My second and last day at Money2020 Europe was packed with networking, meetings, panel discussions, private events and more. Throughout the day, the themes of the first day kept bubbling over. I guess it was typified with the comment that the CEO of TransferWise announced how happy they are to …
Read More »So you think Alipay is just for the Chinese?
I’ve got caught in a few discussions recently with people who tell me Ant Financial are Chinese. They’re not. Neither is Alibaba and, if you think they’re just Chinese, you’re going to miss a huge change in the next decade. Ant Financial is an open marketplace of apps, APIs and …
Read More »The long-term banking future: who are the winners?
I’ve used a statement for a while now about the competitive landscape of finance in the future. It goes something like: Banks have millions of customers, billions of capital and centuries of history, but are hampered by heritage; Start-ups have no customers, little capital and no history, but are driven …
Read More »Why investment banks have the digital edge
For some years, I’ve been heavily involved in high frequency trading and quantitative trading, areas that are highly automated and pretty complex. I don’t blog about it much here, as it’s not appealing to the everyday person. It involves too much dialogue explaining acronyms used in investment markets and acronyms …
Read More »Tech firms will be regulated like banks in future
I just listened to a presentation by Nick Thompson, editor-in-chief at Wired, about all things in the future of tech. A lot of it was focused upon Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning towards the end, but the first half was interesting as it focused upon why there is a backlash against Silicon …
Read More »Two minutes on the future life of digital humans
Today marks the day, finally, when Digital Human is available globally through Amazon, Google and all other online outlets. It was slightly delayed for release in Europe and America whilst the publishers were switched, but today it is finally online for all to order and receive within a day or two. …
Read More »Banking isn’t really about money
I’ve been tempted for some time to write a book about how sex is at the heart of commerce, innovation and money. I’ve alluded to it a few times, and particularly noted that the right honourable Jeremy Clarkson sometimes says something intelligent. “Money and rumpy-pumpy (sex) are the twin engines …
Read More »Cryptocurrencies are not currencies
I’ve been watching the rollercoaster ride of cryptocurrencies very carefully for the last year, and it only struck me today that these are not currencies … yet. Apart from a few novelty vendors and merchants who put bitcoin on their websites, I don’t see many others accepting ether or XRP, …
Read More »Cash is not a good payment system … which is why we will get rid of it
I was recently interviewed by the highly innovative German bank Wirecard the other day, for their blog. They kindly said I replicate it on the Finanser, so here you go … Chris Skinner in Interview: “Cash Is Not a Good Payment System – We Need to Get Rid of It, …
Read More »What is the worst thing a bank can do?
Banks are trusted guardians of our money. As long as our money is safe, then we trust them. It’s when our money is breached or lost that banks misbehave, which is why the 2008 financial crisis was so concerning. The run on Northern Rock and Bear Stearns were terrible moments …
Read More »AI and Best Execution: the Investment Bankers’ Dream Team
I don’t often blog about investment banking as it bores my readers who are cool and trendy retail bankers and geeks, mainly, but keep coming back to this article about JPMorgan’s Best Execution AI engine, LOXM. LOXM’s job is to execute client orders with maximum speed at the best price, …
Read More »The Big Digital Banks: JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs
I was having a chat about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in banking the other day. It was an interesting conversation, although most of the examples were for customer service via Chatbots, which doesn’t impress me much. I know that systems like Erica, short for Bank of AmErica, are up and running …
Read More »Digital banks are 35+ times more productive than traditional banks
I’m launching the new book Digital Human in New York on April 12 (if you want to come, register here), following on from our recent London launch. In London, I was delighted to host Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays Bank UK, and Li Wang, Head of Alipay and Ant Financial …
Read More »Ant Financial’s Strategy for AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and more
I’ve been flying around a bit and was lucky enough to find myself onstage the other day, chairing the Ant Financial Technology Forum at Money20/20 Singapore. I was honoured to accept to be the moderator of the afternoon and guess I was chosen because Alipay and Ant Financial are a …
Read More »How quantum will change everything (including banking, money and security)
I know that we deal with quite complicated things in financial technologies. AI, AGI, ASI (Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Super Intelligence); machine learning and deep learning; blockchain, shared ledgers and distributed ledger technologies; cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies and digital currencies; Open Banking and Open APIs; and so on and …
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