Chris Skinner's blog Shaping the future of finance

Anita Elberse has created a great discussion in the Harvard Business Review this week about the Long Tail, the theory expounded by Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine.  The theory goes that you can make as much money as an online retailer from the 80% …

Anita Elberse has created a great discussion in the Harvard Business Review this week about the Long Tail, the theory expounded by Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine.  The theory goes that you can make as much money as an online retailer from the 80% …

I attended a long discussion yesterday about High Value Payments (HVP). I wondered why we even bothered to discuss and delineate between Low Value Payments (LVP) and HVP these days. Surely, we should just talk about Real-Time Payments (RTP), near RTP (sub two hours) and …

A question came up in today’s EBA sessions for Joe Pawelczyk, Vice President for International Relations at CHIPS, the American Clearing House for over $2 trillion of wire payments each day. The question seemed quite simple: “Why doesn’t America use IBANs for their bank account …

A question came up in today’s EBA sessions for Joe Pawelczyk, Vice President for International Relations at CHIPS, the American Clearing House for over $2 trillion of wire payments each day. The question seemed quite simple: “Why doesn’t America use IBANs for their bank account …

According to a press release from the International Association of Money Transfer Networks, Zimbabwe’s economy keeps going thanks to mobile remittances, even with an economy where inflation is currently running at two million percent and is expected to reach six million percent by the end …

According to a press release from the International Association of Money Transfer Networks, Zimbabwe’s economy keeps going thanks to mobile remittances, even with an economy where inflation is currently running at two million percent and is expected to reach six million percent by the end …

I have been attending a conference on Prepaid this week, one of the largest of its kind with over 300 delegates all focused upon this burgeoning market. The fact so many are attending says something, and most of these attendees appear to be from organisations …

A year ago, Wired magazine had the front page headline: Get Naked. It made me buy the magazine and turned out to be a fascinating article all about how the world is now transparent. Nothing can be controlled or hidden anymore. You cannot keep anything …

A year ago, Wired magazine had the front page headline: Get Naked. It made me buy the magazine and turned out to be a fascinating article all about how the world is now transparent. Nothing can be controlled or hidden anymore. You cannot keep anything …

A year ago, Wired magazine had the front page headline: Get Naked. It made me buy the magazine and turned out to be a fascinating article all about how the world is now transparent. Nothing can be controlled or hidden anymore. You cannot keep anything …

I don’t write about politics, because I am not a political creature. However, I felt compelled to write about this subject after Europe’s soul-searching over its identity since the Irish threw out the EU Treaty. The fact that the Constitution and the Treaty are unwanted …

Intriguing discussions today about the Oyster Card in London. This is the contactless card operated by Transport for London (TfL) to allow everyone to travel across the London public transport system without using cash. It’s basically a prepaid contactless card, like the Octopus Card in …

It is fascinating to watch the fight that is going on between the traditional exchanges – Deutsche Bourse, Euronext and London Stock Exchange (LSE) – and the new guys – Chi-x, BAT, virt-x, PLUSMarkets, Boat, Turquoise, NYFix Millennium, NASDAQ OMX, Equiduct … The fight is …

It is fascinating to watch the fight that is going on between the traditional exchanges – Deutsche Bourse, Euronext and London Stock Exchange (LSE) – and the new guys – Chi-x, BAT, virt-x, PLUSMarkets, Boat, Turquoise, NYFix Millennium, NASDAQ OMX, Equiduct … The fight is …

It is fascinating to watch the fight that is going on between the traditional exchanges – Deutsche Bourse, Euronext and London Stock Exchange (LSE) – and the new guys – Chi-x, BAT, virt-x, PLUSMarkets, Boat, Turquoise, NYFix Millennium, NASDAQ OMX, Equiduct … The fight is …

It is fascinating to watch the fight that is going on between the traditional exchanges – Deutsche Bourse, Euronext and London Stock Exchange (LSE) – and the new guys – Chi-x, BAT, virt-x, PLUSMarkets, Boat, Turquoise, NYFix Millennium, NASDAQ OMX, Equiduct … The fight is …

EBAday, or is that days as it is now 2 days, is upon us next week. This is the annual jamboree for the Euro Bankers Association to celebrate the arrival of SEPA, after much anticipation since EBA days started three years ago. This year it …

Conclusive proof that mobile phones do fry the brains … … or is this a viral video to promote popcorn eating? In case you’re wondering why I posted this, it’s because this video has been copied around the world.  There are videos on YouTube that …

It’s really tough dealing with technologists. It is like the old discussion of the businessman in the hot-air balloon who is lost. He spies a chap on the ground and asks if he knows where he is. The guy looks up and says, “you are …

It’s really tough dealing with technologists. It is like the old discussion of the businessman in the hot-air balloon who is lost. He spies a chap on the ground and asks if he knows where he is. The guy looks up and says, “you are …

It’s really tough dealing with technologists. It is like the old discussion of the businessman in the hot-air balloon who is lost. He spies a chap on the ground and asks if he knows where he is. The guy looks up and says, “you are …

It’s really tough dealing with technologists. It is like the old discussion of the businessman in the hot-air balloon who is lost. He spies a chap on the ground and asks if he knows where he is. The guy looks up and says, “you are …

There was a lot of buzz around this year’s Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Payments Conference, “Payments Fraud: Perception versus Reality”. First, there’s the sheer numbers involved. For example, it is estimated that each year $3.5 billion worth of chargeback losses occur in the USA …

Picking up on one of the points made in the debate this week about identity and authentication that it is the government’s responsibility to manage identities, I was kind of surprised by this view. This view stated that banks have no control over identities because …

Last night’s debate, “This house believes our current authentication and identification methods are good enough”, was a healthy one and focused primarily upon card authentication in retail transactions. We started with the case for. The motion was proposed by one of the major card processing …

Last night’s debate, “This house believes our current authentication and identification methods are good enough”, was a healthy one and focused primarily upon card authentication in retail transactions. We started with the case for. The motion was proposed by one of the major card processing …

Last night’s debate, “This house believes our current authentication and identification methods are good enough”, was a healthy one and focused primarily upon card authentication in retail transactions. We started with the case for. The motion was proposed by one of the major card processing …