A move in the US to reduce interchange fees on credit card transactions, by (somehow) permitting retailers and merchants to negotiate them. Finextra: New Senate bill launched to rein in interchange fees Interchange fees currently comprise 90% of transaction fees charged to merchants. The percentage is set by the credit card companies – generally Visa or MasterCard – and averages 1.75% of the total purchase price. In 2006 Visa and MasterCard banks collected more than $36 billion in interchange fees last year, up 17% from 2005 and 117% since 2001. In 2007, the fees amounted to $42 billion. The backdrop … Continue reading US attempts (again) to reduce interchange fees

Jeremiah analyses Obama’s internet success that I’ve blogged about before.  No question he has grasped the internet high ground …. new vs old.  Lessons to be learned here. Web Strategy ….  data using free social media tools, that look at keywords on twitter, as well as ‘traffic’ to websites of the runners. I rarely place much weight in any single use of these tools, but there is a clear trend towards Obama getting a great deal of activity. Is this telltale to the future? I’m not sure. Continue reading Obama captures the internet high ground

Chris blogs on a very pertinent question for today … the long term impacts of severeign funds purchasing large holdings in British and US businesses including banks, will have long term implications, probably in ways that we have not considered. The FinanSer: SWFs and Citigroup – Unethical or just Flash Players? Bearing in mind their lack of transparency and potential threat to national interests, the idea of Chinese or Russian funds buying up large swathes of American and British businesses is something that many are wary of, and Sir Wim asked the question: should we be? Continue reading Should we be wary of Sovereign funds buying into Banks? | Chris Skinner

There is much debate on the topic of protection of personal data, with a sub text on monetising your data. What are the issues? Here is an attempt to break out the core issues for you to consider. Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » How SHOULD dynamic privacy work? By that I mean – clearly Facebook wants to keep their user’s data in their system, but they have to answer all our demands for allowing user’s to move their data or at least access their data – from remote locations. Others Scoble – Mike Arrington is right – FaceBook is … Continue reading Dynamic Privacy, protection of ‘my data’, Friend Connect | what is all the fuss about?

Jim at Netbanker does a good job of analysing BofA mobile banking activity and makes the point that while apparently ‘anemic’ the results are not bad. I still believe that mobile banking can be so much more, than replication of ATM/ online banking services. Click through for the full analysis. Mobile Banking Uptake: Bank of America Closing in on 1 million Mobile Users (NetBanker) But according to M:Metrics, less than 14% of U.S. mobile phone users accessed info via the mobile web in February. So 4% of a 14% universe is much more impressive, indicating the bank has tapped almost … Continue reading BofA mobile banking results analysis | Netbanker

Celent and others continue to tout mobile banking as the next big thing. Mobile is certainly big but its not clear that Banks have figured out the mobile banking model. It cannot be simply sticking online banking into a phone. Finextra: M-banking set to grow in Western Europe – Celent New research from Celent predicts that adoption of mobile banking is set to increase rapidly in the major markets in Western Europe over the next two years as banks look to take advantage of improvements in technology to provide new services. The study covered five Western European countries – Germany, … Continue reading m-Banking | Celent report

I am surprised to read this on a marketing blog in 2008. Conversations happen everywhere. To my simple mind the issue is not that the stock price event occurred … the issue is how the branch dealt with it. If there is a TV in the branch, the staff need to be aware, the PR dept need to be aware. Staff can chat with the customers about it …. this is the new world. Not the sanitised version outlined in the 2nd paragraph quoted below [strikethrough emphasis mine 🙂 ] The Story » Blog Archive » Know how to use … Continue reading How not to listen to marketing advice

This development in Australia sounds groundbreaking if it comes to be.  The concept is account number portability.  The idea is that consumers would own their identity reference and could move it between Banks.  If this concept flies it would be a dramatic shift forward for consumers. The Better Banking blog Instead of a bank account number and BSB, individuals would register for their own BPAY code which could be used to facilitate payments. Consumers could then port their number from bank to bank without the need to re-establish direct debits or credits, and use it to enable online payments. Relevance … Continue reading Bank account portability | Australia

This just showed up in twitter 30 secs ago. This is typical of Wesabe who always communicate everything, good or bad! Way to go Wesabe, and I trust you get it resolved quickly. wesabe on twitter Site is currently down, we’re looking into it.wesabe, some min. ago, San Francisco, CA Continue reading Hats off to Wesabe for being open and communicative