Welcome to The Finanser, the portal to the knowledge base of the Financial Services Club, 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 »Do we have a work-life balance anymore?
What is work-life balance these days? I accidentally on purpose started an interesting debate on Li…
There’s a Starman … who needs a bank account
Yesterday I asked Is there Life on Mars as a tribute to my hero David Bowie. I originally titled tha…
Is there life on Mars?
Twenty years ago, I remember being impressed when the late, great David Bowie launched a bank. Admit…
Would you believe they put a man on the moon?
… “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” Arthur C. Clarke This…
Rip it up and start again
I spotted two updates recently. The first is the half a billion dollar mistake at Citigroup. The sec…
The Finanser’s Week: 22nd February 2021- 28th February 2021
This week’s main blog notes include … Banks waste billions on digital How much money is …
Read all about it: The Kalifa Review is out!
I blogged the other day about Singapore-on-the-Thames in anticipation of the Kalifa Review of UK Fin…
The elephant, the bird and the tiger (king)
This is the tenth in a series of blogs about the elephant, which represents the economy, and the bir…
Banking on digital growth
I recently joined The Digital Growth podcast … powered by Sounder … and they kindly tra…
If it walks like a bank, talks like a bank and smells like a bank, then it’s a bank
I see so many articles with titles like: What will banks do when Amazon becomes a bank? Google to ta…
Banks waste billions on digital
How much money is wasted by banks on digital? I wonder whether, one day, anyone will work out how mu…
Banks embrace the gig economy
I just got a report from PwC and my heart sank. The headline is: Financial institutions to significa…
Digital’s impact on towns: the end of main street
I’ve had several debates about the closure of shopping malls, the end of offices and the deserted hi…
The Finanser’s Week: 15th February 2021- 21st February 2021
The main blog discussions this week include … CBDCs, the Digital Euro and how it might work I’m very…
PC Banking
I made a joke the other day about visiting PC World, and you really have to watch what you say in th…
The links between purpose, digital and leadership
As mentioned the other day, I’m focused upon purpose-driven banking these days. I guess this t…
What was that Brexit deal, again?
Britain has left the EU, but now I read headlines everywhere saying cross-border movements are impos…
Is the Crypto revolution finally underway?
I haven’t commented much on bitcoin’s (BTC) recent surge, as I’ve been watching and waiting, but it …
CBDCs, the Digital Euro and how it might work
I’m very aware that central banks are investigating the use of digital currencies, particularly as t…
The Finanser’s Week: 8th February 2021- 14th February 2021
The main blog discussions this week include … Singapore-on-the-Thames? Welcome to the new London … […
The Elephant made me sad
Sitting quietly in my room, I felt someone breathing on my neck. It was him. Y’know. The elephant. T…
The start-up I should have started
I often feel bad for not having started a FinTech start-up myself. It’s not that I haven’t thought a…
Where is the Intelligent Bank?
I wrote a blog a few days ago about money not being about jars and pots. The gist of the blog is tha…
Singapore-on-the-Thames? Welcome to the new London … [Kalifa Review]
In the midst of Brexit plans and a Covid pandemic, the UK Government launched a FinTech review chair…
The balance between data gathering and data usage
I was on a call the other day, discussing Big Data and Green Finance. It’s not an area I talk about …
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Recent Posts
Now Greenspan says subprime is unavoidable, but then …
After my write-up of Alan Greenspan’s speech at the end of last year, where he says the subprime crisis was unavoidable, I was reminded of one of my old presentations with a quote from Alan Greenspan, when he was head of the Fed back in …
Read More »We are living in a cashless society
It is interesting to think about cash and where cash is going. Can we really be cashless? The history of cash, as those who know my presentations, is that it was invented for sex. I know a lot of people don’t believe this, but the …
Read More »We are living in a cashless society
It is interesting to think about cash and where cash is going. Can we really be cashless? The history of cash, as those who know my presentations, is that it was invented for sex. I know a lot of people don’t believe this, but the …
Read More »We are living in a cashless society
It is interesting to think about cash and where cash is going. Can we really be cashless? The history of cash, as those who know my presentations, is that it was invented for sex. I know a lot of people don’t believe this, but the …
Read More »Wanna be a millionaire through social networking?
There’s a new service called Yuwie. It’s aim is to compete with Facebook and MySpace. You may say that space is full, but it’s not. The reason is that Yuwie pays the social networkers to network. Unlike Facebook and MySpace therefore, who make around $8 …
Read More »Wanna be a millionaire through social networking?
There’s a new service called Yuwie. It’s aim is to compete with Facebook and MySpace. You may say that space is full, but it’s not. The reason is that Yuwie pays the social networkers to network. Unlike Facebook and MySpace therefore, who make around $8 …
Read More »Buddy, can you spare a dime?
A whole raft of headlines over the weekend to cheer up the weary investment banker. First, there’s the news that BNP and Credit Agricole are going to fight over ownership of SocGen, after the French bank declared almost $10 billion in losses from rogue traders …
Read More »Yacrosoft?
After writing my piece on Microsoft, they announced their $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! Right or wrong choice? As I said in December, they should buy into the future and hence Facebook or something less over-valued in the Web 2.0+ world. Nearly $45 billion seems …
Read More »Yacrosoft?
