Dave writes up the latest on card fraud in Europe and UK and touches on the US.  As Simon points out in the comments, its a chilling read, and highlights that the slow and gradual shift to secure cards and terminals is just wrong.  I have similar worries for North America as US sticks to mag stripe, and Canada to chip and mag stripe combined.  The opportunities for criminals are simply too great. I didn’t want to write about fraud yet again, but… | Digital Money Forum Total card fraud last year was UKP 535 million (about a billion dollars) … Continue reading The problem with card fraud is getting worse

In some refreshingly positive news, Jim at Netbanker highlights the new aggregation service, for ANZ Bank in Australia.   Click through for details, and screenshots. ANZ Bank Brings Account Aggregation to Australia; Introduces Robot Mascot Qi | Netbanker It turns out to be Qi (pronounced “key”), the robot mascot for Yodlee’s latest aggregation client, Australia’s ANZ Bank, which launched that day (press release). The new service is called MoneyManager(see screenshot below; note 1). Technorati Tags: netbanker,ANZ Bank Continue reading ANZ Bank Brings Account Aggregation to Australia | Netbanker

There is a lot of news and mixed messages appearing.  I noted somewhere that the government would take a back seat to company operations despite the ownership of the banks.  The news and the messages are rapidly being overtaken by facts as complete nationalisation is now being spoken about in the UK. Government to take majority stake in RBS | Sunday Telegraph Treasury sources confirmed that the Government had drawn up plans to take on a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and big holdings in Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Barclays under its £500bn plan to bail out the … Continue reading Strange and sad days for banks, and customers

I was looking at the top posts on this blog, and this one on a McKinsey publication from 2006 ranks 7th.  Interesting, because I posted it in Sep 2006. The title [Profiting from Proliferation] is a bit abstract but the topic of customer segmentation could not be more relevant for today.  Some people are thinking about customers, because its the 7th top post.  Yet could banks be any more internally focussed today?  Its improbable that could be the case.  Which banks will break out of the internally focussed syndrome, and think about customers? Continue reading Which banks will break out and think about customers?

Confidence in financial institutions has been shaken, and the rules for regaining confidence are not clear.  Part of the reason that the road ahead is unclear, is because the rules have changed.  Its not uncommon for people to suggest that banks don’t ‘get it’, however in fairness to all concerned the new rules are not always clear. One side outcome from the financial headlines has been to isolate some clear rules that anyone can follow, including Banks.  These posts deal with some of the issues for banks, and any company to consider.  Incidentally, this is the heart of step 1 … Continue reading Banks | Today is the perfect day to start a blog – begin the conversation with your customers

Hard hitting but very relevant post from John over at Socialmediatoday.  The current issues with Banks highlights the lack of credibility in traditional style advertising.  And its not just advertising, its the entire corporate presence.    AIG webs site says this: The industry’s most prominent independent ratings agencies continue to recognize growth in terms of insurer financial strength. Our financial strength is our commitment to you that we’ll be there for you when you need us The main page is running their latest ad here, and it speaks about ‘what we see’, has photo’s of football players, and is generally a … Continue reading "Stop reinforcing the idea that bank leadership is out of touch with reality by delivering your same "plan for retirement" ads"

While it makes sense the statistics here are mind boggling.  Of course mobile applications are the future.  Note to Banks … we just have to get the application to suit the medium.  Think about this statistic – more mobile phones that credit cards. The Future of Mobile | Google Blog There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion … Continue reading Most prevalent consumer device – mobile | Google Blog

Last night the news emerged that the US Government intends to somehow remove bad loans from Banks balance sheets, in what sounded like a bailout.  Thought I’d give it a bit before wading in.  Lots of hyperbole out there caught up in the stock market jump, that is cloaking the real story here.  We also have the Republican Presidential candidate noting that the focus is wrong here.  Thats for the political blogs. McCain criticises bank assistance | BBC US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said he is against the state bailing out struggling banks and financial companies. Mr McCain … Continue reading A brief review of the last 18 months in Banking, and what it means

Many of us complain about Microsoft, but this Arrington post at TechCrunch caught my attention because it highlighted larger picture of the environment of the company that appears not to see the competitive forces surrounding them. Microsoft Annual Report To sustain the growth of our Server and Tools business amid competition from other vendors of both proprietary and open source software, our goal is to deliver products that provide the best platform for network computing – software that is easiest to deploy and manage, and that is most secure – with the lowest total cost of ownership. # of mentions: … Continue reading Is your Bank properly aligned to the new competitive threats | Case Study – Microsoft

The Economist has a few articles including this one that is an excellent primer on Islamic finance. The whys and wherefores of Islamic finance THE modern history of Islamic finance is often dated to the 1970s, with the launch of Islamic banks in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But its roots stretch back 14 centuries. Islamic finance rests on the application of Islamic law, or sharia, whose primary sources are the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Sharia emphasises justice and partnership. In the world of finance that translates into a ban on speculation (or gharar) … Continue reading Faith-based finance; intro to Islamic Sharia Finance | The Economist