Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Future

We are not Borg, we are Human and dancing to a different tune

Building to the theme of the divide between the old world of finance and the new, and why (some) banks aren't fit for the 21st century, brings a few more points to mind, in particular about control and centralisation. Banks were built as control freaks. They need to own the complete end-to-end cycle of everything….

Old world

Cloud computing comes of age (thanks to vertical alignment to banking)

For some years now, banks have been grappling with the idea of cloud. A bit like Big Data, ‘cloud’ is this amorphic term that offers a panacea of solutions and nothing specific. This is not actually true, but the wide-ranging breadth of cloud and few and far between examples of depth, make it a term…

Cloud computing comes of age (thanks to vertical alignment to banking)

For some years now, banks have been grappling with the idea of cloud. A bit like Big Data, ‘cloud’ is this amorphic term that offers a panacea of solutions and nothing specific. This is not actually true, but the wide-ranging breadth of cloud and few and far between examples of depth, make it a term…

Bankers and regulators: do you want a Red or a Blue Pill (Matrix)?

I had a Red Pill moment last week. Not an Aha moment but a Red Pill moment because I realised the false reality of our world. You see, I present all the time and talk about the forces of change for the future: Political, Economic, Social and Technological (PEST). I usually skip over the Political…

Digital Banks have a completely different culture to Physical Banks

Another day, another challenge. Again, it’s to do with the move from the physical distribution of paper to the digital distribution of data (my favourite mantra of the moment) and the way in which things change. Think of it this way, I’m talking to a company about relationship management. Their view: it all comes down…

It’s a wonderful digital life … if you’re a digital disruptor

I recently had an epiphany.  It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…

Zopa

It’s a wonderful digital life … if you’re a digital disruptor

I recently had an epiphany.  It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…

Zopa

2014’s priorities for retail banks: digitisation

I’ve talked about other folks ideas for 2014 and the key technology trends, as well as a few wild predictions.  Today, I start the first of three blogs focused upon retail banking (tomorrow commerical banking and next week investment banking). So here are my specific predictions for retail banks this year.  Customer focus is the top priority Customer…