FT have been running the CEBS announcement on European bank stress test live since 16:45 BST. Biggest surprise the the small number of failures. One Spanish bank is all I picked out so far. Portugal, Italy all passed. I have seen nothing on Greece as yet. More later. Technorati Tags: stress tests,CEBS Continue reading CEBS bank stress tests being announced live
Internet has resulted in more than a fair share of amateur experts on everything from technology to economics. it was interesting to watch the antics of the armchair group when back in May Apple market cap overtook Microsoft. The end of an era, as reported by their technology reporter. Fast forward to this morning, and look at the market caps. No-one doubts the shift to mobile and I still love my iPhone. However care should be taken in isolating daily jumps in emotional stock markets which can generate attention grabbing headlines that may well prove to be proof of a … Continue reading “Apple passes Microsoft as No. 1” | oops … all change again this morning
An interesting chart from ft.com that reviews marketing shifts in the UK. While there is a general downward shift in marketing in Q2, the mix continues to shift away from traditional and towards internet. Q2 2010 Bellwether: marketing spend down The latest IPA/BDO Bellwether survey published today (12th July 2010) reveals that marketing budgets were revised down in Q2 amid uncertainty regarding the economic outlook, with around 20% of companies reporting a downward revision against 15% that reported an increase. Business confidence has also dipped with positive sentiment the lowest for a year. However the rate of budget trimming was … Continue reading IPA/BDO Bellwether survey indicates further shifts in marketing spending
This is an off-topic rant on iOS 4. if you are not using iPhone please disregard 🙂 <rant> As cool as the iphone is, there are some things that just don’t change under the covers, whether its windows, or apple OS and thats memory management. This is lazy code development. The example here is the use of memory in the fake multitasking implemented in iOS 4. Multitasking is not multitasking in iOS 4 – it is restricted to 3 areas (audio, VoIP, and location data). Read here for the experts outline. So if it is not real, then at least … Continue reading iPhone memory management and supposed ‘multitasking’
I have been intrigued lately by this new site which is in support of a new book that I am sure is worth checking out (its available on a pre-order basis) For now we can assess from the web site. The arguments are well articulated and many have appeared on this and other blogs over the last few years and it makes sense to encapsulate into a book because banks do not get it apparently despite efforts of the likes of netbanker and others to offer guidance. Bank2.0 | Banking4Tomorrow Brett King’s new book, BANK 2.0 – How customer behaviour … Continue reading Why don’t banks get the obvious?
I happen to be a CNN fan, but that is immaterial. CNN has the interesting dichotomy of financial success and ratings failure. That is interesting because maybe the problem lies in the measurement. All companies whether news or banks are going through a shift, and the old way of thinking about it will not work in the new times. CNN bolsters profits even as ratings slump | ft.com CNN has received a drubbing from rivals on both sides of the political spectrum –News Corp’s right-leaning Fox News Channel and NBC Universal’s liberal MSNBC network. … “CNN really has to come … Continue reading Is CNN an early indicator of new business measurement
This latest Wal-Mart thing just won’t go away. This story on Virgins annual comment from Branson about starting a bank in Canada notes that Wal-Mart has applied successfully to start a bank here. That makes Wal-Mart a potential Mexico, US, Canada bank. Interesting. Virgin Money hasn’t given up on Canada | Globe and Mail That’s not to suggest that he’s not working on it. Wal-Mart just recently received the nod from Canada’s financial services regulator to start a bank in Canada, having been working on the concept since at least 2006. Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart,Virgin,bank,Canada Continue reading Virgin and Wal-Mart both considering a bank in Canada
This is a terrific piece from McKinsey that summarises many of the things we read about in the context of changes at play in the world. I firmly believe we are in the midst of a latter day industrial revolution but it needs a better definition than that, and this kind of piece breaks it down into understandable chunks that capture various aspects of things we are reading about. We all speak of globalisation and these five forces nicely capture the implications and results. For example something I have been reading a lot about is the concept of ‘market state’ … Continue reading Five crucibles of change will restructure the world economy for the foreseeable future | McKinsey
Nice overview from Economist on 2009 bank results. So much for too big to fail. Technorati Tags: banks,bank profits Continue reading Banks with the biggest profits and losses | Economist
I saw this and had to check myself. Turns out 5 of my Linkedin connections are connected to connections of Anna Chapman. She is one of the 10 Russian Spies charged in US this week. One is Robert Scoble, but then Robert is probably connected to everyone. It also shows the inherent weakness in the ‘connected to connections’ model. Connections even once removed capture a lot of people. Check it out. Her profile is in the link below and she only has 147 connections so they were picked with some thought presumably and given her mandate to seek intelligence and … Continue reading Connections of Anna Chapman on Linkedin
Bankwatch 