of England defines CBDC as…
Read MoreI just got a whole new set of tech phrases from a Gartner report. Giving my interpretation, here we go: Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is a proposed framework for Device Direct connectivity using satellite and cellular communication combination. The framework enables partnership between satellite (specifically low Earth orbit [LEO]) providers and terrestrial mobile operators…
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…
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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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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…
Read MoreIt seems weird to debate a US presidential election based on attitudes towards cryptocurrencies but, as previously blogged, Donald Trump is very pro-crypto. His attitude turned with NFTs of his image. Nothing like narcissism. Back then, I was blogging about Donald Trump vs Joe Biden, and Biden looking like a loser. Now, we have Donald…
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…
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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…
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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…
Read MoreI’ve been talking about trust a lot lately, as that’s the basis of why you put money in a bank. You trust them. Why do you trust them? Well, it’s not because of their brand or their branch. It’s because they are licensed and promise to guarantee that they will not lose your money or,…
Read MoreIt seems weird to debate a US presidential election based on attitudes towards cryptocurrencies but, as previously blogged, Donald Trump is very pro-crypto. His attitude turned with NFTs of his image. Nothing like narcissism. Back then, I was blogging about Donald Trump vs Joe Biden, and Biden looking like a loser. Now, we have Donald…
Read MoreEveryone seems to be talking about CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies. They are being launched to stem the tide of cryptocurrencies, but it makes you ask: what’s the difference. A CBDC is backed by a government; a cryptocurrency is backed by decentralised democracy. Not much difference there then. The Bank of England defines CBDC as…
Read MoreI just got a whole new set of tech phrases from a Gartner report. Giving my interpretation, here we go: Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is a proposed framework for Device Direct connectivity using satellite and cellular communication combination. The framework enables partnership between satellite (specifically low Earth orbit [LEO]) providers and terrestrial mobile operators…
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…
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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 MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank of England makes ‘substantial amendments’ to Basel package (cityam.com) Investment firm caps work hours for junior staff at 80 a week after outcry over young banker’s shocking death | The Independent Chinese banking giant’s London HQ targeted by cybercriminals, threatening to leak millions of files | TechRadar New…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Innovation may slow amid bank-fintech partnership scrutiny: analysts | Banking Dive UK fintechs warn tax hike could undermine global fintech status – The Banker FIS draws fintech startups into accelerator | Payments Dive New bill introduced in Parliament to clarify crypto’s legal status – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Cryptocurrency-Linked Scams Surge…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: FBI: crypto fraud losses hit USD 5.6 bln in 2023 – ThePaypers Pulse of Fintech (kpmg.com) Full implementation of Open Banking roadmap paves way for UK’s financial tech evolution – FinTech Global Metro Bank to cancel all its customers’ credit cards today | Express.co.uk JPMorgan stock slumps as interest income…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna faces money laundering probe as it prepares for IPO – AML Intelligence Australia’s Judo Bank Goes Live with Thought Machine’s Vault Core | The Fintech Times HSBC considers cost-cutting merger of commercial and investment banking units (ft.com) Bank of London resolves tax payment glitch, raises funds…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … The Bank of London reveals £42m fundraise days after winding-up order (cityam.com) Russia Economy: Banks Say Nation Depleted Yuan Stash As China Pulls Away – (businessinsider.com) Bank bosses brace for Downing Street meeting as windfall tax fears mount | This is Money Stripe-backed fintech warns of over-reliance on US…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The secret sauce of Stripe’s success 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…
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 MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … The secret sauce of Stripe’s success 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…
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…
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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
