Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Will Big Tech destroy Big Banks?

For years, I’ve said that Big Tech will crunch the periphery of finance – payments, cards, credit and such like – but will not try and dig into the core of deposit-taking banking because it’s too regulated and difficult. Instead, they are far more likely to partner with banks than do banking. That view still…

In a world of change, where is the answer?

For over a decade technology has been transforming the financial world with the rise of the newly integrated markets of fintech. What is interesting is the nuance of this revolution is not playing out in Europe or America, but in Asia, Africa and South Americas. We have seen this since the late 2000s when everyone…

Wake up regulators, the BaaS revolution threatens all

In a letter last week, democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen expressed concerns about bank and fintech partnerships last week, sparked by what looks like the collapse of Synapse. The letter is addressed to the heads of the FDIC, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comproller of the Currency. We write with concern…

The Finanser’s Week: 9th September – 15th September 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include …          What does Kamala Harris think of crypto? It seems weird to debate a US presidential election based on attitudes towards cryptocurrencies but, as previously blogged, Donald Trump is very pro-crypto. His attitude turned with NFTs of his image. Nothing like narcissism. Back then, I was blogging about Donald…

Licensed to trust

I’ve been talking about trust a lot lately, as that’s the basis of why you put money in a bank. You trust them. Why do you trust them? Well, it’s not because of their brand or their branch. It’s because they are licensed and promise to guarantee that they will not lose your money or,…

What does Kamala Harris think of crypto?

It seems weird to debate a US presidential election based on attitudes towards cryptocurrencies but, as previously blogged, Donald Trump is very pro-crypto. His attitude turned with NFTs of his image. Nothing like narcissism. Back then, I was blogging about Donald Trump vs Joe Biden, and Biden looking like a loser. Now, we have Donald…

Do we need CBDCs?

Everyone seems to be talking about CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies. They are being launched to stem the tide of cryptocurrencies, but it makes you ask: what’s the difference. A CBDC is backed by a government; a cryptocurrency is backed by decentralised democracy. Not much difference there then. The Bank of England defines CBDC as…

What are the hottest new tech trends … Digital Twins

I just got a whole new set of tech phrases from a Gartner report. Giving my interpretation, here we go: Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is a proposed framework for Device Direct connectivity using satellite and cellular communication combination. The framework enables partnership between satellite (specifically low Earth orbit [LEO]) providers and terrestrial mobile operators…

How many payments unicorns are out there?

It’s interesting that we have over 30,000 fintech start-ups worldwide but only a few we talk about a lot. Stripe, Klarna, NuBank, Alipay … sure, there are 300 unicorns but there are thousands of roadkill along the way. What surprises me is how many sneak out of the woods when you least expect it. By…

The Finanser’s Week: 2nd September – 8th September 2024

This week’s main blog discussions include … The secret sauce of Stripe’s success Your morning coffee purchase travels through 15 countries in 0.3 seconds. It’s not magic. It’s a global network of invisible digital pipes and two college dropouts saw their world-changing potential. Two brothers. Meet Patrick and John Collison: the architects of our digital…

Intelligent Money: Our Future Is Where We Do Not Think About Money, As Our Money Thinks For Us

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