Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Digital Bank

It’s not the end of banking as we know it, but …

I’m intrigued by how often I hear the line: “banks are stuck in the past”.  Most upstarts and startups are saying that banks have their heads up their rears, aren’t focused upon the future, don’t think out of the box, cannot change, blah blah blah.  Do they really believe this?  Apparently yes.  Such arrogance is…

Why Fintech Banks Will Rule The World

Whilst debating whether new fintech startups would eat the banker's lunch yesterday, I stumbled across a really interesting read by Philippe Gelis, co-founder and CEO of FX firm Kantox.  It was so good that I asked Philippe if I could put it on the blog and he kindly agreed.  Read and enjoy … Why Fintech…

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Where is the Uber of banking?

The smartphone revolution has radically restructured every industry from booking a trip (TripAdvisor), a room (Airbnb) or a taxi (Uber), but where’s the Uber of banking? There isn’t one yet and consumers will soon defect to new players unless high street banks wake up, says Chris Skinner, chairman of the Financial Services Club Technology is…

It’s about behaviours, not technology

So I visit a tradeshow last week focused upon the future of payments, and everyone is presenting their latest mobile apps and designs.  "That's not the future of money", I fume silently at the back.  Then we had a mention of bitcoin and my ears pricked up.  Oh, it's a bitcoin mobile app. Hmmmm. I…

Are we going through a Kodak/Nokia moment in banking?

A brainstorming session with a group of banks raised this question: are we going through a Kodak moment in banking?  Are we seeing a Nokia change?  Will banks miss the tipping point and die from the reformation of the internet, or will we respond and change in time? As it's Friday the Thirteenth, it's a…

Friday 13th

How will banks differentiate in the future?

I was asked this question today and, after thinking about it a while, I think banks are moving towards being lifestyle choices rather than payments processors.  Historically, we chose a bank because it was physically local to our home.  It didn’t matter what they charged or how they priced, as all banks are the same. …

Is the Fintech bubble about to burst?

I recently recorded a video for Meniga to show at their conference in London for Next Bank Europe.  We had to do this as I was in New York on the day of the conference, and the organisers wanted me to present so badly they agreed to come to my house to do record my…

Is there a digital divide in banking?

So I’m just going to close off the branch debate (this time around, it comes up often) by talking a moment about demographics.  In my gut, I hate the use of demographics as, when it comes to digital, I prefer psychographics.  As a baby boomer, I feel more like a digital native, having grown up in…

Preferred channel

The role of the bank branch in the digital age

I tweeted yesterday that bank branches are still important as, for many, digital only is too nerve wracking when it comes to money.  I knew it would get some pushback, and it did, but here’s the logic and how this started. We’ve just seen JPMorgan hold their investor day, where they announced three things that…

JPMorgan Slide 72

Data is the bank’s battleground – are you fit to fight?

I’ve developed a whole new presentation on the ValueWeb, which I’ll share at some point soon, and tried it out today for the first time.  It was interesting to gauge the audience reaction, which was overwhelmingly positive.  We then had a panel discussion at the end of the session, and one of the panellists summarised…