Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

An interview with yours truly on today’s issues for banks

I was recently asked a set of questions by .BANK and duly answered.  The interview is now online so I thought I would share it here … .BANK: In your book, The Future of Banking in a Globalised World, you explore the impact of regulatory change on the banking industry. With the move to less regulation…

Arguing with a banker …

A banker and I were talking about the function of a bank.  He gave me the classic view: “A bank is there to take people’s money and lend it out at a profit, whilst ensuring the risk of non-payment is minimised” No it isn’t, I said.  I pushed the view that the bank is there…

The Finanser’s Week: 10th April – 16th April 2017

This week’s main blog headlines are … Three rules for banking bots Writing more and more about chatbots, robots and AI, I can see a day coming in the not too distant future where we won’t be able to tell the difference between the human and the machine.  That’s not scary science fiction, as it’s…

Three rules for banking bots

Writing more and more about chatbots, robots and AI, I can see a day coming in the not too distant future where we won’t be able to tell the difference between the human and the machine.  That’s not scary science fiction, as it’s now almost science fact.  However, there is still a long way to…

Digital is in our DNA

When you have your basic needs covered – food and shelter – what do you need then?  According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s our psychological needs – love, belonging, self-esteem. This is exactly where digital plays into our hearts.  Our love and belonging is in Facebook and Baidu, which is why these are so…

Not all US banks are against Open Banking

I blogged recently about American banks beating up the regulators to stop account access via APIs.  I heard this in various White House meetings in 2016, and assumed all banks and bank people felt the same way.  Well, they don’t.  Citi’s head of FinTech Policy, Andres Wolberg-Stok, got in touch to clarify the true situation….

Most people are inherently good: discuss

A final word on governments and politics after my Friday blog about corruption, and then I promise to leave this alone, as it’s not something I should talk about here.  But I am going to make one statement:  most people are inherently good. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, the majority of humans are raised…

The Finanser’s Week: 3rd April – 9th April 2017

A summary of the main blogs of the week … Solving state corruption with technology I try to generally avoid making political commentary on the blog as it’s not appropriate. This is a blog about technology and finance, not the economy and politics.  Every now and again the two come together such as with Brexit…

Solving state corruption with technology

I try to generally avoid making political commentary on the blog as it’s not appropriate. This is a blog about technology and finance, not the economy and politics.  Every now and again the two come together such as with Brexit and Donald Trump.  Equally sometimes they cannot be avoided as the politics impacts the financial…

A disruptive innovation appears

I was listening to a financier talking about FinTech the other day, and claiming that they are all sustaining innovations and not disruptive.  They were referring to Clayton Christensen’s innovator’s dilemma discussions, where Professor Christensen points to different markets that were destroyed by disruptors.  Those markets include the American car industry, destroyed by cheaper Japanese…