Digital Bank

I was recently asked to deliver a presentation set in the year 2030. It was challenging, but interesting. The session was recorded, you can watch it here … … or, if you don’t want or cannot watch it, then here’s the transcript. A 2030 retrospective [transcript] Hi, I’m Chris Skinner …

The two perennial debates we have in banking are a future that is cashless and branchless. Cash is going down, but is not eradicated; branches are closing fast, but still here. Are they necessary? I raise this as I got two reports from strong and trusted sources in the past …

A lot of our history in the future will be digital Our future is digital. Just as we look back today and enjoy our physical inheritances of books, music and art, we will look back tomorrow at our digital inheritances of books, music and art. The only difference is today …

I’ve noticed that Wal*Mart has recently been hiring bankers. Goldman Sachs’ bankers to be exact. Goldman Sachs Marcus’s bankers to be more specific. Bloomberg Omer Ismail, the head of Goldman’s consumer bank [Marcus], is making a surprise exit to the fintech, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The …

Twenty years ago, I remember being impressed when the late, great David Bowie launched a bank. Admittedly it was backed by USA Bankshares, a proper bank, but the idea of celebrity-branded banks was expected to become a thing. Funnily enough, it hasn’t (unless you count Will.i.am and Atom) yet, nevertheless, …

… “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” Arthur C. Clarke This quote has stayed with me throughout my life. Every time there is a new technology, we start with seeing it with awe and wonder then, within a few months, we view it as part of the fabric …

I spotted two updates recently. The first is the half a billion dollar mistake at Citigroup. The second is how Amazon created Amazon Web Services (AWS). The two pieces go hand-in-hand. First, how could Citigroup make a billion dollar mistake? User Interface. The mistake was made by a worker in …

I recently joined The Digital Growth podcast …   powered by Sounder … and they kindly transcribed the conversation, so I thought I would share it here. Chris Skinner: Traditional banks tend to push products through channels to get greater share of wallet and cross sell. Whereas, digital banks start …

I see so many articles with titles like: What will banks do when Amazon becomes a bank? Google to take on banks Big Tech versus Big Banks … and so on and so forth. If you haven’t noticed, I keep on saying that Amazon, Google and Big Tech will NOT …

How much money is wasted by banks on digital? I wonder whether, one day, anyone will work out how much money has been wasted by banks on digital technologies. Various reports reckon that banks spend anything from half a trillion dollars a year on tech to over a trillion. Two …

I haven’t commented much on bitcoin’s (BTC) recent surge, as I’ve been watching and waiting, but it is something. Just in case you didn’t notice, the value has moved from a low of under $5,000 per BTC in March 2020 to around $50,000 per BTC today. But it’s not just …

I’m very aware that central banks are investigating the use of digital currencies, particularly as they can now see bitcoin gaining more and more traction (Tesla, Square and more committed – next is Apple?), but had not realised how extensive are those investigations. According to the Bank of International Settlements …

I wrote a blog a few days ago about money not being about jars and pots. The gist of the blog is that it annoys me when banks offer different sections for different objectives: savings, education, wedding, holiday and so on. The blog got some pushback, saying that people on …

I was pretty surprised to find that many of Robinhood’s account holders are very young, with an average age of 31. It is probably why they pile into anti-Wall Street stock movements and they are not the only ones. See this from Reuters: Apex Clearing, which helps facilitate trades for …

I’m working on a new book project. You might have spotted the themes in my recent blog entries but, if not, it’s all about purpose. The tagline is: if you don’t stand for something, you fall down, and is focused upon stakeholder capitalism. ESG, CSR and all that stuff and more. So, I’ve been watching …