Future

I have a few favourite FinTech firms: Ripple, Prosper, Lending Club, SoFi, Zopa, Monzo, N26, TransferWise, Klarna, Stripe, Alipay, WeBank and more. A lot of it is because I knew these firms as fledglings and have enjoyed watching them grow up. One firm in this crew is Wirecard, the German …

The non-stop coverage of coronavirus, global markets slumping, an economic armageddon, the end of the world due to a climate emergency, the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice, rising of the oceans, weather fatalities, a farce of a US election, the UK and EU in a stand-off over Brexit, …

I don’t know how you guys are holding up, but I’m finding myself on lots of videoconferences, even delivering a keynote in Tokyo the other day from my home office in Poland. The event was recorded and so I thought I’d share the video and transcript with you. This, btw, …

It’s very strange times. I’ve taken travel for granted. For years, I’ve been used to open borders, easy connectivity and access to airports. The internet then fuelled that ease of movement and connectivity. Suddenly, via social media, my friends are in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Mumbai, Lagos, Paris, Milan, New …

I’m getting a lot of people asking questions about what I think the coronavirus will mean long-term in the financial markets, so I’ve tried to jump forward to look back. Obviously, the big thing about a pandemic is that people are being told to stop meeting each other. Conferences, events, …

I’m sitting staring at the wall. It’s been a long time now since being in a face-to-face meeting, conference or catching a flight. I’m staring at the wall. Thinking. Thinking. Thinking … what’s the meaning of all this? What’s the meaning of life? What’s the meaning of money? Money is …

Last week, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) issued their top ten technologies for the next decade, one of which is digital money: Unhackable internet Hyper-personalized medicine Digital money Anti-aging drugs AI-discovered molecules Satellite mega-constellations Quantum supremacy Tiny AI Differential privacy Climate change attribution This was selected due to Libra and …

I just found that Deutsche Bank Research issued three in-depth reports in January looking at the future of payments: Part I: Cash: The Dinosaur Will Survive… For Now Cash will survive. But digital currencies’ potential could re-balance global economic power. Part II: Moving To Digital Wallets And The Extinction Of …

I just received a report from Deloitte about credit and debit cards. It says the future is not so bright: “more payment choices, along with changing consumer preferences, are threatening the long-term viability of the credit card business model.” Damn. I said that fifteen years ago. It made me think …

Really interesting interview with Garry Kasparov in Wired magazine about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. Garry Kasparov is perhaps the greatest chess player in history. For almost two decades after becoming world champion in 1985, he dominated the game. Then, in 1997, at the height of …

There’s a growing lament amongst the few, who are worried our analogue world is crumbling around them. They see the loss of bank branches, high street shops, use of cash and such like as the end of their world. They hate the idea of electric self-driving cars and mourn the …

I guess my discussions of purpose-driven banking are growing. Maybe I just picked up the vibe or created it, but more and more I’m seeing bank CEO’s talking about purpose. Tom Blomfield, CEO and co-founder of Monzo, in Wired magazine: “Why do companies even exist? What are we here for? …

I was quite relaxed about the coronavirus thinking it would blow over (no pun intended). Yet, as the days and weeks went by, it’s obviously a lot more serious than first thought. I first thought, Oh, it’s Wuhan. It’s not over here. It will sort itself out. Then we had …

We had our first 2020 meetings of Nordic Finance Innovation last week. The theme was digital transformation and its implementation, and was co-hosted by our partner Swedbank. One of the slides struck me as particularly noteworthy. It came from a presentation by Stephan Erne, Chief Digital Officer at Handelsbanken, in …

I bumped into a real API marketplace the other day. Just what I’ve been looking for … … but not sure why they’re opening physical stores pic.twitter.com/NaUUiyQ4lK — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) February 17, 2020 It gained a few nice comments like: “So people could stock up on spaghetti code and …