Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

AI is a huge mistake (if you don’t understand what it’s for)

It does amaze me how many people in banks and technology firms talk about Cloud, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, Blockchain, Apps, 5G, Analytics, APIs and more as though they are all buckets. They are buckets of technology, but in each bucket is a use case and, in many, hundreds or even thousands of use…

Think of your systems like music

I measure a lot of technology change by music. Growing up, years ago, there was nothing more satisfying than buying a vinyl record from a record shop. The smell and feel of the record; placing it on the turntable; listening to the songs in the order they were written; looking at the artwork of the…

Banking 2034: where will you be?

Thinking about banking conferences over the years, there are three main messages that are presented by people on stage: Banks won’t exist in ten years Banks will exist, but it’s all going to be very different Banks will exist, and it’s going to be a lot like today Let’s take #1: Banks won’t exist in…

Innovation is being damaged by lack of confidence in governance

I just got a report on trust from The Institute of Business Ethic’s (IBE’s) (attitudes of the British Public to Business Ethics 2024 survey) in business and politicians. Headlines? Only 14% of 2067 UK adults polled trust that politicians behave ethically in 2024. Charities, businesses, media and politicians, have all experienced a three-point decrease in trust from 2023. Corporate…

The Finanser’s Week: 17th June – 23rd June 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … Weaponising bank branch closures The UK has an election in July. The likely winner is the left-of-centre Labour Party, after 14 years of the righter wing Conservative Party. The new leader will be Sir Kier Starmer, a guy described as a “political robot”. Nevertheless, his party has created a…

The problem with PayPal

I’ve had a few things happen when making a payment. Sometimes to the wrong account; sometimes a fat finger 0; sometimes an issue with identifying the payee; etc. And the issue I run into is that the system does not accept questions about the payment I made. I cannot revoke a faster payment or a…

Weaponising bank branch closures

The UK has an election in July. The likely winner is the left-of-centre Labour Party, after 14 years of the righter wing Conservative Party. The new leader will be Sir Kier Starmer, a guy described as a “political robot”. Nevertheless, his party has created a burning platform to win votes. No, it’s not “stop the boats”…

Let’s get jiggy with it

I hadn’t heard of a mouse jiggler until today. What’s one of those? Well, it turns out they are a simple USB dongle or software download that makes it look like you’re using your computer because the mouse is constantly moving and clicking. Amazon recommends  this one … … and it costs just $5! So what?…

If you are data-dumb, you cannot compete

Whilst I was in South Africa, they couldn’t help talking about Rugby  (could they?). You may remember that South Africa won the Rugby World Cup last year* for the second time in a row – a rare feat – and are the top-ranked world rugby team right now. So, it’s not surprising they would talk about…

Is this the man who invented BNPL?

A few people got excited about Affirm working with Apple Pay to embed BNPL (buy now, pay later) in their services. As reported by CNBC: Apple device users will be able to tap into buy now, pay later loans from Affirm for purchases Affirm will surface as an option for Apple Pay users on iPhones…