Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 25th January 2021- 31st January 2021

The main blog discussions this week include … Breaking the stranglehold of banking Someone asked me to elaborate on the links between banks, government, the economy and society, and this was well illustrated by the video I shared the other day of James Pierpont Morgan, who founded the JPMorgan empire (see end of this blog…

The elephant takes a shower

It’s 2021 and the elephant is really smelly. I don’t think he’s washed since 2019, so I finally managed to persuade him not only to stay in the room, but that he needed to wash and shower. [The elephant represents the economy and this is the eighth conversation with him in a series] As we…

Tomorrow is another day

I guess I’m not the only one who is sitting at home, watching the world go by and thinking: life is pretty weird right now. Watching virtual concerts and binge watching Netflix series is fine, but you see a nation in meltdown, storming their capital city’s buildings, everyone running scared of a virus and virtual…

Breaking the stranglehold of banking

Someone asked me to elaborate on the links between banks, government, the economy and society, and this was well illustrated by the video I shared the other day of James Pierpont Morgan, who founded the JPMorgan empire (see end of this blog entry). That all began with learning the banking ropes in Europe; then enabling…

Do we rely too much on technology?

I’ve seen many people struggling during lockdown when their WiFi goes down. In fact, in the UK, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband have seen some big issues with celebrities complaining and those who are vulnerable not only losing their internet access but also their telephone access during lockdown Christmas. Not good. It made me think about whether…

Digital is not the same

I’m a Simple guy (?), but realised the other day that the consultants, research firms and technology behemoths do a great job of dressing up old ideas in new clothes. This hit home when I was reading the IT priorities for CFOs in 2021 by Gartner. Gartner’s survey asked finance chiefs where they will spend…

The Finanser’s Week: 18th January 2021- 24th January 2021

The main blog discussions this week include … Omniaccess is the strategic imperative for the 2020s During the summer and autumn of 2020, I ran an online survey of banks and FinTech firms around their view of physical versus digital access to banking. Obviously, in 2020, digital access to accounts has come to the fore…

Omniaccess is the strategic imperative for the 2020s

During the summer and autumn of 2020, I ran an online survey of banks and FinTech firms around their view of physical versus digital access to banking. Obviously, in 2020, digital access to accounts has come to the fore but what was interesting is that this had not been a priority before. 28% of the…

Four free reports on the post-pandemic world for banks

I stumbled across a bunch of interesting reports this week, so thought it worth sharing them First, from Deloitte. Admittedly, it’s from October 2020, but it is useful as it tracks the state of digital banking post-COVID19. There are also some interesting charts, so let’s begin with the key takeaways. And then they tracked the…

Banks must personalise services before others do

It strikes to my digital nerve when I see forms that ask for a FAX number. What’s a FAX? Or someone said the other day that I should Xerox that. What’s Xerox? Watching a movie. Investigator is checking paperwork at a hotel and the guy says: “Hey man, are you done or do you need…