Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

When you have an AI twin, what are you doing?

I just wrote something that was pretty ambiguous when a friend asked what my latest speech is all about. The answer? “Becoming an AI-native bank – digital is so last century – and digital trust in a deep fake world (digital ID)”. The answer is accurate, but I just wrote off digital and then talked…

Yes, you can build a bank from your bedroom (part two)

I was going to change this, but am reposting a LinkedIn update from Leonid Bashlykov, who heads up Crypto at Revolut because it further clarifies the blog I posted last week. The post was titled: Launch a bank from your bedroom which, unsurprisingly, gained a lot of criticism from good luck with that to wait till…

Robots are AI in reality

As everyone who reads me regularly will know, I’m a big sci-fi fan and have blogged regularly about Star Trek versus Star Wars and their view of money. A dystopian or utopian future? Money is the core – Chris Skinner’s blog Today, I’m going off on another trip as I’ve just got hooked on Alien:…

The Finanser’s Week: 28th July – 24th August 2025

This week’s / month’s main discussions include … AI is bigger than the smartphone Twenty years ago, four critical things happened: cloud computing became mainstream; the smartphone was launched; Satoshi Nakamoto released the bitcoin whitepaper; and the global financial crisis killed all trust in traditional financial institutions. All of these things pretty much happened at…

AI is bigger than the smartphone

Twenty years ago, four critical things happened: cloud computing became mainstream; the smartphone was launched; Satoshi Nakamoto released the bitcoin whitepaper; and the global financial crisis killed all trust in traditional financial institutions. All of these things pretty much happened at the same time. Twenty years later, a multi-trillion dollar world has appeared on the…

Has #Revolut sparked a revolution?

In a trip to London last week, I was lucky enough to be given a deep dive into the status of Revolut, Europe’s stand-out fintech unicorn valued at $45 billion last year and $75 billion today.   This is a company that, ten years ago, was just two guys sitting in a Canary Wharf office…

Should banks be telcos (and vice versa)

I’m such a futurist nerd in banking that, thirty years ago, I forecast banks would open telco services and vice versa, and can prove it if you want. The reason? Both have frequent customer contact, high transaction volumes and similar capabilities. Just seven years ago, I was still banging on the same drum. It is…

Launch a bank from your bedroom? Why not!

I guess the key thing about becoming an AI-native bank is to start with a clean sheet of paper. Most banks are adding AI services to old systems and dysfunctional processes; what we should be doing is starting from scratch, creating an AI core that looks at how to deliver the best customer experience. For…

From physical to digital to AI native: the journey continues

For longer than most fintech founders have been alive, I’ve been advocating digital transformation. Digital transformation is where digital is at the heart of the business. You convert from physical to digital by reinventing the business and the business model. You start with digital at the core, and add physical on top when and where…

Time to wind down …

It’s time to wind down for the summer hols, so I will be posting less for the next two weeks. In that context, I thought you might like a story about how to make the most of your downtime by talking about time. We all know and probably would like to own a Rolex watch….