I was quite intrigued to hear a speech by Ben Ramsden, Founder and CEO of Pants to Poverty. Ben's talk was all about social business which, when combined with social finance, creates a completely different and new form of commerce that, if the next generation has any say, will compete with and potentially merge with…
Some folks are aware that I co-founded the website Shaping Tomorrow and have a passion for all things in the future. This is because the future is the only thing we cannot know, but we can shape the future and take advantage of opportunities if we spot them before everyone else. So I was fascinated…
Much of last week was focused on the Long Now and Long Finance for me. Working with a group of thought leaders that included Venessa Miemis, Thierry Touchais, John Hagel, Stefan Nusser, Michael Mainelli, Paul Saffo, Bruce Davis, Brett King, Nova Spivack and more, we debated big topic items all week. And yes, there were…
As mentioned the other day, we are asking some big ticket long-term questions at SIBOS this year, such as: When will we know that financial systems work? How will we know when financial risk is not an issue anymore? What will America and Europe be doing when the economic power balance has shifted to Asia?…
Jane wakes to the sound of Michael Bublé on her wristband communicator (a 4G broadband videostrap). She washes and has breakfast before skipping out of the house and onto the metro. As she enters the station, her communicator flags to the metro system that “Jane Smith” has passed through the doors. She reads the paper…
I interviewed good friend Brett King last week, author of Bank 2.0, and here’s a podcast that some Finanser readers might enjoy: Download Brett King Podcast (right-click link to save file) Brett King from Chris Skinner on Vimeo. Note that I started by trying to bait Brett a little bit by being a technology and…
Many interesting, weird and wonderful things drop into my inbox, Facebook newsfeed and twitter status updates. Take yesterday. I was sent: a copy of the BBA’s Annual Abstract of Banking Statistics, lots of notes from my accountant, various invites to press shindigs, a note from FatBoy Slim, who is an England groupie at the World…
Spent a lot of time yesterday talking with folks about the future of money, payments and banking. The conversation got interesting in two particular areas: branches and mobile services. This is because I realised some things. Take branches. There appears to be an evolution of branch usage from underbanked economies through emerging economies to developed…
