Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

How should banks identify bad actors?

As the Nigel Farage affair rolls on, with resignations and regulations flowing fast, I was struck by one comment in The Financial Times, where a financial analyst said that these changes could prove challenging. “How does it work if a bank is being told ‘we’ll rip your arms if you process money for the wrong people’,…

What was the point of #Brexit?

Seven years after the vote and Britain still feels European whilst not being in European Union. What’s the point of that? In particular, there’s a fair dilemma about regulations in banking in Britain. Should they stay aligned with the EU or go their own way? I guess the more telling question is: what was the…

Data is AIr

A while ago, I cited one of the lessons of Doing Digital is that data is the air that we breathe: Data is the new air, and the banks that breathe the best will win (November 2017). Data is not oil, a rare fossil fuel that is finite; data is ever present, ever growing and powering…

Preaching to the unconverted

For many years now, I have pleaded with bank executives to change. Begged for them to be digital. Prayed that they get the message and transform. Looking back over presentations made in the 2000’s and 2010’s, the message is the same: the leadership team need to ‘get it’. Get what? Get the fact that you…

Should a bank close a customer’s account because they disagree with their views?

From The Times: ‘Until last summer, Nigel Farage had dealt with the same relationship manager at Coutts for years. Then Mark Pierce left for the rival private bank Arbuthnot Latham, and responsibility for the outspoken Brexiteer’s accounts passed to a Coutts executive named Min Fung. The former Ukip leader’s first conversation with Fung was also his…

The Finanser’s Week: 18th July – 23rd July 2023

This week’s main blog discussions include … AI should augment the human and automate the mundane We’ve all seen the massive discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) lately. Can we regulate it? What does it mean? Will we all lose our jobs? How can it be used in way that helps humans and does not destroy…

Where do I fit when my AI makes all the decisions for me?

I remember a big debate in the 1990s about the future of finance. One of the main themes was whether we needed intermediaries. After a quarter of century, the answer is yes. We have intermediaries to provide trust between two people who don’t trust each other. The trusted intermediary’s role is key. The question is…

Britain’s digital divide: 7 million households have no internet access

7 million households have no internet access according to the UK’s House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee (CDC) published, who its report at the end of June titled: Digital exclusion. Summarising their findings they say that the Government has “no credible strategy” to tackle digital exclusion. That’s a good start isn’t it? Statistics flagged…

The Top 10 of everything FinTech!

Nice update this week regarding the Top 10 of everything FinTech from FinTech magazine. First, they listed the Top 10 UK FinTechs by value: Clearbank is a Centaur, valued at $590 million Atom is also a Centaur, with a valuation of $596 million PPRO moves us into the Unicorn world, with a value of $1…

AI should augment the human and automate the mundane

We’ve all seen the massive discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) lately. Can we regulate it? What does it mean? Will we all lose our jobs? How can it be used in way that helps humans and does not destroy them? It is a debate we had in financial markets for years. Back in the last…