Welcome to The Finanser, the portal to the knowledge base of the Financial Services, chaired by Chris Skinner. To make an enquiry about a speaking engagement, just contact us and, if you are interested in Chris Skinner as a speaker, here’s an illustration of his keynote presentations …
Read More »Don’t beam me out Scotty!
I shared Gail Bradbrook’s and Andrew Cass’s ideas around ESG on Friday, the role of fina…
The Finanser’s Week: 27th June 2022 – 3rd July 2022
This week’s main blog discussions included … The neobank era is just beginning Good friend Ron Shevl…
Beam me out, Scotty
As usual, I take time out on the first of each month to give Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinctio…
An interview with EFMA about the realities of digital for good
I just had a nice interview with EFMA (now Qorus) about the new book Digital for Good (available her…
You can change the world
I hadn’t heard of the campaign make my money matter, until the other day. It’s all about igniting co…
What is the global, digital currency?
I did a presentation in Helsinki the other day about the importance of owning my data. It made me re…
The neobank era is just beginning
Good friend Ron Shevlin sparked off a great debate about neobanks with his snarky column on Forbes t…
The Finanser’s Week: 20th June 2022 – 26th June 2022
This week’s blog discussions include: Six years since #Brexit, where are we? I don’t talk about Brex…
A circular economy or degrowth?
I launched the new book Digital for Good in London the other day, and was joined by many friends in …
Six years since #Brexit, where are we?
I don’t talk about Brexit much. As a Remainer, I was gutted Britain voted to leave. That was six yea…
So, how do we define money?
Benju Shah, Head of the Nordic BIS Innovation Hub for the Bank of International Settlements, followe…
Money is just a belief
We had a great session in Oslo last week focused upon: what is money? The question comes up more and…
What do you believe in?
The belief in crypto has fallen through the floor in second quarter 2022, mainly due to factors from…
The Finanser’s Week: 13th June 2022 – 19th June 2022
The main blog discussions this week included … Welcome to (another) crypto meltdown As a guy who has…
Forget rock and roll, it’s now space and soul
I am regularly asked: what’s the next big thing? Answer: there isn’t one. There are just all the thi…
I sold my soul for a token
Some years ago, as an April Fool, a firm offered a free download of a game as long as, in the terms …
Welcome to (another) crypto meltdown
As a guy who has invested a little in cryptocurrencies, I sat back a year ago in a warm glow. The in…
Is Apple finance going to change the world?
There’s a regular debate about whether BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) is a good or bad thing. There’s a b…
The Finanser’s Week: 6th June 2022 – 12th June 2022
This week’s main blog discussions include … Is digital all it’s cracked up to be? I just sent a paym…
And what happens when digital fails?
I have another concern about digitalisation, which is what happens if you’re knocked off the grid? W…
Is digital all it’s cracked up to be?
