Digital Bank

I just got back from Russia recently where I was interviewed by one of their leading journals. The journalist had read Digital Human, and took a very Russian take on it. His first question was along the lines of: if we are automating so much, then the people who own …

I haven’t given away my slides and presentation for a while, as it’s part of my unique armoury, but I’m bored with my latest slide deck so here it is.  Open Banking Strategy and Business Model from Chris Skinner And just in case it doesn’t make sense, here’s a …

In a final write-up on leadership, there was a fantastic presentation about the lessons DNB had learned in trying to make digital change happen. Solveig Hellebust, Group Executive Vice President for People & Operations at DNB or, as she called it, POP, talked about the five things that make the …

Another interesting factor in leadership is communication. When I ask people who they think are great leaders, they often name people like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and more. What is common in all of these names is that they are great orators. Their speeches are marked …

I’m likely to be blogging about leadership all this week, as that was the theme du jour of our Nordic Finance Innovation meetings in Copenhagen and Oslo last week. Saxo Bank, DNB, Danske Bank, Nordea and more were discussing the challenges of digital transformation and the leadership challenge, and I’ve …

I was in the middle of a conversation about how to change the bank, when we started talking about the boardroom issue. As many of you will know, I often reference the fact that, according to research, over nine out of ten bank boardroom members have never had a job …

Something happened to me this week that made me think of big bank friends. It’s a different industry and one that, last month, I said we could learn from:the airlines. So, here’s a sobering, learning lesson. I’m a gold member of most airline networks, having flown Star Alliance and One World for …

I’m regularly asked why I don’t think banks are doing digital yet, and my answer consists of a series of steps. First, does the banks’ leadership team talk about digital, digital banking, digital investment and digital transformation? Invariably, all bank people tell me yes. OK, second, has the bank actually …

The 11th of November. 11 November. 11/11. Not 9/11 or 5/11. 11/11. For Europeans and Americans, 11/11 means the end of the First World War. The Allies sat down and signed the Armistice Agreement with the Germans at 11:00 (Paris time) on 11th November, 1918, in Compiègne and ended the …

Twenty years ago, I worked on a strategy for the future of banking. My conclusion was that banks would merge with telecommunications firms and become hybrid institutions. Twenty years later, it hasn’t happened. But will it? It was interesting because way back then I worked for NCR which was owned …

There’s nothing like a true story to bring a point home, so here’s my latest one. I’m starting a new venture. It’s a philanthropic thing, nothing to do with banking, but because we are seeking sponsorship, we need to open a bank account. I choose to open an account with …

I often talk about teaching children to learn what machines cannot learn. Our system of education was created in the Industrial Revolution, and is based upon kids being stuffed with facts, stats and dates. They learn to parrot-fashion repeat things, and are tested to see if they can remember. It’s …

I was surprised to see that JPMorgan Chase is now hiring people as bankers and, as a mandatory part of their induction programme, they are taught to code. “Coding is not for just tech people, it is for anyone who wants to run a competitive company in the 21st century,” said Mary Callahan …

I was chairing a panel with a number of different players, one of which was Monzo. Simon Vans-Colina, Monzo’s lead engineer for Open APIs, was talking about their approach to partnering with others in an API ecosystem, including TransferWise and Investec Bank. What was not surprising is that the lion’s …

I recently had a chat with Monica Murthy of Empire Startups. Here’s the low-down. Starting From Scratch – The Path for Western FinTech It would be incorrect to call Chris Skinner an industry old hat, since despite his 10+ years in the FinTech industry, he’s known for being on the …