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I’ve always watched the Oscars and heard that the celebs get a bag of high value goodies worth lots, and wondered: what’s in the bag of goodies? So I was interested when I received a press release detailing what’s in an Oscars’ bag. It came from Distinctive Assets, an LA-based entertainment marketing company, highlighting that…

This week’s main blog stories include … Oh no! It’s Bankenstein … For years, we’ve talked about banks having a spaghetti systems structure aligned to a line of business product-centric organisation, that focuses upon the internal sales process rather than the customer. It’s true, but it’s due to the longevity of many banks. Some banks…

Building on my AML – or is that MAL? – blog, I was thinking about the cost of compliance and all of those 1000’s of people working in such functions. Then I was thinking that they are completely ineffective. I always remember presenting to a big conference of risk managers at a major European bank…

I was talking with an AML guy this morning. That’s anti-money laundering, for those unfamiliar. AML. Might as well call it MAL, as in the French word mal, as AML is bad. It’s really bad. It doesn’t work. So, why bother? Well, banks have to bother as governments have rules about who can bank and…

For years, we’ve talked about banks having a spaghetti systems structure aligned to a line of business product-centric organisation, that focuses upon the internal sales process rather than the customer. It’s true, but it’s due to the longevity of many banks. Some banks are over 500 years old and most countries have banks that are…

I’ve recently contributed to an Oracle report, providing the foreword – the report can be downloaded here – and highlights how data is changing the financial services landscape, and how banks can: thrive in the face of ravenous competition from digital banks, fintechs and tech players build an open banking infrastructure to take the lead…

I got a bit itchy during the weekend and ended up sitting and writing about bitcoin, dogecoin, crypto and more. It all started when I caused a twitter debate by posting this tweet: Highly recommended for central banks and governments pic.twitter.com/K880JWavCD — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) April 17, 2021 It caused quite a reaction with people…

This week’s main blog stories include … Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google … Coinbase? I was reflecting, which is dangerous. I was reflecting on my antipathy towards bitcoin as, like most bankers, it appeared to be a bit of a scam with no asset behind it. Then I woke up to what the libertarians have been…

I was reflecting, which is dangerous. I was reflecting on my antipathy towards bitcoin as, like most bankers, it appeared to be a bit of a scam with no asset behind it. Then I woke up to what the libertarians have been saying to me all along: any currency is a scam. The US dollar…