Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Emperor’s Clothes and Barclays Bank

Here’s the latest blog from Extinction Rebellion’s Co-founder Gail Bradbrook, with her colleagues Aidan Knox and Toby Gale (first, second and third are here). The Emperor’s Clothes and Barclays Bank “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing – but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.” These…

What’s the new book about, Chris?

I had an interview the other day about my new book Digital for Good. It felt like it was a worthy discussion, so thought it worth sharing again today. What is the number for your new book “Digital for Good“? Do you have the same feelings as when your first book was released? I’ve released many books…

The Finanser’s Week: 25th April 2022 – 1st May 2022

This week’s main blog discussions include: How can you oversee a system you don’t see? I was intrigued by a post from a friend who had worked for a leading fund manager. Her boss was jailed for financial manipulation. In her words: “I witnessed the effect of regulators on an innovative mind. Prior to jail, he…

Are cryptos actually currencies or just gambling?

It’s interesting as I found two studies over the past few days that show Dogecoin and shiba Inu coins are the most popular on the net, beating bitcoin. Both reports were analysing Google Trends for searches, not acutally buying or use of crypto. Even so, the reports prove to be interesting. The first report –…

How can you oversee a system you don’t see?

I was intrigued by a post from a friend who had worked for a leading fund manager. Her boss was jailed for financial manipulation. In her words: “I witnessed the effect of regulators on an innovative mind. Prior to jail, he was a financial trailblazer in encouraging companies to dream big, much like today’s venture capitalists….

People who fear being tracked and traced … it’s too late

For years now there has been a discussion of having chips inside humans. I was presenting this idea twenty years ago, and often used the example of the Baja Beach Club. The idea made sense: get a club chip inserted under the skin and you need no wallet or phone … just dance. It particularly…

The Finanser’s Week: 18th April 2022 – 24th April 2022

The main discussions on the blog this week include … Why old banks should be worried I had an interesting comment the other day from a friend who said that he had worked with incumbents and start-ups. The big difference is that the incumbent views digital as a cost-cutting exercise, whilst the start-up sees it…

The nuances of BaaS

I don’t know if you’ve noticed a new start-up called Column, but it’s worth watching as it’s a chartered bank in America created by the co-founder of Plaid, William Hockey, and his wife Anne. What’s Column all about? The problem the Hockeys are trying to solve is that fintechs and large tech companies often need…