Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Who will a pension fund pay a pension to?

I have a number of big yawns when I watch the news these days. Banks are doomed!!! Yawn. Central banks are replacing money with digital money!!! Yawn. Buy bitcoin now and make millions!!! Yawn. COVID, vaccines, anti-vaxers!!! Yawn. The Earth is heating!!! Yawn. The climate is in an emergency!!! Yawn. The world will end!!! Yawn….

What is spatial finance?

Green finance covers a wide range of financial products and services, which can be broadly divided into banking, investment and insurance products. Examples of these include green bonds, green-tagged loans, green investment funds and climate risk insurance. However, a friend of mine mentioned moving into a focus on spatial finance the other day. Spatial finance?…

Do you see the point of “Squid Game”?

Like most people, I’ve watched and enjoyed Squid Game on Netflix (the original language version with subtitles, avoid the dubbed version), but did you get the point? I’ll avoid giving away too much, in case you still haven’t watched it, but what’s the point of Squid Game? Well, it’s the same point as many other movies…

The pick ‘n’ mix, Lego bank can work

CB Insights just released their FinTech 250 for 2021: These are the top FinTech firms in the world, in their view. The companies were selected by CB Insights’ Intelligence Unit from a pool of over 17,000 companies and, at last look, I’m tracking over 25,000 FinTech start-ups worldwide who garnered just under $100 billion of…

The Finanser’s Week: 11th October 2021- 17th October 2021

This week’s blog discussions include … Is George Orwell’s vision coming true? 1948, 1984, 2030 We talk a lot about FinTech. Some of us then break it down and talk about InsurTech, WealthTech, TradeTech and more. But do we ever zoom out? What about just tech? What about just a digital world? It’s funny as…

Is ethical banking a generational thing?

I’ve been writing and thinking a lot about ESG – Environment, Sustainability and Governance – as it’s the theme of my next book. Then up popped a headline: Prince Harry and Meghan are joining Ethic, a fintech asset manager in the fast-growing environmental, social and governance space, “My husband has been saying for years, ‘Gosh,…

Is ethical banking a thing?

I just stumbled across a great article about ethical banking. We can call it socially useful banking or green banking or whatever, but it’s all about a bank’s role in society and the scheme of things. Are banks doing the right or wong things? My gut feeling is that banks have been doing the wrong…

Can regulations make data work?

I was reflecting on the fact that we work in our silo. Our silo is banking or FinTech or InsurTech or WealthTech or RegTech or whatever. What about HealthTech, FarmTech, PharmaTech, GovTech and all the other industries digitalising? What about if we linked them all together? That’s what future trends are indicating: an integration of…

What would our world be like if all our data was integrated?

There’s a movement to use data to track and trace every human on Earth. It’s an inexorable movement which citizens are allowing as they sleepwalk into George Orwell’s vision of 1984. The Ministry of Data brings together every bit and byte of your life, and monitors your activities. China has been leading this march towards…