After writing my piece on Microsoft, they announced their $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! Right or wrong choice? As I said in December, they should buy into the future and hence Facebook or something less over-valued in the Web 2.0+ world. Nearly $45 billion seems …
Read More »Yacrosoft?
After writing my piece on Microsoft, they announced their $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! Right or wrong choice? As I said in December, they should buy into the future and hence Facebook or something less over-valued in the Web 2.0+ world. Nearly $45 billion seems …
Read More »Finally solved my Microsoft issue
No, I haven’t thrown out the PC and bought a new one, although I’ve been seriously tempted. But I like a challenge. So, back from Asia and, after months of whinging about Vista, I’ve finally solved the biggest issue I’ve had on my shiny, new …
Read More »Finally solved my Microsoft issue
No, I haven’t thrown out the PC and bought a new one, although I’ve been seriously tempted. But I like a challenge. So, back from Asia and, after months of whinging about Vista, I’ve finally solved the biggest issue I’ve had on my shiny, new …
Read More »Finally solved my Microsoft issue
No, I haven’t thrown out the PC and bought a new one, although I’ve been seriously tempted. But I like a challenge. So, back from Asia and, after months of whinging about Vista, I’ve finally solved the biggest issue I’ve had on my shiny, new …
Read More »Finally solved my Microsoft issue
No, I haven’t thrown out the PC and bought a new one, although I’ve been seriously tempted. But I like a challenge. So, back from Asia and, after months of whinging about Vista, I’ve finally solved the biggest issue I’ve had on my shiny, new …
Read More »Please go away, the internet is broken
I rang my bank call centre today and, as usual, it was diverted to their Indian call centre. Unusually, I then got this message: "We apologise for disruption to our service, but we cannot receive your call at the moment. Please try again later". I …
Read More »SEPA today, SAPA tomorrow
Interesting to be in Asia at the moment, which is where I flew out to in case you were wondering yesterday. I’m here at a major payments conference and was sorry to miss the minor "hurrah" as SEPA went live on Monday. Whoopee-doo! Did you …
Read More »SEPA today, SAPA tomorrow
Interesting to be in Asia at the moment, which is where I flew out to in case you were wondering yesterday. I’m here at a major payments conference and was sorry to miss the minor "hurrah" as SEPA went live on Monday. Whoopee-doo! Did you …
Read More »SEPA today, SAPA tomorrow
Interesting to be in Asia at the moment, which is where I flew out to in case you were wondering yesterday. I’m here at a major payments conference and was sorry to miss the minor "hurrah" as SEPA went live on Monday. Whoopee-doo! Did you …
Read More »SEPA today, SAPA tomorrow
Interesting to be in Asia at the moment, which is where I flew out to in case you were wondering yesterday. I’m here at a major payments conference and was sorry to miss the minor "hurrah" as SEPA went live on Monday. Whoopee-doo! Did you …
Read More »Banks are just like airlines
I often hear the cry that "all banks are the same". It is true that many banks appear to have little differentiation. They are all as good or bad as each other, they all appear to compete on rates and rate churn, and they all …
Read More »A French Letter
Over the weekend, I received this strange letter in French. Now my French is not very good, so I have done my best to translate it, but I apologise if it does not read very well. Even though I am sure it is rubbish, I …
Read More »Want to see tomorrow’s technologies today?
TED is a conference that takes place once a year in the USA and is like a Davos for business. If you don’t know what TED is, then check it out here. The show is also where many of the future technologies are revealed, and …
Read More »Want to see tomorrow’s technologies today?
TED is a conference that takes place once a year in the USA and is like a Davos for business. If you don’t know what TED is, then check it out here. The show is also where many of the future technologies are revealed, and …
Read More »eBay becomes an Exchange? Not likely
There are various forecasts of the future that may be right or wrong. For example, this one’s a goodie. Called EPIC 2014, and nicknamed Googlezon, it forecasts that by 2014 the current media and news organisations are dead and gone, and Google and Amazon merge. …
Read More »eBay becomes an Exchange? Not likely
There are various forecasts of the future that may be right or wrong. For example, this one’s a goodie. Called EPIC 2014, and nicknamed Googlezon, it forecasts that by 2014 the current media and news organisations are dead and gone, and Google and Amazon merge. …
Read More »SocGen trader loses 5 billion in fictional trading
Read the announcement from Societe Generale here (six page pdf). The rogue trader lost €4.9 billion through a series of fictional transactions. Societe Generale aren’t naming him, but apparently the trader dealt in plain vanilla European stock market index futures and concealed his losses through …
Read More »SocGen trader loses 5 billion in fictional trading
Read the announcement from Societe Generale here (six page pdf). The rogue trader lost €4.9 billion through a series of fictional transactions. Societe Generale aren’t naming him, but apparently the trader dealt in plain vanilla European stock market index futures and concealed his losses through …
Read More »Global, Blogal, Social, Glocial
In this worldwide web of global wonders, I’m getting fairly cheesed off with the number of social networks I’m now getting involved with. From Facebook to LinkedIn to Plaxo to Bebo, they’re all starting to mindmeld into one. Add in Habbo Hotel, Second Life, Entropia …
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