Welcome to The Finanser by Chris Skinner. The Finanser discusses all things fintech, finance, banking, technology and, most importantly, the future. Chris Skinner has been voted the most influential technologist in Britain and received a lifetime achievement award for his visionary approach to the future of money from the Payments Association. He has advised the…
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We often talk about technical debt – the cost of maintaining and updating old systems to keep them operational. In most banks, this is 60% to 80% or more of annual IT budgets; in fintechs it’s less, because they have less history, but even here it is often 30% to 50% of costs. The reason?…
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There is a regular conversation about the 1% versus the 99%, so I tried to track down: who are the 1%? The numbers surprised me. According to the 2024 Global Wealth Report, the global millionaire count has soared, reaching approximately 58 million. I thought it would be more like 100 million millionaires (and probably is in reality). If…
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Some days, I sit and pray that God will give me more money, more opportunity and more hope. Luckily, now he/she/they can, thanks to the Church Bank of Greece. In an interesting move, shared with me by Arjun Vir Singh, a Partner with Arthur D. Little, the Church of Greece is opening a digital bank! The Church…
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In my presentations these days are five key themes: the fintech revolution; cryptocurrency creation; distributed ledger technology; the AI world; and quantum disruption. I could add to the list – the metaverse, 6G+, robots, etc – but these are the top five in the financial world I live in. Then, when you sit back and…
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In my presentations these days are five key themes: the fintech revolution; cryptocurrency creation; distributed ledger technology; the AI world; and quantum disruption. I could add to the list – the metaverse, 6G+, robots, etc – but these are the top five in the financial world I live in. Then, when you sit back and…
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I was talking to a wealth management startup the other day, and they showed me an aggregation service that can harvest all of your physical, digital and emotional assets, combined with a death management service that alerts your key people to all the things they need to know to find those assets when you die….
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On my LinkedIn stream, I’ve been getting more and more alerts about malpractices at Stripe. That surprises me as they are the poster child of fintech, so I investigated and found that most of my feed was being filled by one Brad Harrington, a young self-employed entrepreneur who graduated from the University of Michigan in…
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I got hauled up for being a Musk hater the other day which, to be clear, I am not. It’s purely that he is the richest man in the world and the most powerful, even more powerful than Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, so the media hate him. As we are fed daily media updates…
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Cryptoassets, smart contracts, stablecoins, tokenisation and the two different types of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – retail CBDCs and wholesale CBDCs. The world of finance and technology is quite confusing. Add onto this AI, APIs, BNPL, blockchain (Layer 1 and Layer 2), DLT [distributed-ledger technology], machine learning and more, and you get the idea….
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Been having lots of conversations about digital identities and digital wallets lately. It is a theme that has been bubbling for years, yet seem to now be coming to a head. From the EU Digital Wallet and Identity program to India’s Aadhaar and UPI to Brazil’s Pix, there’s definitely something afoot. The core of the…
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There have been many headlines over the years, with recent ones talking about saving septillion years using quantum computing and mapping a fruit fly’s brain that previously would have taken thousands of years using AI. No wonder businesses are keen on AI. So it’s weird that, according to Microsoft, half of UK businesses have no idea…
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I just got an interesting report from Visa produced in late 2024. It is focused upon consumers, and their approach to cross-border payments. The research shows that the cross-border payment market is experiencing explosive growth, fuelled by a surge in international travel, ecommerce, and remittances. Consumers are spending more regularly cross-border than ever before and…
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On the Finanser, we often talk about Stripe, as their valuation is the highest of all fintechs. In case you missed it, their peak valuation was in 2021 at $95 billion; it then nearly halved but, over the past year, has bounced back to a valuation today of $91 billion. Interestingly, according to their annual newsletter,…
Read MoreWe often talk about technical debt – the cost of maintaining and updating old systems to keep them operational. In most banks, this is 60% to 80% or more of annual IT budgets; in fintechs it’s less, because they have less history, but even here it is often 30% to 50% of costs. The reason?…
Read MoreSome days, I sit and pray that God will give me more money, more opportunity and more hope. Luckily, now he/she/they can, thanks to the Church Bank of Greece. In an interesting move, shared with me by Arjun Vir Singh, a Partner with Arthur D. Little, the Church of Greece is opening a digital bank! The Church…
Read MoreIn my presentations these days are five key themes: the fintech revolution; cryptocurrency creation; distributed ledger technology; the AI world; and quantum disruption. I could add to the list – the metaverse, 6G+, robots, etc – but these are the top five in the financial world I live in. Then, when you sit back and…
Read MoreEvery day there are more and more headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) AI and its impact on life, the world and the future. The latest one is a good one, which is AI is creating more jobs than replacing them! This comes from the World Economic Forum, whose latest report forecasts that, over the next five…
Read MoreI was talking to a wealth management startup the other day, and they showed me an aggregation service that can harvest all of your physical, digital and emotional assets, combined with a death management service that alerts your key people to all the things they need to know to find those assets when you die….
