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Welcome to The Finanser, the portal to the knowledge base of the Financial Services Club, chaired by Chris Skinner. To make an enquiry about a speaking engagement, just contact us and, if you are interested in Chris Skinner as a speaker, here’s an illustration of his keynote presentations …

The main blog discussions this week include …. Does management theory work anymore? After blogging the other day that big banks will never be replaced and they’re just playing a game of Pac-Man, I was watching this two-minute explainer of Michael Porter’s five forces from Harvard Business Review (a two-minute video): …

After blogging the other day that big banks will never be replaced and they’re just playing a game of Pac-Man, I was watching this two-minute explainer of Michael Porter’s five forces from Harvard Business Review (a two-minute video):  The five forces are buyers (customers), suppliers, substitutes, new entrants and existing …

I was recently asked to interview Likhit Wagle, General Manager, Global Banking Industry, IBM, regarding their new IBM Cloud for Financial Services™ offering. The discussion was interesting so sharing it here for posterity.  Chris Skinner: Cloud is something we’ve been discussing for over a decade. Why has it taken …

After writing quite a lot challenging the challenger banks, one reached out to me asking for a slight correction of view. OakNorth. Now, this is a bank I like, as they’ve been doing so much under the radar, so I said that if they wanted to raise their head above …

I just presented to the Merchant Payments Ecosystem conference. I’ve presented there before, and this year was virtual … as are all 2020 conferences. 2020 is the virtual year. I sat and thought about what to present. I have 1,000 slides or more, but I don’t do slides on lockdown. …

Everyone keeps talking about Big Tech opening banks. Rather than opening or buying banks, most of the Big Tech firms are partnering with them. Apple and Goldman Sachs make a nice pair as does Google, who partner with a variety of banks to offer financial capabilities. Several of the Big …

The main blog discussions this week include …. Why big banks get bigger (it’s all about Pac-Man) I’ve spent a long time writing about how bad banks are with technology and digital transformation … but I’ve never said banks will be eaten by technology. So many other companies and industries …

I’ve spent a long time writing about how bad banks are with technology and digital transformation … but I’ve never said banks will be eaten by technology. So many other companies and industries are destroyed by technology, but banking is not one of them. I laugh when I read about …

During the summer I teamed up with a colleague, George Ravich, to research views on the crisis amongst the financial community. We published the results in August, and here’s an update guest blog from George on the process.   New Research Finds Banking Industry Positive on Effects of Covid-Crisis Chris …

When I was growing up with learning management skills, one of those I focused upon was marketing and Kotler’s 4 P’s. If you’re not familiar it’s all about product, price, promotion and place. It’s something easy to remember, but then most folks are hard pushed to remember more than three …

Regular commentator and contributor Ajit Tripathi wrote a brilliant piece the other day, discussing the path to profitability for neobanks. He’s kindly allowed to share his insights here, so enjoy! Neobanks have Jobs to Be Done Abstract: Covid19 has changed the capital and market environment for neobanks and challenged the strategic assumptions …

During my karaoke lockdown challenge, I’ve been surprised how engaged my audience is, from those who encouraged me to do JaJa Ding Dong to a trans-Atlantic duet with Barb MacLean of Islands in the Stream. However, I’ve never been as challenged as I was this week. I got an email …

This week continued the focus upon the challenges for challengers: [Monzo + Starling + Revolut] – Pandemic = The End? Over the past week or two, the neobank and challenger bank sector has been issuing financial reports. If you haven’t noticed: WHERE WERE YOU? Monzo got a particular hammering for …

WARNING: LONG READ During the last week, I had a chat with a friend about lockdown. I always start conversations with how’s lockdown been for you? For him, it’s been particularly bad. Based in downtown New York City (NYC), USA, he described how hordes of homeless people, evicted by landlords, …