I just sent a payment to a new company. They sent the details and it involved quite a lot of set-up.…
Let’s talk about Open Regulation
There is an important thing happening that many may have missed imho. We talk all the time about Ope…
Please, please, upgrade me
I loved the show Frasier back in the day. The pithy, pathetic but pure and pleasing ways of Niles an…
FinTech: Separating the wheat from the chaff
Some FinTech firms are quite old. Depending on how you call it PayPal, Zopa and others have been aro…
The Finanser’s Week: 30th May 2022 – 5th June 2022
This week’s main blog discussions included … 70 facts about money to celebrate 70 years on the thron…
Featured Post
Recent Posts
Things worth reading: 7th April 2009
Things we're reading today include … UK: UK unemployment will reach 3.2m, BCC warns (Telegraph) City bankers made to pay for financial crisis (bonuses down 62%) (Telegraph) Credit card rates highest for two years despite rate cuts (Telegraph) Alistair Darling faces £39bn hole in public …
Read More »Facebook Testing Virtual Currency
Interesting note sent to me from Nelson Eduardo Pereira today, who spotted that Facebook are offering a currency. It's not a real one, just swapping credits, but it's a start. The service builds on the gift services in Facebook. These gift services have been tracked …
Read More »Facebook Testing Virtual Currency
Interesting note sent to me from Nelson Eduardo Pereira today, who spotted that Facebook are offering a currency. It's not a real one, just swapping credits, but it's a start. The service builds on the gift services in Facebook. These gift services have been tracked …
Read More »Britain’s first mobile bank
I was pleased to hear about the progress of MoBank, the UK’s first mobile-only bank, which launches in May. It’s not a fully fledged bank yet, like Jibun Bank, as it’s starting out as a convenient way to buy things through an iPhone and designed …
Read More »Things worth reading: 6th April 2009
Things we're reading today include: Leitch in line for top Lloyds job (Times) HBOS deal maker picks up pension of £342,000 (Scotsman) RBS lines up veteran audit chief (Telegraph) With £12bn, HSBC is laughing all the way (Times) HSBC’s success is also a triumph for …
Read More »Vive le revolution!
So the G20 protests were a bit of a damp squib, thanks to tight police controls, but not so in France where the NATO Summit in Strasbourg saw a lot of trouble. But I was more interested in two other stories. The first is from …
Read More »Great predictions of the past
It's easy to catch people's prediction out in hindsight, with the most common ones being things like "I see a worldwide market for about five computers" from Thomas Watson, IBM's CEO in the 1950s, and "640k is enough memory for anyone" from Bill Gates. Now …
Read More »Great predictions of the past
It's easy to catch people's prediction out in hindsight, with the most common ones being things like "I see a worldwide market for about five computers" from Thomas Watson, IBM's CEO in the 1950s, and "640k is enough memory for anyone" from Bill Gates. Now …
Read More »How green is your valley?
I just discovered an interesting part of The Economist I never knew existed: the Daily Chart. Yesterday's focused upon how much of the economic stimulus created by governments to get economies moving is going into projects that have green credentials. Here's the chart: Interesting. The …
Read More »Things worth reading: 4th April 2009
Things we're reading today include mopping up the G20 news: G20 has little impact on global economics (Financial Times) G20: Fat cats brought down to Earth with a bump (Guardian) Bankers rage at G20 'witch hunt' against bonuses and buccaneers (Guardian) Overview: Risk-takers reap benefits …
Read More »Things worth reading: 4th April 2009
Things we're reading today include mopping up the G20 news: G20 has little impact on global economics (Financial Times) G20: Fat cats brought down to Earth with a bump (Guardian) Bankers rage at G20 'witch hunt' against bonuses and buccaneers (Guardian) Overview: Risk-takers reap benefits …
Read More »The multichannel myth
For years, I’ve dealt with banks talking about multichannel integration and adding new capabilities to the core traditional channel of branch operations. In the 1970’s we added ATMs, the 1980’s added call centres, the 1990’s the internet, and now mobile. For all those years, we …
Read More »The G20 party is over … or is it?
