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China continues to display economic strain that will reflect on world economy

Colin Henderson

In the ‘how is the world doing’ category, this take (from the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of ‘The Next Asia’ (Wiley), due out in September) on China is consequential for us all. The west imported cheap labour from there for the 15 years preceding 2007, and the after effect is coming home to roost. What will matter to us all, and to banks, is the relative impacts on currency values as the historic imbalances are rebalanced to a different metric. I have to keep going back to how banks in the west redesign their products and services. … Continue reading China continues to display economic strain that will reflect on world economy

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BofA could eventually cut 10 pct of branches | SF Chronicle

Colin Henderson

This is a theme that is gathering steam. It is based on the reality that customers are using internet for their banking, and there is a high level of redundancy in offerring similar capabilities in physical locations. The counterbalance is of course the need to attract customers, new accounts and deposits which has traditionally been a branch activity. That balance is shifting now and the tension between those two opposing forces will be ineresting to watch, as banks exectute strategies and consider their cost base. BofA could eventually cut 10 pct of branches SF Chronicle Bank of America Corp. could … Continue reading BofA could eventually cut 10 pct of branches | SF Chronicle

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | which is your bank?

Colin Henderson

In this video commentary on the US Banks results they note that while large profits are announced, any parts of the business related to the US consumer consumer is flat. This includes all retail banking and credit cards. The only bright spots are the fee based revenue from the investment banking units, hence JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs results, although poor old Citi did not even make it there. One quarter does not make or break anything in banking in and of itself. However the predictions of Roubini and Baker linked below are playing out as expected, so which banks … Continue reading The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | which is your bank?

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Report: “Managing Beyond Web 2.0” | McKinsey

Colin Henderson

Nothing new for most of us in this report but I liked it for two reasons: Its simple and straightforward. it is aimed at large corporations who are still wondering what to do about marketing, and that would include banks. It is authored by Donna Hoffman, chancellor’s chair and professor of marketing at the University of California, Riverside. When we have a professor of marketing state that companys "marketers are being replaced’, then maybe we are making progress in understanding what has to happen. Managing Beyond Web 2.0 | McKinsey today’s online customers—as both producers and consumers of their own … Continue reading Report: “Managing Beyond Web 2.0” | McKinsey

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Which bank will be first to embrace the mobile browser?

Colin Henderson

Chris from FT does a review here of a panel session at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco yesterday. The headline is the statement from Vic Vic Gundotra, Google Engineering vice president and developer evangelist: App Stores are not the future – Google … the web had won and users of mobile phones would get their information and entertainment from browsers in future. He claimed that even Google was not rich enough to support all of the different mobile platforms from Apple’s AppStore to those of the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android and the many variations of the Nokia platform. Everyone … Continue reading Which bank will be first to embrace the mobile browser?

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Posper has SEC approval and to relaunch 15th Jul unofficial

Colin Henderson

it seems like Prosper may be re-launching tomorrow as an approved service. I hope its true, and good luck to Prosper. I noticed this morning their site is down, and it actually does nto say maintenance as noted in the quote below, but "configuration changes". Looks Like Prosper.com is On Its Way Back! | Prosper Lending Review Paraphrasing Anthony’s email he says that the US SEC approved Prosper’s new securitized note trading platform at 3:30 PM on Friday, and that they pulled the site down over the weekend through Monday. Looks like we might get (another) launch tomorrow from Prosper.com. … Continue reading Posper has SEC approval and to relaunch 15th Jul unofficial

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The State of Munich’s Linux Migration

Colin Henderson

This is a great story showing that an organisation, in this case a government, can adopt linux. The bad news is that is has taken so long, and I am sure this reflects the denial of users and managers. All I can say as a loyal linux user, is give it time and it will work. The State of Munich’s Ongoing Linux Migration | Slashdot Currently, about 60% of desktops are using OpenOffice, with the remaining 40% to be completed by the end of 2009. Firefox and Thunderbird are being used in all of the city’s desktop machines. Continue reading The State of Munich’s Linux Migration

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US antitrust is the devil

Colin Henderson

Fascinating insght into US antitrust thinking that is quite mind boggling.  They actually believe that the antitrust case against Microsoft promoted Google Chrome and Firefox!  This is a great example of reverse analysis thinking where the result rationalises the approach. Microsoft Internet Explorer became huge because it was better and faster than Netscape.  That was 1996.  Time passes and IE became known as slow.  Firefox emerged, followed by Chrome  I see no connection to antitrust stuff here. My Interview With Antitrust Expert Gary Reback: Google’s Looming Antitrust Issues | TechCrunch One interesting insight from the conversation: I ask Reback if … Continue reading US antitrust is the devil