Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The best plastic out there (Cards & Payments Awards)

I used to be on the Judging Panel for the Cards & Payments Awards but dropped out a few years ago as my travel schedule got too gruelling to give any time. Nevertheless, I’m always interested to see who wins and why, so here’s this year’s winners: Industry Achievement Award Anne Boden Best Achievement in…

It’s three minutes to midnight

Last year I wrote about the ten year ticking timebomb, and I thought I’d come back to it as my mind has moved on a bit. That’s why I now talk about three minutes to midnight. Midnight is when it’s too late for the bank to change their systems into an enterprise data architecture. It’s…

How quantum will change everything (including banking, money and security)

I know that we deal with quite complicated things in financial technologies. AI, AGI, ASI (Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Super Intelligence); machine learning and deep learning; blockchain, shared ledgers and distributed ledger technologies; cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies and digital currencies; Open Banking and Open APIs; and so on and so forth. In fact, the…

Do bankers believe the Sun goes around the Earth?

Twenty-five years ago (yes, I am seriously old!) I was a consultant to insurance companies and banks talking about Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR). The thrust of my focus was to redesign the company from a customer-centric view first. The consultancy did get business but rarely achieved this objective, as no insurance company or bank wanted…

The lies spread by bankers about cryptocurrencies

I had a chat with The Financial Times the other day, and provided lots of background as to why I don’t think cryptocurrencies are the choice of criminals. The comment that was reported was the following: Chris Skinner, a financial technology author, said it was “complete rubbish” to suggest the main use of cryptocurrencies was criminal….

The Finanser’s Week: 12th March 2018 – 17th March 2018

The main blog headlines are … Are you really a digital bank? (just shake it off) I was in a conversation the other day where someone asked me how I can tell if a bank is really trying to be a digital bank or just a bank. Off-the-cuff I immediately said that I have a…

If you are struggling with debt, here’s some good advice

I’ve seen several friends suffering with mental health issues. Much of it is caused by stress with work but, equally, I’ve noticed that a lot of it has to do with stress with money.  Someone loses their job and only have savings that cover them for the shortest time. I‘ve seen several surveys that say…

Are you really a digital bank? (just shake it off)

I was in a conversation the other day where someone asked me how I can tell if a bank is really trying to be a digital bank or just a bank. Off-the-cuff I immediately said that I have a litmus test to work out the answer to that question. I didn’t realise I was so…

PayTM and India Stack is turning the country cashless fast

I’ve just spent a few days in India and the inevitable discussions around Aadhaar, UPI, demonetization and more came around. Y’all may know some of this as I’ve blogged about it before but the bit that I wanted to focus upon was the demonetization position. In November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took what many…

WeChat: the real Beast from the East

I’ve written a lot about Alibaba, Ant Financial and Alipay. This is not because I endorse or want to advertise the company, but because they are the first company to have embarked on a global financial inclusion strategy and have been marking it happen. Ant Financial is now some of the technology power behind PayTM…