Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Brexit

What happens to banks if there’s a no-deal #Brexit?

There was a big hoo-haa last week when UK Gov released their analysis of a no-deal Brexit. A no-deal Brexit is if we reach 29th March 2019, two years after triggering the exit process and an effective D-Day, without agreeing terms between UK Gov and the European Union. The research released was in the form…

The EU’s policy on FinTech competition is …

I cannot post a 222-page PDF from the US Government on FinTech and competition without also posting a 136-page PDF from the European Parliament on FinTech and competition. Also released last week, this is a report prepared by the policy department of the European Parliament at the request of the ECON Committee. The EU document has a…

Will the UK’s #Brexit plans kill London?

It was interesting reading as the UK issued its Brexit plan last Thursday. A 98-page white paper outlines the details of what Britain is asking for in leaving the European Union. Most of it is unworkable, but then Brexit itself is likely unworkable. After all, no MPs can agree what they want out of Brexit;…

How much did Nigel Farage make out of #Brexit?

I picked up Bloomberg’s Business Week in the airport lounge at the weekend. It always has interesting reading, but this one stood out because of the front-page cover. Of course, it should have occurred to me that Brexit was a great way to make money, and the article outlines how hedge fund managers made millions…

More on #Brexit, passporting and equivalence

Another great Brexit debate at the ISITC Europe annual bash the other day. I was on a panel with Kay Swinburne, MEP Member of Economic and Monetary Affairs; Rebecca Healy, Lead Analyst of Financial Market Structure at Liquidnet; and Michael Cooper, CTO Radianz, BT Global Banking and Financial Markets at BT; and we had a…

#Brexit, Banking and Equivalence

As usual, the Financial Services Club was delighted to host David Doyle as our starting speaker for 2018, and he presented a fine overview of all the things bubbling as top  of the agenda in the European Union’s regulatory plans for 2018. Led by the Bulgarian presidency, the agenda focuses primarily on pushing forward the…

The Corporation of London has a secret Brexit plan

There’s a report coming out later today that sets out the Corporation of London’s Brexit plans, and the deal the City wants with Europe. There is also something that occurs to me which might protect the City’s interests more than anyone expects. It is the oldest continuous democratic commune in the world, dating back over…

Banks bloody battle over Brexit

Just over a year ago, it was predicted that the skies would fall, the earth would open and fire and brimstone would rain down all over Britain if we voted to leave Europe. Our people ignored all the dire warnings – what do experts know? – and a year later, not a great deal has…

The UK election result is good for UK FinTech

I thought I’d wait until after the weekend to write a post about the implications of the UK election results.  It’s not my place to write about the pros and cons of the election campaigns, although I will say that the alienation of the elderly and those who are parents by the Conservative’s campaign –…

Googling PSD2, APIs and Open Banking

I was really interested in a presentation by Benny Boye Johansen, Head of OpenAPI at Saxo Bank, at our recent Nordic Finance Innovation meetings.  In particular, he put up some slides that were both illuminating, amusing and strange.  They were Google Trends charts looking at Payments API, PSD2 and Open Banking. Google trends tracks the…