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As usual at the end of the year, I look back and see what was of most interest in the blog over the last 12 months. So, here goes: #10 Will Silicon Valley Bank kill the FinTech industry? “When you’re not working, what do you do to de-stress?” was the last question Greg Becker, CEO…

Over the past decade+ we have seen thousands of fintechs arise. Many are challenging and disrupting, whilst many more are providing and supplying. What is the role of a fintech? My advice is that fintechs are there to fix the things that banks do badly and offer service to those who banks don’t serve. The…

Building on yesterday’s blog, I just stumbled across a podcast called Tech Trends by JPMorgan Chase – everything to do with tech, digital, data and fintech, broadcast by a bank. Fantastic. The first show I downloaded is all about organising data to fuel growth. Interestingly, their Chief Data Officer defines data as the fuel for…

For some time, Jill Castilla has been on my radar. Winning numerous awards for innovation in US banking, she shines out as someone special, so I made contact and asked if she would have a chat with me. She said yes!, so here is that conversation. Chris Skinner: The main reason I reached out is you…

Someone came up with the idea of running a series of events called Dinner with Skinner … no idea who would have thought that up … and so I run and moderate many discussions with fintech firms and bankers around the topics chosen by sponsors. The latest one was looking at a key question: how…

I’m always looking for innovations in new banks and spent some time with MYbank, the bank created by Ant Group in 2014. My first visit was in 2017, and the bank was doing well. Focusing upon SMEs, the bank shot to massive growth volumes, making a staggering $30 billion in loans in first quarter 2022…

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has sent Goldman Sachs a proposal to end their partnership within the next year, leaving Apple to find a new backer for its financial products. The Apple Card program was launched in 2019 to great fanfare but, within a year, Goldman Sachs was lamenting losses and costs for the partnership….

At another recent conference McKinsey presented. Now it is easy to take a pop at McKinsey but they have produced some useful reports recently, specifically: McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2023 Fintechs: A new paradigm of growth So, I was interested in their presentation. One slide in particular stood out, titled: the four key drivers…

In a guest column six years ago James Vaccaro, then Director of Corporate Strategy at Triodos Bank, introduced the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Banking to my community. Six years later, are they working? Apparently not. In a new guest column, James argues the industry efforts may be authentic, but they need better management to…

Space … the final frontier … these are the voyages of the challenger bank Trekkie. Our mission: to boldly go where no bank has gone before. Today, we landed on planet Earth and decided to look at financial inclusion, and the role of banks in ensuring everyone has access to an account. In some countries,…