Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Trust

The big issue: 2025 commerce is connected to a 2005 checkout system

In an excellent article on LinkedIn, Priscilla Russo laments the state of Agentic AI from a payments point of view. Bearing in mind that 2025 is the year of Agentic AI – a world where AI agents do everything for you on your behalf – it is clear that we have a dichotomy between the open…

Digital Trust: How do you know you are you?

For many years now, we have been talking about digital identity. The core is how to prove you are you. You have to be identified, verified, authenticated and approved. You would think with so many layers of monitoring access that everyone online in the financial system could be trusted. So, how come there are criminals,…

IP risks in cryptocurrency trading and preventing cybercrimes

One of my friends just sent me an interesting article all about trust, fraud and cryptocurrency so, as a Christmas present, I wanted to share it with you. Here goes … With the digital revolution, crypto has become a global financial phenomenon. Blockchain technology has changed how we make transactions, interact with clients, and use…

The challenge is how to deliver freedom, security, control and privacy

A really interesting conversation popped up during a meeting with a fintech yesterday. The core of the discussion was around trust and identity – my favourite themes of the moment – and we got into a debate about the fact that most people want freedom and control of their lives. They want privacy and security…

Jobs of the Future, Part One: Guardians of Reality

This is the first in a series about Jobs of the Future. I believed for a while that there would be no way AI could create music, poetry, stories, art and ideas, but have now been proved wrong. AI can do all that and more. But can it create relationships and feel like a human?…

The forgotten story of Clarence Saunders vs Wall Street

I just watched Dumb Money, the true story of Gamestop where a wild band of small investors led by Roaring Kitty attacked the big Wall Street short sellers by banging the buck. The more small investors invested, via Robin Hood, the more short sellers lost as the stock rose instead of falling. It’s a good…

Who do we trust, how and why?

It intrigues me how quickly our world of money is changing from crypto to fintech to BaaS to infinity and beyond. The question that constantly sits in the back of my mind is how to regulate all this stuff to maintain trust? From Synapse to FTX to Beenz to Boo, how can the regulator keep…

Banks make millions from the most vulnerable

As mentioned, I’m dealing with my mother’s financial affairs as she reaches end of life, and I’m finding it incredibly frustrating. The process is that there first needs to be a Power of Attorney in place. Luckily, she saw that coming and gave it to me. That’s a government portal which allows me to take…

In Gov we trust

Everyone keeps saying that the core of banking is trust. It’s not ROI, ROE, CI or other acronyms. It’s trust. But what is trust, and how is it created and maintained? That’s a core of where we should focus. In banking, trust is not in the brand or the name; it is in the belief…

Identity? Forget mobile … think eyeballs!

I just spotted a blog by Alan Stapelberg, who is Group Product Manager for Google Wallet. Here’s his opening para: “Imagine starting a vacation like this: You arrive at the airport and breeze through security by tapping your phone to a reader, scanning your boarding pass and ID. While waiting to board, you grab a…