Read More
In a reflection of the times we live in, Hasbro announced a new version of Monopoly the other day with no cash and no banker, but a focus upon a digital wallet. It should be available from most major retailers in August 2025. Spotting the announcement my friend (1) Post | LinkedIn says that the…
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I’ve been talking a lot about bank IT outages lately, as you can hear here on the BBC! Tech Life – Surviving digital banking outages – BBC Sounds Why? Because they are becoming more and more common and frequent: Big bank systems crashed for over 800 hours in last two years due to IT outages More…
Read MoreCryptoassets, smart contracts, stablecoins, tokenisation and the two different types of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – retail CBDCs and wholesale CBDCs. The world of finance and technology is quite confusing. Add onto this AI, APIs, BNPL, blockchain (Layer 1 and Layer 2), DLT [distributed-ledger technology], machine learning and more, and you get the idea….
Read MoreBeen having lots of conversations about digital identities and digital wallets lately. It is a theme that has been bubbling for years, yet seem to now be coming to a head. From the EU Digital Wallet and Identity program to India’s Aadhaar and UPI to Brazil’s Pix, there’s definitely something afoot. The core of the…
Read More
There’s a brand new book on the block, which I wish I had written: who is Satoshi Nakamoto? It’s actually not called that. It’s called: The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto: A Fifteen-Year Quest to Unmask the Secret Genius Behind Crypto by Benjamin Wallace, but you get the idea. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin…
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I just downloaded the Chainalysis annual cryptocrime report and, as usual, it is fascinating. Ask almost any politician or banker about cryptocurrencies and they’ll say they all encourage crime except Donald Trump, but that’s because he is supposedly a criminal. Here is a synopsis of the report taken from their introduction: According to our metrics…
Read MoreCryptoassets, smart contracts, stablecoins, tokenisation and the two different types of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – retail CBDCs and wholesale CBDCs. The world of finance and technology is quite confusing. Add onto this AI, APIs, BNPL, blockchain (Layer 1 and Layer 2), DLT [distributed-ledger technology], machine learning and more, and you get the idea….
