Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 25th September – 1st October 2017

This week’s main blog headlines are … My fictional partner This is my wife. She doesn’t know she’s appearing on my blog today, but it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t exist. Well, she does physically but, according to my bank, she doesn’t exist. I only discovered this recently, due to trying to open a new…

My fictional partner

This is my wife. She doesn’t know she’s appearing on my blog today, but it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t exist. Well, she does physically but, according to my bank, she doesn’t exist. I only discovered this recently, due to trying to open a new joint investment account. To open the account, the bank asked…

How the world has changed …

I’m going way, way back in time to when I was a mere youngster in finance. Yes, there were planes, trains and automobiles back then you insulting, poisonous bunch-backed toad. Anyways, back then, I did a business process analysis of one of the country’s largest financial firms and I still remember to this day what…

Don’t trust anyone

I just hosted Jamie Woodruff, the Ethical Hacker, at our Nordic meetings in Oslo and Stockholm. He’s always got some good stories to tell, like how he uses your children’s toys to listen to your conversations or pretending to be a waiter at the hotel restaurant to catch all the gossip at a conference. In…

The digital transformation journey

I find more and more people are starting to understand that digital is a transformation project, not just an adjunct to business as usual. But there needs to be more of them. We can liken most people’s thinking about digital in banking for example, to the thinking within the media when the first digital magazines…

Fintech for the Snapchat generation

My good friend Slava of Life.SREDA has just written a book called The First Fintech Bank’s Arrival. You can buy it for 9,99$ on Amazon or download for free on www.ariv.al. He’s also shared a chapter with me, and I thought it interesting so here is to sharing.   Fintech for the Snapchat generation by Vladislav Solodkiy The…

The Finanser’s Week: 18th September – 24th September 2017

This week’s main blog headlines are … How do you see the world? I was reflecting on an interview about the role and importance of Asian, and specifically Chinese, FinTech when something exploded in the middle of my head. Not literally, of course, although you might have said that, but more an idea that had…

What is a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation?

I was asked to explain what I meant by haven’t central bankers realised that democratised trust is in the technologies and code? when I blogged about the regulator’s views on bitcoin the other day. I wasn’t going to answer, but then have been prompted to do so after attending the Blockchain Live conference in London….

How do you see the world?

I was reflecting on an interview about the role and importance of Asian, and specifically Chinese, FinTech when something exploded in the middle of my head. Not literally, of course, although you might have said that, but more an idea that had occurred to me a few times but suddenly was crystal clear. Stereotypes. We…

Which banks are leading digital (and who are the laggards)?

I’ve written a lot about legacy and the challenge of old systems, so it’s interesting to read a few press reports on said subjects. Yolanda Bobeldijk writes in the Financial News that 92 of the world’s top 100 banks still rely on IBM mainframes. Now that’s not an issue if those systems are well maintained…