There is a lesson here for Banks.  In 2012 just over a year ago, FaceBook went public.  At the time the largest doubt was FaceBooks ability to leverage advertising in the mobile space. Since then FaceBook has turned that corner.  It has done that by making mobile important. But how did FaceBook accomplish this and how did they accomplish this in just over a year. How Facebook Went Mobile, In Before And After Org Charts Facebook used to be a website translated to mobile by a tiny team, but over the last two years it’s reorganized to make every department … Continue reading The challenge between perfect technology architecture and fast shifting customer channels

In September I wrote about iBeacon in iPhone and the potential for payments.  Now a real world application for iBeacon has appeared in London. iBeacon is a low power using medium rage Bluetooth service. This new use delivers relevant magazines from the Apple Newstand while at a soccer pub in London.  It demonstrates that iBeacon uses are just getting off the ground and may have even more interesting potential uses. iBeacons Used To Deliver Location-Based Access To iOS Newsstand Publications “As this is very much new technology we are showcasing it for the first time at Bar Kick in Shoreditch, … Continue reading iBeacons Used To Deliver Location-Based Access To iOS Newsstand Publications

Wearable computing such as a watch with mobile apps are generally considered the next big thing.  Quietly, vehicle internet integration is right behind and may well be as big in my view.  I am a fan of German cars, and enjoyed GPS and stolen car location for some time.  However the internet smart car revolution is growing very rapidly and its not just German cars anymore. This from Honda is very cool.  Obvious advantages are music and maps.  Think your itunes match being readily available on the car screen. Honda integrates iPhone w/ 2014 Civic touchscreen in first steps towards … Continue reading Honda integrates iPhone w/ 2014 Civic touchscreen in first steps towards iOS in the Car

The tools and platforms available today are expanding rapidly.  So rapidly that it is very hard to keep up. All the more reason that banks, at least all big banks, should have innovation centres that are solely focussed on pushing the envelope with this stuff.  We need to understand what this means and where the opportunities lie for transactional banking. This geeky article basically says that Google will produce Microsoft Office type functionality in an app that will work on your mobile device or your laptop.  The inference being that the files are stored in the cloud and are accessible … Continue reading Google’s way of pushing the limits of the Web as a platform

RBS sufferred another crash of their computer systems resulting in customers having no access to debit and credit card systems on Monday.  They are the only bank I am aware has their own wikipedia page devoted to their system problems. This latest crash was similar to June 2012 when millions were left without access to their money. RBS apologises for Cyber Monday technology breakdown The IT glitch – the bank’s fourth in two years – left millions of customers of RBS and its NatWest and Ulster bank subsidiaries unable to use credit and debit cards for three hours on Monday … Continue reading RBS system crash leaves customers without access to their money

I re-watched Inside Job again last night.  Its a brilliant documentary on the 2008 banking crisis, and recommended watching for anyone interested at all in just how bad was the situation that culminated in September 15th, 2008. So it was some ironical for me at least, that this morning the Economist Intelligence Unit came out with this new report.  As is usual with EIU there is lots of empirical evidence and this statistic leapt off the page at me.  More than half of bankers feel ethics get in the way of career progression.  This statistic alone suggests that bank leaders, … Continue reading “A Crisis of Culture” (in Banks) – new report from Economist Intelligence Unit

This is not new because Google was already using 1024 bit security but with this upgrade to 2048 bit, it is time for banks to at least re-visit their security level and offer exper commentary.  Most banks are using 128 bit (RBC for example) with some banks having already gone to 256 bit (Peoples Trust, Standard Chartered, Members Advantage Credit Union) The reason Google are doing this is based on concern that the American Government through the NSA are able to decrypt what we have assumed is secure data transmission. When internet started email and browsing activity was unencrypted and … Continue reading EDIT: This post is corrected – please review comments:- Your email is now orders of magnitude more secure than your online banking–is that right?

This announcement from Yahoo may sound innocuous but it has implications for the downrange targets of this blog, banks.  Our Commitment to Protecting Your Information | Yahoo.com Today we are announcing that we will extend that effort across all Yahoo products. More specifically this means we will: Encrypt all information that moves between our data centers by the end of Q1 2014; Offer users an option to encrypt all data flow to/from Yahoo by the end of Q1 2014; Work closely with our international Mail partners to ensure that Yahoo co-branded Mail accounts are https-enabled. Relevance to Bankwatch: Banks are … Continue reading Implications of internet giants network concerns for banks