Chris Skinner's blog

I just did an interview with LVTX about the future of payments.

Things we’re reading today include … Searching for signposts − speech by Alan Taylor, Bank of England Bank of England sees growing risk that dangers from AI and debt will materialise Bank of England warns of looming debt crisis Choosing financial stability

We have spent thirty years building an internet that is extraordinarily good at moving information and increasingly good at moving money, but remarkably bad at establishing who or what is on the other side of an interaction.

Things we’re reading today include … Tether USDT aids Iran funding, Senate report says | Reuters Former Atlanta banker arrested in $931K cryptocurrency fraud scheme Why family offices are leading institutional crypto Banks face $230bn payments hit as stab…

You are reading this as your data is harvested.

Things we’re reading today include … Foreign banks have expressed UBS merger interest, Swiss newspaper reports Buyout firm Advent eyes Monzo stake amid £10bn Nubank bid talks | Sky News Revolut gets green light to buy Argentinian bank London’s investment…

There are always two sides to a coin and, right now, the two sides of our technological future could hardly look more different.

This week’s main blog discussions include … How many employees does it take to create $1 billion of value?

I was looking at some numbers comparing the world’s biggest banks with the world’s biggest fintech firms and realised that we may have been measuring the wrong thing.

Things we’re reading today include … Revolut Wins Central Bank Approval to Acquire Argentine Bank Big Brother Watch comment on digital bank Revolut rolling out ‘pay by face’ technology Eurozone Bank Loans to Businesses Halved in August After ECB Interest…

Things we’re reading today include … AI regulation must be grounded in human rights CADA, DORA, AI Act: Can EU Banking Rules Simplify?

There is something wonderfully contradictory happening in banking right now illustrated by the main news headlines I picked out yesterday.

I asked AI to summarise the latest edition of Huawei’s financial magazine called Transform, and this is what it came back with.

MasterCard just produced an interesting range of views about the future of shopping and money using visionaries like my friend Theo Lau, who alerted me to the report.

Things we’re reading today include … Deutsche Bank estimates 30% uplift in client onboarding by deploying KYC AI Danske Bank expects further job cuts in AI push Invesco launches behavioural intelligence platform technology Banks issue urgent warning using…

Apparently, artificial intelligence is going to kill us all.

Things we’re reading today include … Kremlin-backed forgery scheme moved $6.9bn through global banks Russian fintech A7 exploited Swift controls to funnel billion of dollars in sanctioned payments ECB launches ‘Pontes’ to settle tokenised assets in central

Ten years ago, Britain voted to leave the European Union and, looking back at the extraordinary arguments surrounding that decision, it is worth asking a straightforward question: was Brexit worth it?

Things we’re reading today include … Nik Storonsky’s plan for Revolut: a global bank with ‘effectively zero risk’ Making it easy to pay for your meal with crypto U.S. seeks crypto, saying it’s from Iran oil sales to Chinese buyers How Poland lost $230mn t…

This week’s main blog discussions include … What the FinTech Book Club thinks of “Intelligent Bank” The FinTech Book Club recently devoted its discussion to my latest book Intelligent Bank, and the overall reaction was strongly positive.

The FinTech Book Club recently devoted its discussion to my latest book Intelligent Bank, and the overall reaction was strongly positive.

Things we’re reading today include … Bank of England’s QT Tweak Gives Andy Burnham’s Labour Breathing Space The Bank of England is shaking up its bond sales – why does it matter?

I have spent this week looking at the systemic implications of AI, cloud and digital currencies, but there is an obvious question left hanging over all of this.

Digital money doesn’t have a passport.

Things we’re reading today include … Senate blocks cryptocurrency regulation as Democrats push back on Trump investments NV senators voted against it, but Trump’s flagrant self-enrichment is what killed the crypto bill World’s Best Digital Banks 2026 Round

I’ve recently written quite a bit about the GENIUS Act, the GRANITE Act and the CLARITY Act in the United States.

Over the past two days, I have looked separately at two uncomfortable developments in banking.

Things we’re reading today include … Clarity Act Stalls in Senate as Crypto Bill Fails to Clear Key Vote Why Did the CLARITY Act Fail and Will Crypto Prices Crash Further?

The last global banking crisis was driven by mortgages, leverage and institutions that all believed the same thing at the same time.

Things we’re reading today include … Trump caves to tougher ethics crackdown as his crypto fortune faces scrutiny What Will XRP Be Worth by 2028?

I’ve written a lot about the Crypto President and the friction between the Trump administration’s legislation ranging from the GENIUS Act to GRANITE to CLARITY and you really could not make this stuff up.

We spent the years after the financial crisis worrying about banks that were too big to fail.

Things we’re reading today include … Nigel Farage lands record £36m donation for Reform Reform receives second £36m donation in two days as crypto investor matches record Who are Reform UK’s two mega-donors?

This week’s main blog discussions include … 25 years after 9/11: An attack on America, capitalism or the world?

I just watched Sakari Oramo conducting the Last Night of the Proms.

On Tuesday, 11th September 2001, I was flying back from Nice, France, after a conference.

Things we’re reading today include … Crypto platforms lost billions to cyberattacks, many even after audits Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, made more than $250 million through crypto investments while in government Innovate Finance report calls for…

There is a problem with the way we talk about cryptocurrency.

Three months ago, I wrote a short piece about Revolut but, since then, there has been an extraordinary amount of Revolut news: a banking licence in France; full banking status in Britain; conditional approval for a US national bank; a banking licence in A…

Things we’re reading today include … Tokenised asset use could cut UK bank collateral needs by 30% Chime to buy nationally chartered Stride Bank for $590 million, shares jump Block Pursues National Trust Bank Charter to Custody Crypto How Central Banks Can

There is something wonderfully contradictory about the British payments system.

Things we’re reading today include … Conflicts Accelerate Cryptocurrency Adoption in the Middle East Hunter Biden Launching $LAPTOP Memecoin Bitcoin hack drains $320 mn from crypto network in latest security breach HSBC and BNP Paribas Trial FX Tokenised…

There was a headline the other day that really annoyed me: Major Banks Are Racing to Appoint Chief AI Officers It annoyed me because it reveals something much deeper about how banks think.

Things we’re reading today include … China to pump $54bn into state banks and insurers to boost economy FATF exposes hawala networks fuelling money laundering Nigel Farage’s family members ‘have bank accounts frozen because of their association to him’ Mo…

This week’s main blog discussions include … The true cost of AI (Part One) There is a rather awkward conversation beginning in boardrooms about artificial intelligence.

I came across another interesting piece of proposed American legislation this week: the GRANITE Act.

Things we’re reading today include … Crypto billionaire pardoned by Trump gives Reform UK another £4m Hargreaves Lansdown opens 9 crypto ETNs to investors A Core Egyptian Bank Gets Caught Up in Treasury’s Iran Crackdown How Mollie & GoCardless are Reshapi…

Yes.

Things we’re reading today include … Netherlands bank moves billions in gold to London in ‘crisis preparedness’ move FSB Chair’s letter to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors: August 2026 European banks and private markets: Mapping the linkag…

There is a rather awkward conversation beginning in boardrooms about artificial intelligence.