Read More
Not sure if you noticed, but this week the U.S. Congress House Committee on Financial Services had a day investigating stablecoins, led by Chairman French Hill. The hearing was entitled ‘Navigating the Digital Payments Ecosystem: Examining a Federal Framework for Payment Stablecoins and Consequences of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency’ , and invited various…
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As many of you will have gathered, the next new book is all about Digital Trust in a Deep Fake World, coming out summer 2026 (I’m working on it now), so I was interested to see two fraud reports from by veriff, the AI-driven identity verification company, this morning. Released today, the reports show fraud…
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The trade tariff war that Donald Trump introduced on March 3rd has created a situation where the world is at war. Trade war. China responded by saying that they would hit back by imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products but, more importantly, have said that they are ready for war … any sort of…
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As Donald Trump orders creation of a strategic cryptocurrency reserve for the USA, North Korea is working hard to hack it. This is demonstrated by the biggest theft of all time – $1.5 billion – by the North Korean Lazarus Group from Bybit. How could this happen? Well, Chainalysis breaks it down nicely into a step-by-step…
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It is a wild ride with cryptocurrencies. Rising rapidly with Trump’s presidential campaign – after all, he is the crypto President! – things have gone south badly in the last week. It’s kind of that crescendo from zero to hero to zero again. The rises and falls in cryptocurrency values are a real rollercoaster. For…
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After many years we have had many discussions of many countries and many banks talking about launching many central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Today, only three countries have a live CBDC: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria. Doesn’t that feel a bit strange? Well, most governments are experimenting with CBDCs and SWIFT, to retain their control…
Read MoreEvery day there are more and more headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) AI and its impact on life, the world and the future. The latest one is a good one, which is AI is creating more jobs than replacing them! This comes from the World Economic Forum, whose latest report forecasts that, over the next five…
Read MoreI was thinking about a future where everything is embedded everywhere, intelligent and sentient. What would a day of my financial life look like in 2050? 2050 is a long way away, but here is the scenario. By 2050: currencies have moved from fiat to digital; technology has moved from physical devices to integrated with…
Read MoreYour bed wakes you automatically through a system of gentle vibrating, rocking motions with the gradual introduction of light, simulating sunrise. As your eyes open, the bed slowly drops to the floor. You then enter the bathroom which automatically adjusts to your favourite settings from the room temperature to music and coloured lighting, from the…
Read MoreI got hauled up for being a Musk hater the other day which, to be clear, I am not. It’s purely that he is the richest man in the world and the most powerful, even more powerful than Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, so the media hate him. As we are fed daily media updates…
Read MoreBeen having lots of conversations about digital identities and digital wallets lately. It is a theme that has been bubbling for years, yet seem to now be coming to a head. From the EU Digital Wallet and Identity program to India’s Aadhaar and UPI to Brazil’s Pix, there’s definitely something afoot. The core of the…
Read More
I was watching The Apprentice the other night, and the task was to create a children’s bank for 6-9 year olds. The contestants had to work together to create an app and piggy bank, and then pitch it to senior investors from Go Henry, Monzo and TSB. It was a disaster. In fact, the team…
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We just had the annual Oscar jamboree and congratulations to Anora for its five Oscars, and particular respect to Sean Baker who picked up four personally, something that’s never been achieved before. But Hollywood has an issue. No one knows where the money goes. I’ve just joined some friends to fix that. It came around…
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Microsoft just unveiled a new chip called Majorana1 that it says will enable the creation of quantum computers able to solve “meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades”. Two months ago Google unveiled Willow, a chip that “can reduce errors exponentially as we scale up using more qubits” and can process a computation “in under five minutes…
