In his keynote at FIN42, author and fintech expert Chris Skinner pointed out our attachment to both finance and technology.
Here are some of the highlights:
“Most of the banks have been built for physical distribution of paper in the industrial era,” Skinner said. “Now we are in digital age that deals with the distribution of data. That’s why money is meaningless. It is no longer a physical asset, it is a digital asset.”
“We are living in a massive revolution of humanity, which is a fundamental revolution,” Skinner argued. “It’s not banking as usual just with technology making it faster and cheaper. It’s actually a complete reconstruction of the whole banking system.”In a digital world, he believes that we are seeing a complete reconstruction of the banking system.
“Historically, in the industrial era, the big banks controlled the whole of that value chain and tried to do all of it,” Skinner explained. “They each do it quite well in some areas, but are average in others, and in some cases they do it really badly.”
“The bank’s job, in my view, is to curate the marketplace of specialists, who do one thing brilliantly well, and bring them to me,” he said. “I don’t have the time to integrate a thousand application programming interfaces to build my own bank. I want the bank to bring the best to me and build a bank for me.”
“My problem with most banks is that when I walk into the boardroom I am greeted by a group of old men,” said Skinner. “It doesn’t have diversity, it doesn’t have youth, it doesn’t have many females, it doesn’t have a lot of vitality.”
Learn more about it from Chris’ blog here.
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog the Finanser. Here he regularly discusses key issues and opportunities in banking and financial services, summarising research, white papers and other analysis that is topical for the day. He is also the author of eight books covering everything from European regulations in banking through the credit crisis to the future of banking.
When he’s not travelling and delivering keynote speeches, Chris chairs the European networking forum the Financial Services Club, which he founded in 2004. The Financial Services Club is a network for financial professionals, and focuses on the future of financial services through the delivery of research, analysis, commentary and debate and has regular meetings in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Vienna.
He is also Chief Executive of Balatro Ltd, a research company, and a co-founder of the website Shaping Tomorrow.
Chris regularly in various media including the BBC, Bloomberg and Sky News, and is a Judge on many awards programs including the Card Awards and the Asian Banker’s Retail Excellence Awards, as well as having worked = closely with leading banks such as HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank and Société Générale, as well as the World Economic Forum.
Chris Skinner‘s speaking topics include:
- Branchless Banking and a Cashless Society: fact or fiction?
- Why banking will disappear but banks will not … well, not all of them
- Are Bankers Good or Bad for Society?
- Money is meaningless
- The similarities between banks and landmines
Contact us if you would like to have Chris Skinner at your next FinTech event.