If I were a Banker …. a view from France


The always intelligent blog of Jean-Christophe posts a provocative view of Banking evolution. While the Mutual Credit launches an advertising campaign where it asks its customers what they would do if they were bankers, the bank of tomorrow is already moving& elsewhere Source: Translated version of http://capelli.typepad.fr/capelli/2007/03/si_jtais_banqui.html The English translation, courtesy of Google is here. Even with the rough translation, I like this point, that is fundamental to the success of social integration with real business – transparency and yet confidentiality.  Note I had to add some prepositions to make it closer to the French original: New tendency of Web 2.0 … Continue reading If I were a Banker …. a view from France

A new asset class for investors – unsecured personal loans (Zopa)


Zopa pushes the boundaries and introduces more disruption within financial services, by bundling loans granted through its service, into Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) eligible investments. Social lender Zopa is offering Sipp investors the chance to make between 6% and 14% on their cash in the run up to retirement. Last week, Zopa revealed it was agreeing operational details with a number of specialist self invested personal pension with the view to offering its lending facility as a separate asset class within a Sipp wrapper. James Alexander of Zopa noted: ‘It will be very attractive to those over 55 who want … Continue reading A new asset class for investors – unsecured personal loans (Zopa)

"Money and Modern Banking without Bank Runs"


This paper from “Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports” with the above title, introduces the notion that an old style run on the Bank cannot occur.  It goes further to propose that deposit insurance is not required, and in fact may encourage bank failures. Hat tip – Linkdump In a model of nominal demand deposits repayable in money within aclearinghouse, I show that interbank lending and monetary prices imply that traditional bank runs do not occur. This finding suggests that deposit insurance may not be needed to prevent bank runs in a modern economy. I am not qualified … Continue reading "Money and Modern Banking without Bank Runs"

Jean-Christophe Capelli: Les banques dans Second Life


 Jean-Christophe starts off a series about Banks in Second Life.  For the non French speakers, there are enough links in this post to make it very worthwhile. Aujourd’hui, 1er volet de la série “Les banques dans Second Life”, consacrée aux banques qui existent IRL (In Real Life) et qui sont également présentes “in-world” (c’est à dire dans SL) Source: Jean-Christophe Capelli: Les banques dans Second Life (1)   Technorati tags: SecondLife, Virtual+Reality+Banks Continue reading Jean-Christophe Capelli: Les banques dans Second Life

Wonderful description of Wikipedia – clues to the future


 Henry Jenkins has posted his notes to remarks at the Beyond Broadcast conference.  This is a wonderful description of Wikipedia, and the convergence of forces that creates something brand new which could not have existed before.  This is the real power in the social net, where business models are formed in ways that could not have otherwise occurred. Wikipedia has developed strong ethical standards that enable people with wildly divergent beliefs to work together towards a common project; they focus on the shared infrastructure that they all need in order to achieve their aims rather than on the individual points … Continue reading Wonderful description of Wikipedia – clues to the future

Open Source – why its useful


 When I made this statement it struck me after reading a comment (thanks Dan .. grrr), that this needs more exploration.  Why is open source a good thing, and is it contradictory to traditional business?  This was all prompted by Chris’s post where he says I question any institutional trend towards consolidation, crystallization, centralization or the locking up of naturally occurring resources or readily reproducible resources (like digital data) I ended up stating this, and realise this needs more thought. (normal programming will resume after I finish this) In general, the hypothesis here is that naturally ocurring information and data … Continue reading Open Source – why its useful

Citi rebrands, and moves to an integrated distribution business model


 Citi were leaders in the convergence of financial services in 1993 when they purchased Travelers Insurance.  They have gone full circle now, having sold Travelers to MetLife, and now selling the trademark red umbrella back to Travelers.  So what does this mean for Citi as they now call themselves.  this article speculates with the recent purchase of Egg Bank that they are focussed on broad based distribution and integrated channels now, instead of marketing partnerships of different brands. Citi’s announcement earlier this month that it will acquire Egg, the U.K.-based online banking provider, can be viewed as recognition that distribution … Continue reading Citi rebrands, and moves to an integrated distribution business model

Banks in Second Life – worth a look


Its still pretty basic stuff but after following Reuters into SL today, I rooted around and found some Bank stuff.  I couldn’t find Wells who are supposed to be there, but I’d blame my SL search capability for that. The Reuters site was cool.  IBM have a basic careers location, that links out to their web site.   I’ll follow this and post more.   Technorati tags: Second+Life, Virtual+Reality+Banks Continue reading Banks in Second Life – worth a look

Who is moving fastest – Universities, or corporate?


 Phil expresses some frustration about campuses and their totalitarian attempts to control users, and how perhaps corporate’s will become more open.  That said, with changing business culture, corporate networks are probably going to become more like campus networks than the other way around Source: Phil Windley’s Technometria | Conflicting Roles and the Use of Tor In my experience and speaking to others, I have to say I see no sign, or even light on the horizon for Banks to open up their networks.   Technorati tags: bank+networks, cluetrain, networked+employees Continue reading Who is moving fastest – Universities, or corporate?