Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Karaoke Challenge: Jaja Ding Dong (Dada Bank Wrong)

One of my readers enjoyed my Karaoke so much that he challenged me to attempt Jaja Ding Dong.  If you don’t know the song, it’s the amazing #singalongaferrell in the hilarious film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. If you haven’t seen this film, I can thoroughly recommend it. Funniest thing I’ve seen…

The Finanser’s Week: 20th July 2020 – 26th July 2020

The main blog headlines are … The FinTech Karaoke Challenge OK, OK, OK.  I know that some of my friends have been doing FinTech and Banking songs for a while, and I’ve avoided it. I’ve also avoided doing much video, as I don’t like seeing myself on camera. And I don’t sing, except in the…

FinTech challenger and neobanks in Brazil

I stumbled across a great article about Brazilian neobanks the other day. Bearing in mind that Nubank is the most successful neobank in the world, with 25 million users at the start of June. As a result, when I saw a great article about banks in Brazil by Contexto, who cover FinTech LatAm, could I…

Hey bank, get onto my cloud!

I’ve seen a few big deals signed this month to get banks onto the cloud, such as National Australia Bank (NAB) switching to Microsoft’s Azure, and Deutsche Bank moving to the Google Cloud. McKinsey expect that cloud usage will rise from less than a quarter of banks business being cloud-based to anything between 40 and 90…

Tax me, I’m a millionaire

Well, I’m actually not. But there are a few out there and they’ve ganged together to create Millionaires for Humanity. The aim of this group is to get governments to tax them more. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) and Ultra High Net Work Individauls (UHNWI) are those two groups who are served by private banks…

Pay-by-Nose, a new innovation

I blog regularly about what a fanboy I am of Chinese technology giants Alibaba and Tencent. It’s getting a bit ridiculous now however, when payments companies are designing payments for cats and dogs … or maybe it’s not … it’s just an extension of technologies that work for humans. My last blog on this subject…

The FinTech Karaoke Challenge: My Way

OK, OK, OK.  I know that some of my friends have been doing FinTech and Banking songs for a while, and I’ve avoided it. I’ve also avoided doing much video, as I don’t like seeing myself on camera. And I don’t sing, except in the shower. But … … oh dear … … my FinTech…

The Finanser’s Week: 13th July 2020 – 19th July 2020

The main blog headlines are … What you really, really want is money (that’s what I want) I’ve written quite a few times about how economies work and the role of money as power. In particular, money is not just power but status, and leads to attractiveness, and the ability to get someone above your…

What you really, really want is money (that’s what I want)

I’ve written quite a few times about how economies work and the role of money as power. In particular, money is not just power but status, and leads to attractiveness, and the ability to get someone above your league in looks. I’ve likened it to experiments with monkeys where, when fruit becomes a currency, many…

Apple Card #fail?

Years and years ago, I did a business process analysis for an insurance company. One of the people I met there and interviewed said: “We’ve bred a group of box tickers and button pushers” This was, in context, about their underwriters. They ticked boxes and pushed buttons. Their process was black and white: you’re either…