HSBC has opened an Internet-only bank in Taiwan that offers higher interest rates on deposits, hoping to lure new customers to the no-branch model. Since the bank opened in late September, 80% of the customers opening accounts are new to HSBC. About half of all customers are between the ages of 25 and 35, but they only account for 30% of the deposits. Roughly 13% of the accounts belong to customers over the age of 45, and they account for more than half of the deposits. Source: BankNet 360 – HSBC Launches Internet-Only Bank in Taiwan   Technorati tags: hsbc, … Continue reading BankNet 360 – HSBC Launches Internet-Only Bank in Taiwan

 This is a very cool application, and great use of texting/ mobile technology in a useful way.  We need to build this at the Bank! Need to find an ATM machine?  A new cell phone service from MasterCard provides cardholders with a mobile, location-based search and directory service so they can request to have the location of the nearest ATM sent to their cellular phone via an SMS text message.  …. The voice-activated ATM Locator application is provided by Convergys Corporation, which built the application for MasterCard. Hosted on Convergys’ SpeechPort ‘platform, incoming calls are received and processed. … It … Continue reading Bank Systems & Technology| Texting Service Locates ATM’s

This useful post notes that less than half of projects are considered successful. Running a bank is all about projects, so these characteristics are worth remembering as we move ahead, and understanding which of these characteristics require improvement. Leadership The survey revealed that 70% of the respondents did not feel that their senior management team served as a positive role model very often. Also, when asked how effective team leaders were at helping meet team goals, 42.5% rated their team leaders a 3 or less on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being very effective and 1 being … Continue reading Canadian Management Centre’s Training Blog: Survey Finds Four Factors Key to Team Success

 All the big banks in the Middle East have a head of Islamic Banking.  The have officers and front line staff handling this now.

Islamic Banking is not a Utopia anymore as was thought to be. When scholars first talked about this idea in the 1940’s, people in the West laughed at the idea of Banking without Interest.

It was inconceivable at that time since most of the Muslim countries were reeling under colonial rule; as such there were no takers for this idea. It was only in the later part of the 20th century that scholars attempted at giving a practical shape to the idea of interest-free financial mechanism.

Source: The concept of Islamic Banking (GreaterKashmir.com)

When will we see a British, North American, or European Bank offer such services?  There are significant numbers of Muslims in all the Northern Hemisphere countries now, and its an interesting call as to whether we should embrace this style of banking in an effort to provide differentiation.

Inconceivable you might say!  Well consider the significant populations of muslims within those areas.  Is there an offer that might differentiate a bank amongst the muslim populations in non middle east countries? I wonder if any will have the nerve to try that.

History, including some basics on Islamic Banking

Continue reading “The concept of Islamic Banking: one that should not be ignored”

 This will be a longish post, so hang in there.  This is not just my favourite topic, its core to everything associated with the web lifestyle.  Simply put, where is all this going, and should we care.  This report is 115 pages long, so I have focused on two points for the future: intelligent agents privacy PEW always provide great insights, and their “Future of the Internet” series is valuable.  Its worthwhile noting this report is based on interviews with Internet insiders, but for me that makes it the more useful.  Its worth noting the results are assembled points that … Continue reading Pew Internet: Future of the Internet 2020

 Techcrunch scoop a new service coming from Paypal.  In effect its an online safety deposit box. The new service, called DropBox, creates a secure storage area that is associated with the account. What we are not sure about is if this is a service just for merchants, or if it is a service that will be open to every user – from what we have seen so far it seems this is more of a service for merchants. Source: Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Exclusive: Mysterious Paypal Secure Storage tags: paypal, online+safety+deposit+box Continue reading Techcrunch » Exclusive: Mysterious Paypal Secure Storage

 I like tags, but I agree with Matt, that there is not enough intelligence in how tagging works. I posted about this before, and the need for Technorati to improve spam elimination associated with tags.  This piece on tagging is more aimed at de.licio.us and ma.gnolia tagging.  The latter is a little better because of the interface, and spaces in multiple word tags, but we still have a long way to go. In my mind, tags are hugely valuable. They expose important meta data at an abstraction level that was previously hidden in the Internet user interface. They are connective tissue allowing … Continue reading Matt McAlister » Challenging why (and how) people tag things