Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Opinion

Were Skinner’s 2012 predictions correct?

At the start of the year, I always make a few predictions about what will happen in the following year.  Watch this blog in January for 2013’s predictions.  But what were the predictions for 2012? Well Economically, I made the following forecasts: Asia’s light continues to shine, but not quite as bright American equities is the place…

Were Skinner’s 2012 predictions correct?

At the start of the year, I always make a few predictions about what will happen in the following year.  Watch this blog in January for 2013’s predictions.  But what were the predictions for 2012? Well Economically, I made the following forecasts: Asia’s light continues to shine, but not quite as bright American equities is the place…

Risk is a many splendored thing

I was asked to give a pre-dinner speech by SAS for a group of Chief Risk Officers (CRO’s) in Amsterdam recently. Here’s the speech. Good evening ladies and gentlemen.  I wasn’t sure how to start this evening, and decided to begin with the collective noun for a group of CRO’s.  You are collectively known as a…

Too fast to innovate, too slow to change

As mentioned yesterday, the regulator tries to keep up with the banks who try to keep up with customer, and I said that banks often innovate too slowly. There are many examples of this, but the one that I come back to regularly is Chip & PIN. Chip & PIN has been an enormous success,…

Chip &Pin

Why should we innovate?

I was talking at a conference and a regulator was on the panel.   The panel chair asked him: “should we think about innovation first or regulation?” and he responded by saying: “It is not a question of regulation or innovation.  I would rather ask the question: why do we need innovation at all?  Who is it…

Archive- mag disc

Bank’s biggest weakness: drowning in data

I recently met Big Data in person. In real life. THE BIG DATA. Yes, I did. And here he is … Do you recognise him? No? BIG DATA? The guy. No? Maybe this will help you to remember. Yes, Big Data. The man, the legend, the person … … ah, you thought I meant Big…

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The man behind the mask

I’ve gotten into this habit of using the SIBOS closing party to do something a little bit on the edge.  Controversial, but meant to be funny. Last year I was the world’s hottest banker … … and this year I was anonymous … The problem is that I wasn’t. I was spotted and it didn’t…

Anonymous Rock Star

Welcome to SIBOS 2012

So here we are, a few of us anyway, at SIBOS 2012 in Osaka, Japan. Having faced a lengthy and, for some, gruelling journey of 24 hours or more, the welcome greeting you find at the INTEX Centre is second to none. But then you get into the spirit of things, and my spirit is obviously…

Blog Welcome

Has your customer sold their soul?

Every time I click on something online, I get this funny thing about agreeing terms and conditions. The popup window appears and my brain shuts down.  I just hit ‘accept’, ‘agree’ and move on. I guess the reason is that I don’t care what the small print says, I just want the end result. I…

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The future bank will be like Siri

I spent a day strategising with one of the Middle Eastern banks about the launch of a direct bank service.  One of the key questions they asked me is: do we organise the back office in the same way as our contact centre and internet bank service? The easy answer would be yes, but that…