Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Opinion

Money is meaningless

I’ve blogged and presented about this subject many times before, so rather than repeating all that, here’s a summation with a new twist. Money is meaningless because we no longer deal in money. When we use the word money, most of us would envisage some brand new shiny, crisp notes coming out of a cash machine,…

Cash

Stop talking about mobile, it’s not important

My latest presentation is apparently a polemic. That’s what my colleague said yesterday, when I said that my new presentation has three themes: Mobile is irrelevant; Money is meaningless; and Capitalism is dead. I wondered what she meant by polemic, so checked out the definitions online and Wikipedia defines it quite well: a polemic is…

Stop talking about mobile, it’s not important

My latest presentation is apparently a polemic. That’s what my colleague said yesterday, when I said that my new presentation has three themes: Mobile is irrelevant; Money is meaningless; and Capitalism is dead. I wondered what she meant by polemic, so checked out the definitions online and Wikipedia defines it quite well: a polemic is…

Try to destroy yourself … and then do it

One of the panellists at this week’s conference said that he employed twenty people whose sole duty was to find a way to destroy the business. I liked the idea of that.  It is a strong and emotive statement.  But what did he mean? “I employ twenty people in my innovation department who purely look…

First digital camera

Try to destroy yourself … and then do it

One of the panellists at this week’s conference said that he employed twenty people whose sole duty was to find a way to destroy the business. I liked the idea of that.  It is a strong and emotive statement.  But what did he mean? “I employ twenty people in my innovation department who purely look…

First digital camera

Regulators are cutting their nose off to spite their face

In another conversation, I gained a new dimension as to how the regulatory and governmental influence is changing a bank’s outlook. I was talking with a very senior manager in a bank.  This person heads up risk, audit and compliance.  He is a member of the bank’s executive board.  A heavy hitting player. He had…

Voldemort

Regulators are cutting their nose off to spite their face

In another conversation, I gained a new dimension as to how the regulatory and governmental influence is changing a bank’s outlook. I was talking with a very senior manager in a bank.  This person heads up risk, audit and compliance.  He is a member of the bank’s executive board.  A heavy hitting player. He had…

Voldemort

Fifty Shades of Law: America, Banking and World War III

No, it’s not about flagellation and sado-masochism, although the current regulatory regime is not far off that.  It’s also true that the regulatory regime is pretty mind-boggling these days, with fifty shades of interpretation of fifty shades of law.   This was made clear to me in dialogue with a group of European banks involved in…

George-w-bush

Fifty Shades of Law: America, Banking and World War III

No, it’s not about flagellation and sado-masochism, although the current regulatory regime is not far off that.  It’s also true that the regulatory regime is pretty mind-boggling these days, with fifty shades of interpretation of fifty shades of law.   This was made clear to me in dialogue with a group of European banks involved in…

George-w-bush

2013: an Economic Outlook

OK, OK, it’s time to get down to the real business of blogging, banking and bonuses.  As per my usual form, here are four specific forecasts for the economic movements of 2013: The USA is a solid rock (but) South America is the place to be China becomes a hot consumer market The Eurozone stays…

Growth8