So the G20 meeting is over and has an agreement to spend over $1 trillion through the IMF on nations that are worthy. The other key agreements include: a lockdown on the tax regimes of countries where people hide place their wealth. The age of …
Read More »A banker’s bonus ain’t what it used to be …
The Financial Stability Forum published their principles on reservering, crisis management and banker's compensation yesterday. Here are the headlines: Recommendations and principles to strengthen financial systems On 2 April 2009, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) issued reports covering: Recommendations for Addressing Procyclicality in the Financial …
Read More »A banker’s bonus ain’t what it used to be …
The Financial Stability Forum published their principles on reservering, crisis management and banker's compensation yesterday. Here are the headlines: Recommendations and principles to strengthen financial systems On 2 April 2009, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) issued reports covering: Recommendations for Addressing Procyclicality in the Financial …
Read More »Things worth reading: 3rd April 2009
Lots worth reading today, with most of it about the G20 Summit outcome: G20 Summit: the key agreements (Telegraph) Q&A: the G20 Summit (Guardian) G20 leaders hail crisis fightback (Financial Times) G20 summit: Gordon Brown unveils $1.1 trillion global recession fight-back (Telegraph) Today's G20 deal …
Read More »Creating a bank that rocks
Late last year, I blogged about Vernon Hill's Commerce Bank, Arkadi Kuhlman's ING Direct and creating a bank that rocks. Well I know a bank that rocks. Jyske Bank. Who? Jyske Bank in Denmark. They are the third largest Danish bank with 120 branches and …
Read More »Things worth reading: 2nd April 2009
After the live Twitter feed of the G20 protests yesterday, along with the Fool's Jokes, it's back to normality today. Here's what we're reading: RBS locked in talks with Treasury over renegotiating terms of insurance scheme (Guardian) Shareholders want Lloyds Banking Group bosses to go …
Read More »Things worth reading: 2nd April 2009
After the live Twitter feed of the G20 protests yesterday, along with the Fool's Jokes, it's back to normality today. Here's what we're reading: RBS locked in talks with Treasury over renegotiating terms of insurance scheme (Guardian) Shareholders want Lloyds Banking Group bosses to go …
Read More »Things worth reading: 2nd April 2009
After the live Twitter feed of the G20 protests yesterday, along with the Fool's Jokes, it's back to normality today. Here's what we're reading: RBS locked in talks with Treasury over renegotiating terms of insurance scheme (Guardian) Shareholders want Lloyds Banking Group bosses to go …
Read More »G20 Protests: fear … and fear on London’s streets
I posted a bunch of jokey stuff this morning as an April Fool, but it is G20 Protest Day and the live action of the G20 rally is no joke. Based upon updates via Twitter of events through the day: 15:15 Police barricaded protesters in …
Read More »Bankers stage overnight G20 protest
In a shocking slap-in-the-face to anarchists and anticapitalists everywhere, bankers staged their own candlelit vigil outside the G20 meeting at the Excel Centre overnight. With all the extremists locked up safely in bed, the bankers gathered in a large crowd chanting things like “we want …
Read More »Bankers stage overnight G20 protest
In a shocking slap-in-the-face to anarchists and anticapitalists everywhere, bankers staged their own candlelit vigil outside the G20 meeting at the Excel Centre overnight. With all the extremists locked up safely in bed, the bankers gathered in a large crowd chanting things like “we want …
Read More »Bankers stage overnight G20 protest
In a shocking slap-in-the-face to anarchists and anticapitalists everywhere, bankers staged their own candlelit vigil outside the G20 meeting at the Excel Centre overnight. With all the extremists locked up safely in bed, the bankers gathered in a large crowd chanting things like “we want …
Read More »Things worth reading: 1st April 2009 (update)
I posted a bunch of jokey stuff this morning as an April Fool. Here are the real things worth reading. Faster Isa transfers as banks join electronic scheme (Telegraph) Barclays and CVC locked in talks over iShares sale (Guardian) FSA proposes tenfold rise in saver …
Read More »G20 protests in the City and beyond
I just received this email from Corporate Watch and, for those in London this week, reproduce all details here so you are aware: The leaders of the world's 22 largest economies are meeting in London this week to 'restore confidence' in the failed capitalist system. …
Read More »G20 protests in the City and beyond
I just received this email from Corporate Watch and, for those in London this week, reproduce all details here so you are aware: The leaders of the world's 22 largest economies are meeting in London this week to 'restore confidence' in the failed capitalist system. …
Read More »If you don’t think video is the next revolution
I've blogged regularly, predicting that video connectivity will revolutionse banking. In particular, it changes the game because face-to-face comes back as a critical differentiator, but also because I will be able to see directly into the back office, the call centre, the heart of bank …
Read More »