Opinion

My bank shocks me. I know what’s going on, but even then, they still shock me. What’s going on? My bank depended upon offshore services for customer services. Those offshore services were based in India. India locked-down with four hours notice and, as you may have noticed if you watch the news, is now suffering…

I watch the world and comment. Maybe I shouldn’t. This blog began as a blog about finance and technology and I rarely want to leave that space. But lockdown, the pandemic and more has made it more of a commentary on life and the world and not just finance and technology. So, I woke up…

Money Rebellion I’m finding the world a bit surreal – is it just me? Locked down for a year; totalitarian states; governments attacking people; governments killing people; black lives matter; wars rising; tensions rising; demonstrations on the streets; no concerts, entertainment or hospitality … the list goes on. Meantime, there are basic issues that still…

Building on yesterday’s blog, it’s an interesting moment in time. The old world structures reject cryptocurrencies whilst the new world structures accept them en masse. This was typified for me by a couple of headlines the other day: UK Bank NatWest Bars Businesses That Accept Crypto Signature Bank Goes Head-to-Head With Silvergate in Bitcoin-Backed Lending…

Building on my AML – or is that MAL? – blog, I was thinking about the cost of compliance and all of those 1000’s of people working in such functions. Then I was thinking that they are completely ineffective. I always remember presenting to a big conference of risk managers at a major European bank…

I was talking with an AML guy this morning. That’s anti-money laundering, for those unfamiliar. AML. Might as well call it MAL, as in the French word mal, as AML is bad. It’s really bad. It doesn’t work. So, why bother? Well, banks have to bother as governments have rules about who can bank and…

I got a bit itchy during the weekend and ended up sitting and writing about bitcoin, dogecoin, crypto and more. It all started when I caused a twitter debate by posting this tweet: Highly recommended for central banks and governments pic.twitter.com/K880JWavCD — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) April 17, 2021 It caused quite a reaction with people…

WARNING: THIS IS WOKE (whatever that is) We talk a lot about diversity and LBTG+ and equality, but it’s still a long way off. In fact, I get annoyed when I see online forms with gender and title choices designed for the last century. Why is this irritating? Specifically, why is it irritating to an…

Welcome to the World of Next A few years ago, a friend of mine had an idea. It was to create a digital exchange between anything that anyone believed was of value. You may value USD, €, CN¥ or other currencies. Equally you may value BTC, ETH, XRP or other cryptocurrencies. For some, we value…