Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

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….

64% of payments people fear deep fakes

I just got a copy of the Payments Association’s Financial Crime Report. Here’s a quick summary: About this research The Payments Association surveyed 163 financial crime professionals from 33 countries, primarily UK-based (66%). ​ Participants included senior decision-makers like CEOs and compliance heads from banks and fintech companies. ​ Challenge Landscape 72% identify fraud as…

The Finanser’s Week: 21st July – 27th July 2025

This week’s main blog discussions include … What is an acceptable level of fraud? Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI and creator of ChatGPT and more – along with the PayPal Mafia – was speaking about bank capital rules this week and made an interesting comment that: “There are some FIs that will accept a…

What is an acceptable level of fraud?

Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI and creator of ChatGPT and more – along with the PayPal Mafia https://www.ceotodaymagazine.com/2025/04/who-owns-chatgpt/ – was speaking about bank capital rules this week and made an interesting comment that: “There are some FIs that will accept a voice print to move a lot of money. That is a crazy thing…

The future of finance: everything, everywhere, all at once

We are really good at creating bingo buzz words in business to get everyone feeling they are missing the buzz. Terms such as Big Data, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS, invented by me!), embedded finance, invisible banking and more turn up every day. Some get traction and some don’t, but the whole idea is to make you feel…

Is data sharing ethical?

There’s a huge debate about banks and data. Should banks share data or sell data? This has been going on for over a decade. For example, Barclays tried to share and sell customer data back in 2013 and it hit the headlines; ING did the same in 2014 and got into similar issues. Both banks…

When you realise that finance is science

In recent days, I’ve discovered a lot of theorems and ideas in digital areas where, when you integrate finance and technology, you realise that you are living in a world of rocket science thinking. For example, I am spending a lot of time talking with experts about digital identity and trust, as that’s the theme…

The Finanser’s Week: 14th July – 20th July 2025

This week’s main blog discussions include … How to find the launderers … or not Someone asked me this week: why isn’t digital identity working? After all, there have been numerous attempts at tackling the issue. Specifically, in finance, we have onboarding, compliance, AML, KYC, PEP and more … and yet none of it is…

How to find the launderers … or not

Someone asked me this week: why isn’t digital identity working? After all, there have been numerous attempts at tackling the issue. Specifically, in finance, we have onboarding, compliance, AML, KYC, PEP and more … and yet none of it is working. If it was working, there would be zero criminal activity in the financial world….