News from Natwest, and Lloyds with introduction of Polish Banking.  This is in keeping with the earlier pieces we had on addressing immigrants’ needs and seeing that as an opportunity for market protection.  I don’t see this so much as innovation, because anyone can do that.  However failure to implement such services, will doubtless result in reduced market share over time, as the population becomes more mixed. Natwest says its new Welcome Account comes with a related money transfer feature that enables Polish customers in the UK to send money back home. Customers can transfer funds straight from the current account into the … Continue reading Finextra: Natwest launches Polish account in the UK

Someone at BMO just pointed out their new implementation of RSS autodiscover. So what you may ask! Well that means when you browse to personal and business pages of the bmo site with Firefox or IE7/ Vista you will see the orange RSS symbol appear in the address bar, and clicking it will show the RSS feeds, and podcasts available. UPDATE: I have been most remiss, and apoligise to both North Shore Credit Union, and VanCity, both of whom had RSS autodiscover implemented. While my topic was Banks, I also use CU’s as positive examples and missed this opportunity. Thanks … Continue reading BMO – first bank (but not Credit Union) with RSS auto-discover

 This latest note from PEW notes the increasing ubiquity of social networks amongst American teenagers. More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project Source: Pew Internet: Social Networking and Teens   Technorati tags: social+networks Continue reading 55% of online Americans, aged 12-17 use social networking sites

California State University (CSU) has been studying how Freshmen use internet, with a view to implementing a technology literacy test.  This is interesting in terms of how people find things, and probably goes some way to explain why spam and phishing continue to succeed.  The difference between intelligent browsing, and anything else is summarised by this quote. “It actually makes you think about how you do research,” Juarez said. “I would just assume if it was the first thing that popped up, it was up to date.” Source: Technology News: Trends: Generation M’s Surprising Struggle With Tech Literacy This research is … Continue reading Generation M’s Surprising Struggle With Tech Literacy

In keeping with the end of year theme, thought I would share some stats, as I consider readers interests, and think about how I can improve Bankwatch in 2007. Note my stats are from WordPress, and they only do that past 30 days, so I should do this more frequently now that I think about it.  In any event here it is. Some notes on themes I see follow the list. 2006-11-24 to Today TitleViews How to web 2.0 your bank277 Bankwatch predictions – Banking 2007221 Online only Banks (branchless Banks)199 Final post – detail on a failed attempt 194 The Captcha … Continue reading 2006 end of year review – most popular posts

I wanted to highlight the response from Dave and Thomas from Zopa to my earlier post where I had indicated a post had been deleted from their blog.  Well, kudos to Zopa … they noticed my post they fixed the problem, caused during a server admin This is a Web 2.0 response – they have no idea who I am, but I am treated with respect, and the problem is addressed.  Complete transparency.  Old style organisations would have fixed it quietly and never admitted it.    Technorati tags: zopa, customer+experience, customer+engagement Continue reading Excellent response Zopa

 I recall four years ago debating the impact of broadband and home networks and getting strange looks from people.  Well it is now reality, the debate is finished.  Always-on is a new mindset … internet is a utility that is there when you need it. The 78 percent broadband penetration rate for U.S. homes represents a jump from 65 percent a year earlier, Nielsen/NetRatings found. The research company said broadband users spent 33 percent more time online than dial-up users – nearly 35 hours for the month, compared with 26 hours and some change for dial-up. Broadband users also viewed twice … Continue reading Broadband in 78% of internet homes

I blogged about Net Promoter score, the loyalty measurement de jour back in November.  Today a colleague, Len pointed out Filene research who are doing some interesting research.  I find their premise interesting … the part about the minimal share of consumer finance.  Is that true?  Does it apply equally to consumer deposits? Why do credit unions consistently score higher than banks on customer satisfaction surveys, yet, at the same time have a fairly minimal share of the consumer finance marketplace? Could it be that satisfaction is a good, but ultimately insufficient measurement of loyalty and propensity to grow? Source: Home : … Continue reading Customer loyalty, and linkages to market share