I just love this paragraph from Bretts latest post over at Finextra.  It says so much at so many levels about America. USA – world’s largest closed loop payments system? Last year Celent reported that fully two thirds of cheques written globally are still written in the United States. At a time when the world is accelerating towards faster payments, the US has been reinforcing Check21 and propping up a system that was popularized in the 1950s. When put to a vote recently the US banking community voted down the Expedited Processing and Settlement (EPS) initiative at NACHA which would … Continue reading Cheques, Miles, Gallons and mag stripes – US just left behind by North Korea as the last non EMV (Chip) card country

A simple fact.  The average monthly US deficit is slightly over $50 bn.  That is the number which will automatically have to be cut from daily expenses as the post October 17th debt ceiling is reached.  To place that in context, US spends $3.5 Tn annually or $292 Bn per month on average.  A forced reduction of $50 Bn would represent a 17% expense reduction.  Translate that into your business – aside from how anyone feels about the politics, the impact is catastrophic economically and would force a recession and worse in terms of social unrest.  That is the state … Continue reading The Debt Ceiling Economic Impact Reality is Enormous

Finextra notes that the recent BofE Financial Policy Committee meeting minutes are concerned about cyber attacks and require a plan from Banks by March 2014.  Really? Britain’s banks told to draw up cyber-attack plans Britain’s financial institutions must put concrete plans in place over the next few months to deal with the growing threat of cyber-attacks, the Bank of England has warned. I had to go back and double check the meeting minutes for myself.  Cyber attacks and Ddos are hardly new, and banks have their own plans in place today.  However when I read the minutes there is a … Continue reading Due to the high degree of interconnectedness of financial system BofE requires cyber attack plans to be drawn up

When high powered MBA’s and Investment bankers get together to describe modern internet companys at IPO time there is an almost surreal absurdness which appears in placing the new company in context for waiting investors.  I know because it’s a technique I admit to having used as many of you have.  You are taking something new and attempting to frame it in context of how this shiny new thing fits into the grand plan. (I now officially hate Scoble for making me hate my previously favourite word) The following is the MBA version of Twitter in context of how it’s … Continue reading Twitter S-1 outlines “The Evolution of Content Creation”

Blackberry has a single unfinanced offer on the table from Fairfax.  Prem Watsa is contributing only the stock he owns, worth about $500M with the remainder of the offer i.e. $4.2Bn with no backer. Then today this from the FT speaks about the trend of the last couple of years of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).  The article cites Credit Suisse and the massive shift away from Blackberry already which even surprised me.  BlackBerry suffers as banks switch handsets The number of BlackBerry phones used by Credit Suisse employees, for example, has more than halved from a high of more … Continue reading This Parrot is dead, gone to meet his maker …

I have been backing off on comments about the banking system, because that’s not really what my blog is about.  But once in a while I just can’t resist. There just has to be more going on with regard to the disconnect between the markets and the Central Bankers.  Basically it goes like this: Central Bankers:  The economy of our country and of the world has not returned to normal employment, growth and inflation therefore QE must continue. Markets:  There is no way “printing money” can continue because there is no ‘soft landing” to be had.  Therefore QE must stop … Continue reading Reading the mixed messages of the week from the US Fed and markets

NFC has been out there and few are adopting it.  Now we learn that iOS 7 has BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) which is a low battery usage Bluetooth.  Next Apple and Paypal are planning to use this new protocol for payments. PayPal and Apple drop mobile payments bombshells Apple has included what is coming to be known as “beacon” technology in its new iOS 7 mobile operating system, which rolls out Sept. 18. Called iBeacon, it uses Bluetooth Low Energy wireless technology, like PayPal Beacon, and can be incorporated into apps. Stores plug in sensors that constantly look for iBeacon-enabled … Continue reading The beginning of the end for interchange and bank payment systems