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 »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 …
The Finanser’s Week: 1st February 2021- 7th February 2021
The main blog discussions this week include … The youngsters bucking up the stock markets (that’s bu…
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Recent Posts
Tony Blair’s new job is with JPMorgan
News just in that Tony Blair’s first job since being dumped (ed: leaving office) is with JPMorgan as an advisor. Wonder when JPM will invade (ed: open a branch in) Iraq then? Oh, they already have.
Read More »Bank of America: the best electronic bank in the world?
Interesting research from Keynote Systems has just been released evaluating website experiences for online banking services in the US and the UK. The researchers evaluate all sorts of stuff from load handling, response times, average site downtime, brand impact, ease of customer acquisition, customer satisfaction, …
Read More »New year, new stock – Google? IBM? Which tech?
I thought I should balance the books after picking on Citi, SocGen and HSBC yesterday by performing a quick look at the IT industry using Yahoo’s message boards, another favourite. I love the message boards of Yahoo for seeing what investors really think about …
Read More »New year, new stock – Google? IBM? Which tech?
I thought I should balance the books after picking on Citi, SocGen and HSBC yesterday by performing a quick look at the IT industry using Yahoo’s message boards, another favourite. I love the message boards of Yahoo for seeing what investors really think about …
Read More »The future iPod is a credit card
Fantastic news from South Korea. Kookmin Bank and Samsung have joined together to develop the world’s first music and video, MP3 and MP4 playing credit card. Who needs an iPod?
Read More »New year, new job – SocGen? Citi? Which bank …
Many of us start the new year looking for a new job, so I thought I’d dive into the wonderful website The Vault and see who’s hot and who’s not. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever explored The Vault, but it’s a good place …
Read More »New year, new job – SocGen? Citi? Which bank …
Many of us start the new year looking for a new job, so I thought I’d dive into the wonderful website The Vault and see who’s hot and who’s not. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever explored The Vault, but it’s a good place …
Read More »Five firm predictions for 2008
Welcome to 2008 folks, and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. I did … but what goes on at Xmas, stays in Xmas as they say (hic!). Anyways, a year ago, I made a bunch of forecasts for the year 2007. This …
Read More »Five firm predictions for 2008
Welcome to 2008 folks, and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. I did … but what goes on at Xmas, stays in Xmas as they say (hic!). Anyways, a year ago, I made a bunch of forecasts for the year 2007. This …
Read More »Five firm predictions for 2008
Welcome to 2008 folks, and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. I did … but what goes on at Xmas, stays in Xmas as they say (hic!). Anyways, a year ago, I made a bunch of forecasts for the year 2007. This …
Read More »Five firm predictions for 2008
Welcome to 2008 folks, and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. I did … but what goes on at Xmas, stays in Xmas as they say (hic!). Anyways, a year ago, I made a bunch of forecasts for the year 2007. This …
Read More »Trust Your Bank? An FT Writer Has Doubts About JPMC
Gary Silverman, the FT’s US news editor, wrote a column about his surprise to find he and his wife each had a $119.99 charge from TLG Hotline on their JP Morgan Chase credit cards. "We pay our cards automatically, and I don’t always examine the …
Read More »ING – Doing Some Thing(s) Very Well
Probably it’s just a coincidence that ING has two longish stories in the 4 January FT – one an innovative management framework from Bain that helps the bank keep its international operations in synch and another on how the bank is quietly extending its global …
Read More »A Brilliant New Concept for Banks — Think About Customers
Way back in mid-December Chris Skinner did a review of retail banking. Here’s an idea he may have overlooked — think about how customers actually use your bank, and for American banks, offer some support for people who work internationally. My personal example, if you …
Read More »A Brilliant New Concept for Banks — Think About Customers
Way back in mid-December Chris Skinner did a review of retail banking. Here’s an idea he may have overlooked — think about how customers actually use your bank, and for American banks, offer some support for people who work internationally. My personal example, if you …
Read More »A Brilliant New Concept for Banks — Think About Customers
Way back in mid-December Chris Skinner did a review of retail banking. Here’s an idea he may have overlooked — think about how customers actually use your bank, and for American banks, offer some support for people who work internationally. My personal example, if you …
Read More »Mint Takes on Microsoft Money and Intuit’s Quicken
Plus it’s free, and Web-based. Mint allows users to automatically track and analyze their financial transactions, set budgets, and even send balance updates in text messages to cell phones. From the Forbes interview with its 26-year old founder, Aaron Patzer: “The average user, when they …
Read More »Microsoft in 2008 — The Predictions
Despite Chris Skinner’s prediction, in an intelligently provocative recent piece, that 2007 was the year that Microsoft committed suicide, even he didn’t say the process would be quick – he predicted the company’s first lost to appear in 2012. …
Read More »FT Business Book of Next Year?
I know we aren’t quite to 2008, but I wanted to get a jump on the FT’s nominating committee with "Options, the secret life of Steve Jobs." Written by Fake Steve Jobs, who produces the wonderful Fake Steve blog and by day uses the name …
Read More »FT Business Book of Next Year?
I know we aren’t quite to 2008, but I wanted to get a jump on the FT’s nominating committee with "Options, the secret life of Steve Jobs." Written by Fake Steve Jobs, who produces the wonderful Fake Steve blog and by day uses the name …
Read More »FT Business Book of Next Year?
I know we aren’t quite to 2008, but I wanted to get a jump on the FT’s nominating committee with "Options, the secret life of Steve Jobs." Written by Fake Steve Jobs, who produces the wonderful Fake Steve blog and by day uses the name …
Read More »FT Business Book of Next Year?
I know we aren’t quite to 2008, but I wanted to get a jump on the FT’s nominating committee with "Options, the secret life of Steve Jobs." Written by Fake Steve Jobs, who produces the wonderful Fake Steve blog and by day uses the name …
Read More »Merry Christmas or Season’s Greetings
Merry Christmas or Season’s Greetings, depending upon your personal preference. To finish 2007, I thought I’d share with you a few of my nice little collection of Christmas ecards: SWIFT Eiger Systems LogicaCMG Sybase Diamond Consultants Vocalink If I missed you out, it’s either because: …
Read More »2007 in review: Corporate needs and Mobile Payments
From a technology perspective, I think 2007 has seen the biggest changes in the payments world. From mobile and contactless payments proving themselves to come of age, to new currencies in the form of Linden dollars and Chinese QQ, to corporates demanding change, to new …
Read More »2007 in review: Corporate needs and Mobile Payments
From a technology perspective, I think 2007 has seen the biggest changes in the payments world. From mobile and contactless payments proving themselves to come of age, to new currencies in the form of Linden dollars and Chinese QQ, to corporates demanding change, to new …
Read More »2007 in review: Corporate needs and Mobile Payments
From a technology perspective, I think 2007 has seen the biggest changes in the payments world. From mobile and contactless payments proving themselves to come of age, to new currencies in the form of Linden dollars and Chinese QQ, to corporates demanding change, to new …
Read More »2007 in review: Corporate needs and Mobile Payments
From a technology perspective, I think 2007 has seen the biggest changes in the payments world. From mobile and contactless payments proving themselves to come of age, to new currencies in the form of Linden dollars and Chinese QQ, to corporates demanding change, to new …
Read More »2007 in review: Corporate needs and Mobile Payments
From a technology perspective, I think 2007 has seen the biggest changes in the payments world. From mobile and contactless payments proving themselves to come of age, to new currencies in the form of Linden dollars and Chinese QQ, to corporates demanding change, to new …
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