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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Building on my recent blogs about Don Tramp’s love of crypto, he has now allegedly launched a joint meme coin with Vlamadir Punit, a Ruskian. The meme coin is called Pump, a reference to Punit and Tramp. Little was known about the background to the coin until it was launched this morning but, in a…
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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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This 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…
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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 More
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…
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….
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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…
Read More
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,…
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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…
Read More
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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I don’t like lists. Most are subjective, incorrect and silly. Nevertheless I decided to make a list today of the greatest fintech firms in the world. It is purely from a personal perspective and nothing to do with valuation, relationships or brown envelopes, although the latter is always welcome. So here it is: Chris Skinner’s Top…
Read MoreI’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 MoreThere 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…
Read MoreI 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…
Read MoreAs 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…
Read More
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 up a complete digital profile. It can be anything from the holistic version of you…
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On Friday, for the second month running, UK banks payment systems were down. Last month it was Barclays. This month, it is Lloyds, TSB and Nationwide, and probably more. The issue is a joint one: there is no branch anymore and online help services continually tell you that you are 19th in the queue, and…
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I recently came into some funds and, being conscious of the financial services compensation scheme (FSCS) limiting bank insurances of deposit accounts to £85,000 (€100,000 EU; $250,000 USA) have had to open new accounts to move things around. In general, the remote account opening experience with newer neobanks is pretty good. On the other hand,…
Read MoreI 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…
Read MoreAs 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…
Read More
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…
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A quantum financial system, or QFS for short Maybe it’s the way my feeds are set up, but every day seems like a headline about cryptocurrency and AI these days. Take my daily things worth reading, and here’s a few examples just from last Monday. On crypto: Trump orders crypto working group to draft new…
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 MoreI 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…
Read More
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 MoreAfter 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 More
Almost every day these days is an AI headline, but this video really struck me. It is showing the selfies we would have taken in historical times: Can you imagine? The reason it struck me is that you have to wonder today what is real online and what is not. The more our networked system…
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I shared a post the other day by Usman Sheikh, a serial investor based in Dubai. The post is asking the question whether AI can replace consultants although, to be more pointed, specifically McKinsey. How could that happen? McKinsey have the best and brightest minds in the world: they only hire graduates at the top of…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Bank Issues April Fool’s Day Fraud Warning Meet the UK and Ireland’s fastest-growing fintechs by revenue | Sifted The Prudential Regulation Authority proposes raising FSCS deposit protection limit to £110,000 | Bank of England Former Barclays chief Jenkins weighs sale of fintech 10X How to use Russia’s central bank…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Zilch Declared Fastest Growing Fintech In UK Monzo, Starling, Zilch: The fintech IPOs that could boost London JPMorgan people lament “noisy” office, Revolut staff flaunt working by the beach The use and abuse of investment bank bonuses China’s 4 top state-owned banks to raise US$72 billion from stock sales…
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 MoreThings we’re reading today include … Trump’s top officials ‘have passwords leaked’ Jack Dorsey’s fintech venture lays off nearly 1,000 over email How Gen Z and Millennials Are Reshaping the Fintech Industry Bank payday outages ‘will absolutely happen again’ Japan to limit cash withdrawals and bank transfers for elderly people to stop scammers Farage attacks…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Stablecoin surge: Reserve-backed cryptocurrencies are on the rise | World Economic Forum What we know about Trump family’s plan to sell a new cryptocurrency Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account – The White House Orange finally peels open mobile-only bank TrueLayer integrates with Starling Bank for Open…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include: Investor makes a stand against digital banking Globalisation may have run its course in current form, says HSBC chair Ant Group reduces AI costs 20% with Chinese chips Solaris Investor SBI Completes Ownership Process Bailey warns tariffs and ageing population are threat to Britain Top 500 Banking Brands | Brand…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … America’s rich scramble to open Swiss bank accounts over Trump fears Alibaba-affiliate Ant uses Chinese, U.S. chips to cut AI costs Fintech can be a powerhouse helping to drive the UK’s economic growth Interim SEC chief cast sole vote against suing Musk How banks can boost productivity through simplification…
Read MoreThings we’re reading today include … Why Is Everyone Investing in Indian Fintech? Will London take New York’s fintech crown? Analysis-Klarna IPO filing spurs hope of British fintech listings These fintech companies are hiring in 2025 after a turbulent year | TechCrunch ‘The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto’ Review: Cryptocurrency’s Ghostly Creator – WSJ $250 Million Bitcoin…
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…
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This 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…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Five key impacts of #Brexit five years on Five years ago, on 31 January 2020, the UK left the European Union. BBC Verify, the BBC’s fact checking service, just wrote a really interesting report on the impact. They cite analysis in five key areas: trade, immigration, travel, laws…
Read MoreThis week’s main blog discussions include … Digital Trust: How do you know you are you? For many years now, we have been talking about digital identity. The core is how to prove you are you. You have to be identified, verified, authenticated and approved. You would think with so many layers of monitoring access…
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