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I find times interesting, as so many fintechs had an amazing ride in the 2010s but, in the 2020s, it seems not. Fintech took a hammering in 2023 with investing down 48% compared to 2022, which was also a bad year … … and now we move into 2025 and reflect on 2024 where it…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … What went wrong between Cryptocurrency influencer Tiffany Fong and Elon Musk after Musk ‘proposed’ her to be mother of his baby Bank of England highlights risks of AI, but keeps being ‘reactive’ BBVA backs UK fintech Plum with £15m in first UK financing deal Singapore Tightens Liquidity Rules For…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: Wall Street banks reap $37bn from Trump trading boom ‘House of Commons cryptocurrency’ promoted in Twitter hack Cryptocurrency: Why Commonwealth Bank made an accountant sell his bitcoin at a loss Europe’s fastest growing start-up Allica Bank delivers another record year UK challenger bank targets US’s mid-tier banking sector with tech…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … How a handful of traders caused the collapse of two cryptocurrencies Critics slam deregulation of crypto as Trump family expands its footprint in industry Standard Chartered and OKX launch crypto collateral pilot Judge orders Bank of America to pay $540 million in FDIC lawsuit | Reuters London banking jobs…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Crypto scams surge in Israel as AI tech fuels sophisticated fraud Professor Coin: What’s Driving Cryptocurrency Adoption Around the World – Decrypt Bitcoin king: Why is Bhutan betting on crypto? | Business and Economy News | Al Jazeera The Bizarre Origins Of Bitcoin FinTech IPO Index Surges Nearly 14%,…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … AI will create 170 million jobs while replacing 92 million … the question is: what jobs? Every day there are more and more headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) AI and its impact on life, the world and the future. The latest one is a good one, which is…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Cryptocurrency fraud unit shut down by Justice Department Kraken partners Mastercard to enable crypto payments for UK and European users Cryptocurrency market declines 4.4% amid trade tensions Fintech founder charged with fraud after ‘AI’ shopping app found to be powered by humans in the Philippines | TechCrunch Credit Strategy…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Financial Stability in Focus: Artificial intelligence in the financial system | Bank of England Bank of England says AI software could create market crisis for profit Trump’s trade war risks global financial crisis, Bank of England warns Deutsche Bank: The market has ‘lost faith’ in US assets Lloyds Banking…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank of America to Spend $4B on AI and New Tech Initiatives Trading Insights: How the Bank of England harnesses AI and data Supervisors monitoring tariffs impact on banks, no liquidity problems yet, Bank of Spain says | Reuters Barclays ditches gender and ethnicity targets in US | Barclays…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … AI will create 170 million jobs while replacing 92 million … the question is: what jobs? Every day there are more and more headlines about artificial intelligence (AI) AI and its impact on life, the world and the future. The latest one is a good one, which is…
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This week’s main blog discussions include … #Stripe’s policy: by raising risk, you become risk (#RDR) On my LinkedIn stream, I’ve been getting more and more alerts about malpractices at Stripe. That surprises me as they are the poster child of fintech, so I investigated and found that most of my feed was being filled…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Bank IT outages … let’s talk about the bank systems Jenga I’ve been talking a lot about bank IT outages lately, as you can hear here on the BBC! Tech Life – Surviving digital banking outages – BBC Sounds Why? Because they are becoming more and more common and…
Read MoreThe main blog discussions this week include … Is the use of cash a fundamental human right? We are moving rapidly to a world without cash. In fact, the phrase war on cash was coined (coins?) by the card companies years ago. The aim was to get everyone moving to cards, not cash. It’s now…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … You and your digital twin are in danger A phrase that’s been rising recently is digital twin. My definition of a digital twin is not the same as others. I would define a digital twin as the digital version of you or your organisation. Over time, you build…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Trump’s secret strategy to replace the US dollar with bitcoin? The trade tariff war that Donald Trump introduced on March 3rd has created a situation where the world is at war. Trade war. China responded by saying that they would hit back by imposing 10-15% tariffs on US…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … European regulation strangulation, part 2 America innovates, China replicates and Europe regulates I often find the maze of European regulations hard to follow and track. It’s ok if you’re tracking one – like that Payment Service Directives and Regulations – but when you’re trying to track many, it’s…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Why are CBDCs not working? After many years we have had many discussions of many countries and many banks talking about launching many central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Today, only three countries have a live CBDC: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria. Doesn’t that feel a bit strange? Well,…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Is BaaS dead? I see a lot of people writing that Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) is dead. That saddens me a little, as I created the term twenty years ago – have I mentioned this before? – but I agree. It is now past its prime. It was replaced by open…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Elon Musk now controls the American payments system I feel like a continual splurge of Musk is happening, ever since Donald Trump became President, but the latest is really interesting as Elon Musk is now in control of the Treasury department payments system that runs America. The challenges of…
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