Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Numbers

What is a secure data vault and should a bank be one?

I gave a presentation the other day and, as usual, concluded that banks should position themselves as data vaults.  One person then asked: what data should a bank make secure? which is a good question to ask, as it led to a healthy debate and improvement of clarity of view. Today, we produce exabytes of…

Data

As banks cut lifeline, will remittance alternatives emerge?

The three blog entries on this subject so far: The African bank crisis and remittances More on Africa, Somalia, remittances, Barclays and HSBC Banks should not be political pawns has stirred up a lot of interest.  In particular, Mondata, an American consulting firm on mobile finance, has written a fascinating insight on the subject including…

Remittance

Payments Council report states that mobile internet payments will quadruple by 2022

I just got a copy of the Payments Council’s UK Payments Markets 2013 Report, and it makes fascinating reading about a developed economy’s changing payments habits. Here are the headlines: Consumer card use will rise by 75% from nearly 10 billion payments in 2012 to nearly 17 billion in 2022, driven primarily by increased debit…

Internet buying habits

Payments Council report states that mobile internet payments will quadruple by 2022

I just got a copy of the Payments Council’s UK Payments Markets 2013 Report, and it makes fascinating reading about a developed economy’s changing payments habits. Here are the headlines: Consumer card use will rise by 75% from nearly 10 billion payments in 2012 to nearly 17 billion in 2022, driven primarily by increased debit…

Internet buying habits

The World’s Top 20 Banks: 2013

I was just analysing the Banker’s annual tome: the Top 1,000 banks. It’s a serious piece of research and represents many years of trends and change (I’ve personally now been tracking the Top 40 banks from this list for the past twenty years!). This year’s figures reinforce the things I’ve been expecting for some time:…

Top 20

The World’s Top 20 Banks: 2013

I was just analysing the Banker’s annual tome: the Top 1,000 banks. It’s a serious piece of research and represents many years of trends and change (I’ve personally now been tracking the Top 40 banks from this list for the past twenty years!). This year’s figures reinforce the things I’ve been expecting for some time:…

Top 20

12,000 European consumers say mobile social banking is the key

I got a copy of a fascinating survey by ING yesterday on mobile social banking.   The survey asked 12,000 people in 12 countries in Europe about banking in the digital age, and here’s their summary of the main conclusions: 1. More than a third – or 37% – of consumers already use mobile banking. The Netherlands is the most…

ING survey1

How important is real-time?

This is a question that comes up more and more, and there’s an easy answer: it’s very important; and a harder answer: it’s not always important; and this is a key discussion in the context of immediate payments, something that is getting talked about more and more. In fact, my friends over at Glenbrook covered…

KIR Poland

How many mbank users are there in Europe and who are they?

I said I would move away from EFMA Week, but the brain washing achieved a true immersion as I realised there’s one last bit that was missed: EFMA’s Research. A lot of good insights came from the week through the various study presentations, with EFMA performing multiple research from insurance  to banking to payments.  As Cap…

EFMA research1

I know, let’s differentiate the bank by launching an app!

It’s Friday, so we should have some fun. Unfortunately, it’s both a bit of fun and a bit of a challenge. The challenge is how to differentiate the bank? That’s always been a challenge. Most banks reckon that they don’t need to differentiate the bank because once you’ve got a customer, you’ve got them for…

Iphone apps