Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 11th December – 17th December 2023

This week’s main blog discussions include … There were 50 ways to leave your lover … now there’s one more (thanks to your payment app) Over the years, there have been many weird and wacky ideas for banking. There was the G&L Bank in the USA in 2000, targeting the LBGTQ+ community. It was a…

This house believes technology in finance is a good thing

In my head, I often have an argument and, unsurprisingly, I had one today. Today’s argument is around how technology is used in finance and whether it’s a good or a bad thing. Therefore, in the spirit of a good Oxford debate, we have the proposer and opposer. The debate would go as follows (in…

JPMorgan: data is fuel for the business

Building on yesterday’s blog, I just stumbled across a podcast called Tech Trends by JPMorgan Chase – everything to do with tech, digital, data and fintech, broadcast by a bank. Fantastic. The first show I downloaded is all about organising data to fuel growth. Interestingly, their Chief Data Officer defines data as the fuel for…

Digital is the core, data is the asset

I just delivered a two-day immersive course in digital transformation for a bank and found myself regularly saying digital is the core, data is the asset. It did trip off the tongue nicely, but it also summarised the essence of what digital transformation is all about. You start with digital as the core. You build…

Interview with the vampayer

I just had an interview with a journalist via email. It was quite interesting, and wanted to share it with you. The key point being made is that everything we have today – apps, online, cards and more – are going to disappear. Are they? Mobile payments, BNPL, open banking, artificial intelligence – these are…

The Finanser’s Week: 4th December – 10th December 2023

This week’s main blog discussions include … How can AI minimise fraud? Someone came up with the idea of running a series of events called Dinner with Skinner … no idea who would have thought that up … and so I run and moderate many discussions with fintech firms and bankers around the topics chosen…

How can AI minimise fraud?

Someone came up with the idea of running a series of events called Dinner with Skinner … no idea who would have thought that up … and so I run and moderate many discussions with fintech firms and bankers around the topics chosen by sponsors. The latest one was looking at a key question: how…

60% of UK bank branches have closed in 8 years

I was reading stories over the weekend of hundreds of branch closures planned by banks. This has been forecast for years – back in the 1990s, it was clear that branch based distribution was unsustainable and costly – but it has finally hit. When I was a lad, for example, there were over 20,000 bank…