There have been a few more developments reported in the press, in this situation, surrounding the expected loss of $450 million at BMO, as a result of allegedly excessive risky positions in natural gas options. For context that loss represents about 80% of one quarters net income. Executives at Optionable Inc., the New York commodities broker linked to Bank of Montreal’s natural-gas trading fiasco, cashed in stock worth US$27-million days before the Canadian bank received a strongly worded auditor’s report into the activities of its options trading desk. Source: Canadian Banks & Insurance Executives at Optionable potentially make Martha Stewart’s … Continue reading BMO and Optionable saga continues to deteriorate

BarCampBank comes to North America, with the next one in Seattle expected later this year, date TBD. The focus is on innovations, and disruptions within the banking world, and has generally been centred in Paris so far, and its nice to see Frederic planning to attend, and he drew my attention to the arrangements. If you are an innovator, a disruptor or a professional of the banking and finance industry, if you are excited by or just curious about all the innovations that the new technologies could bring to the banking and finance world, if you want to present a … Continue reading BarCampBankSeattle coming soon

New study from McKinsey points out the gap in Emotional Quotient (EQ) between Banks and their customers. A big prize awaits companies that can develop deeper and more lasting relationships with their customers. Yet many businesses rely too much on IT and perform poorly on the front line. In particular this point resonates, and supports the points made by Ron here. …. a different perspective by showing how the aggressive behavior of some sales teams at leading North American banks generated negative moments of truth and has conspicuously weakened the reputation of these institutions. This is interesting because earlier in … Continue reading Banks, and the downside to aggressive selling

The old expression springs to mind …  “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings“. A group of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it is interested in buying Dutch bank ABN Amro in a deal worth some £49bn. The mooted offer would trump a deal that was agreed with the UK’s Barclays. Source: BBC NEWS | Business | RBS woos ABN with £49bn bid plan This offer is 13% higher, and includes Spain’s Santander and Belgium’s Fortis, who are proposing a deal worth 72bn euros (£49bn; $98bn), or 39 euros a share.  The Barclays arrangement … Continue reading RBS woos ABN with £49bn bid plan

 This post from Jean at Javelin, resonates with me.  During the early days the apparent truism that all a customers information could be simply assembled on one page, drove enormous assumptions that were over-stated. In an ideal world, FIs would have all information necessary about each individual customer’s preferences, life stage, demographic and psychographic profile, and endless other details that make the market-of-one more of a reality and less of an ideal. Source: Javelin Strategy and Research » Appealing to a Market of One The early promise was in fact a theory more than reality.  This from Information Week in … Continue reading Appealing to a ‘Segment of One’ | is it a lost hope?

 As noted earlier, BMO Bank of Montreal were touted as being interested in LaSalle Bank in Chicago, but general analyst sentiment places the US $21 Bn price tag that BofA appear to have secured, well out of reach. At $91-billion, a Barclay’s merger with ABN Amro dwarfs Canadian banks, and may leave them out of future plays as global consolidation rolls on.  I would be shocked if Harris came to the table with a bid at this point. The largest financial services takeover ever is reigniting calls for Canadian bank mergers as Bank of Montreal appears unable to even pick … Continue reading Europe’s mega banking deal highlights the constraints that Canada places on its Banks

Hat tip to Susan Abbott –  this quote from Jeffrey Eisenberg is highly profound. Brands don’t work the way they used to … Take a look at a company like Starbucks. Can anybody name a major brand, not a brand extension, but a major brand that in the last decade has been created primarily through advertising? Nobody. I’ve never met a crowd that could. If you think of companies like Yahoo and Google and Starbucks and Amazon, these companies have been built by experience and by word of mouth. Marketing doesn’t work the way it used to. Source: Customer Experience … Continue reading "Brands don’t work the way they used to"

 Despite being considered a cheque centric country, US use of electronic bill payment now exceeds cheques, for paying bills. The January 2007 survey of 2018 respondents, which was conducted by Harris Interactive and the Marketing Workshop, shows that online payments made up 39% of the total volume of bill payments among Internet-connected households, an increase of four per cent since December 2005. In contrast, the number of cheques sent through the post to pay bills fell four per cent to 34% of the overall volume. Source: Finextra: E-bill payments surpass cheques among Web-connected households   Technorati tags: cheques, checks, bill+pay, … Continue reading Finextra: E-bill payments surpass cheques among Web-connected households