This is a fun way to lever their Open Sponsorship, and pick up a small hit on transaction revenue.  In general though, this is a one time, one off benefit for Chase. Finextra: Chase ATMs to dispense 5000 free US Open tickets Chase is turning its 1789 metro-area ATMs into ‘instant-win’ machines that will dispense receipts that can be exchanged for free tickets to the US Open. The campaign, which takes advantage of JPMorgan Chase’s sponsorship of the US Open Tennis Tournament, is expected to give away more than 5000 tickets. Technorati Tags: marketing Continue reading Chase ATMs to dispense 5000 free US Open tickets

This article from The Pueblo Chieftain is especially succinct, clear, and to the point.  The headline says it all, and the article makes perfect sense for bankers to read. The Pueblo Chieftain Online – Pueblo, Colorado U.S.A The nation’s youngest adults have developed split-second reaction time with their playing of video games. They take camera and video cell phones for granted. And, they do their comparison shopping, even for banking services, on the Internet. Alice Birch, market president and district manager of U S Bank’s Pueblo, Canon City and La Junta branches, said her bank’s Internet banking and bill paying … Continue reading Banks look to Internet to draw Gen Y patrons

Banks pay a lot for enterprise licencing, and office applications are one of those.  So one Bank I am familiar with, has an Enterprise licence with Microsoft, that cost 10’s of millions.  A large part of that is the use of MS Office on 35K +/- desktops.  I would consider myself a relatively power user in Bank terms, using Powerpoint, Word, and Excel daily, and Visio if someone sends me a file. So why are we seeing simple office applications being developed that function in the browser and do 90% of what is required, and, and built from the ground … Continue reading Time to re-consider Microsoft Office?

Charlene makes an excellent point, that in order to get into blogging, recruitment makes the ideal forum.  It will match with the demographic expectations of your prospective employees, and permit a safe simple method to experiment and get into blogging, for risk averse banks.  In fact I would argue you will get better quality recruits this way.  They will be the recruits that “get it”. Charlene Li’s Blog: Recruitment blogs – a no-brainer But there’s one area that I think is a no-brainer and a greater starting point for companies interested in blogging — and that’s in recruitment. Think about … Continue reading Recruitment blogs – a no-brainer for banks

Yodlee continue to successfully build out functionality, and capability founded on aggregation of all a consumers financial accounts. Finextra: Yodlee launches personal finance platform The Yodlee MoneyCenter suite includes Yodlee PersonalFinance, Yodlee BillPay, and Yodlee FundsTransfer. The integrated solution gives consumers everything they need to answer the ever-important and ever-changing question: where is my money? Key Yodlee MoneyCenter Features: Account Consolidation – from over 8,000 financial, bill and rewards accounts Personal Data Reports – such as a net worth statement, cash flow report, and historical  account balances Expense Categorization – for all credit card and bank account transactions Budgeting – … Continue reading Yodlee launches personal finance platform

This really go me thinking about how do do this and do it right.  What are the guiding principles that ought to guide such a venture if the opportunity arose to do it from scratch and do it right ? Some guiding principles that leapt out at me: Laser like focus on customers.  Listen to them, talk to them, and above all, do not lecture them.  This will always drive the right answer, and provide strong guidance to the other principles.  There can be no deviation from this one, because switching costs are much less in the direct environment, and … Continue reading In interesting question: how to start a direct bank from scratch

Aneace correctly points out a consequential trend in card fraud, that is going to impact travellers plans. Chip card implementation is complex, and the fact that cards will be combo, chip and mag stripe merely increases the complexity. Aneace’s Blog: The pains of travelling and paying in a world moving to EMV The explosion in ATM/debit card fraud shows how fraud can move to the US from other parts of the world, like the UK, where card issuers are adopting the more secure EMV chip card standard. Some US banks have responded by putting a temporary hold on all ATM … Continue reading The pains of travelling and paying in a world moving to EMV

An interesting perspective from Triodos.  The concept of ethical business is gaining traction, and has high appeal value to Gen Y’ers. Treehugger: Triodos: Banking on Positive Change This was no ordinary AGM, but then Triodos is no ordinary bank. I was treated to an organic lunch and a talk by British environmentalist George Monbiot who questioned the sustainability of ANY bank, ethical or not. His reasoning was that lending with interest inevitably leads to economic growth, and economic growth was ultimately unsustainable. Technorati Tags: green+banking Continue reading No ordinary Bank – Triodos

Google Finance fails to gather any momentum yet against Yahoo.  The comment I found useful here is the stickiness of Yahoo Finance, based on the time taken to set up preferences, making a shift to another portal a lot of work. Google Finance Struggles for Users – –Tancer said the key reason Google Finance is lagging behind its competitors is that personal finance Web sites like Yahoo Finance are sticky. “They allow users to personalize their stock and news preferences,” he said. “It is hard for users to enter all the information again, and that is going to be the … Continue reading Finance sites can be “sticky”