I’ve recently been thinking about headcount cuts. It’s always hard … And it's getting harder. For example, I wrote in August that thousands of bank jobs were being cut, adding up to an expectation of 15,000 City jobs this year. Each job loss represents a significant loss to the economy, especially those in the City: “Based…
There’s been quite a lot of coverage recently of the British Bankers Association’s (BBA) report about bank branch closures in the UK. Based upon the stats, UK banks are closing three branches a week. That still leaves over 9,000 branches out there, but they are shrinking. The reasons are many – cost efficiency, movement away…
I’ve enjoyed the Banker’s Top 1000 listings for a long time now and, when last year’s listings came out, looked back over the last twenty years to see how things had changed. This year’s list has now just been published (get a copy by subscribing) and makes for interesting reading, especially as Chinese banks have finally…
During the spring, we reached out and asked readers and FSClub members to provide their views, via an online survey, of the world's largest payments infrastructures and whether they are fit for the purpose they are being used for today. Last night, we released the results of the research at a dinner hosted by survey…
I like numbers and haven't posted any for a while. So I was pleased to find a bunch of useful social stats while crawling the net the other day. These stats starkly put into context why social networking and social media is important. It's important in all walks of life, especially finance which is…
I found a mixed bag of themes this week as I’m scooping up numbers. First, some interesting numbers include the fact that Google has 750 people working in their Payments Division, having just hired PayPal veteran Osama Bedier to lead it. This is at the same time as PayPal hire Blackhawk Network founder Don Kingsborough,…
Ever since I got my iPhone, I’ve been hopelessly devoted to Angry Birds, along with about 75 million other people. 75 million! That’s 75 million playing a game on their smartphone. That’s more than the whole population of Britain all playing Angry Birds. Wow! How did that happen and what’s it got to do with…
Want to know the true story of debt in the UK? Well, here's a few stats and facts: Just to emphasise a few of these numbers: Total personal debt in the UK is running at £1.45 trillion (that's £1,454,000,000,000) Individuals owe more in personal debt than the country's annual output As a country we owe…
It’s the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week. It’s a big deal as the mobile operators and manufacturers announce their major news items for the year, such as Microsoft acquiring Nokia. That’s why Steve Ballmer is down there doing a keynote today along with Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter. There’s Eric Schmidt,…
I got a note today regarding the fact that the Head of Barclays Global Retail Division, Antony Jenkins, appeared on BBC Radio’s Today program this morning saying that the level of consumer complaints to banks in general, and to Barclays specifically, is “not acceptable”. The Financial Ombudsman Service said it received and upheld more complaints…
Thinkers360 Thought Leader
Global 100 - 2024 Winner
Chris Skinner - Financial Markets Advisor of the Year - The Finanser - UK 2023
Best Financial Markets Advisor of the Year 2023
