Digital Bank

FedNow is a new faster payments service for America. It’s been developing for years, and will go live in 2023 and yet, in conversation with an American friend, only 1 in 10 banks are ready for this. Why? Well, the issue lies in change. Fast change or slow change? In fact, a friend recently resigned…

I just started a Digital Transformation Course in partnership with CFTE. It’s a course all about Digital Transformation of financial firms. You can sign up here: https://courses.cfte.education/digital-transformation-with-chris-skinner/, and here’s what you get: Week 1: What is a bank? This week discusses the history of banking and finance, how it is formed, why it is regulated…

I recently had a chat with Kjeld Herreman, Head of Strategy Advisory at RedCompass Labs, about the increasing impact of Authorised Push Payments (APP) on the financial industry and its customers. In case you’re not aware of APP, it’s where a customer authorises a payment to a criminal, typically due to being fooled into thinking…

I was called out by Nick Kerigan, Head of Innovation at SWIFT, when I accused SWIFT of becoming a sloth a year ago. So, I was interested in the latest announcement that shows the aim of SWIFT to be the arbitrator of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies): SWIFT has successfully shown that Central Bank Digital Currencies…

Two big consulting firms just released interesting reports about technology trends: McKinsey and Bain. McKinsey’s report focuses upon the technologies that matter most, and found 14! As usual, being consultants, they had to put them into a complex chart. And then they assess the impact of these 14 technologies by industry. For financial services, the…

Part of my network, Jim Richards posted an update on LinkedIn the other day which was measured and interesting. Jim is former Executive Vice-President of Financial Crimes at Wells Fargo, and knows a thing or two about the way banks work. I asked if I could share his post here, and Jim said yes, so,…

I had this strange dream the other night where I wondered what a financial institution would look like as a football team. Sure, it’s a weird thing to dream about, but it made sense, so I woke up and wrote down the dream before going back to sleep again. Here is that dream: Welcome to…

I stumbled over a detailed analysis of Goldman Sachs’ efforts to be a fintech the other day. Written by Mario Gabriele, Founder and Editor of The Generalist, the lengthy text is a great breakdown of how Goldman pivoted from an investment bank to launch a consumer bank over the past few years. I’ve picked a…

Data ownership is a big battleground. Wanna know why? Check this out:* A man calls Pizza hut to order a pizza… CALLER:  Is this Pizza Hut? GOOGLE:    No sir, it’s Google Pizza. CALLER:  I must have dialed a wrong number, sorry. GOOGLE:  No sir, Google bought Pizza Hut last month. CALLER:  OK. I would like to…

I’ve said for years that MasterCard has the wrong name. Cards are so last century. This century is all about the chip, so MasterCard should be renamed MasterChip. For the first time the other day, I found a banker who agrees with me. Reuters reports that Brazil’s central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto said he believes…