Christopher Swanson

As a Vice President in U.S. Bank’s Innovation Research & Development practice, Chris Swanson is an expert in creating new revenue streams and pioneering new market entries. Chris’ financial services background includes product development and management, digital strategy, data analytics and small business banking. A business creative and product designer with 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, Chris is responsible for discovery, design, and development of emerging fintech experiences, technology evangelism and venture partnering, in addition to leading the bank’s blockchain/distributed ledger practice.

Chris brings a technical, commercial and philosophical perspective to blockchain. He can articulate how it works in everyday language, offer real-world use cases where it is being tested and applied, and discuss benefits and potential pitfalls as it is scaled. Perhaps unlike others in the financial services industry, he believes blockchain’s greatest value will be outside banking, and has given considerable thought to how it may affect adjacent industries such as healthcare, insurance and government. His analogy: most people first logged on to the Internet in the 90s for email and chat rooms—awesome and totally different, but in hindsight twenty years on, pretty vanilla. Blockchain for banking is like email; blockchain for everything else is like Netflix.

He is a graduate of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota with an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Hamline University.