Social media takes off against Barclays
This stuff is powerful. Continue reading Social media takes off against Barclays
LIBOR is the catalyst of the next banking crisis
“The culture of the trading floor is remarkably immune to shame.” This statement by the Financial Times John Gapper sums up where we are today with banks. Most big banks have transitioned to a CEO from the investment side of the bank and this brings with it a host of unintended consequences. I actually resent that banks run by the Bob Diamonds of the world are called banks. Banks were traditionally run by stewards of peoples money. The concept highlighted by Diamond in 2011 “[Banks] put capital at risk in order to discover what the market is willing to pay” … Continue reading LIBOR is the catalyst of the next banking crisis
Some selective memory on LIBOR shown today
Barclays Bank is the the worst bank in the world and everyone should resign. hmmm Barclays chief threatens to hit back | ft.com Bob Diamond is threatening to reveal potentially embarrassing details about Barclays’ dealings with regulators if he comes under fire at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday over the Libor rate-setting scandal, according to people close to the bank’s chief executive. LIBOR has operated under a highly loose framework since inception. The notion that LIBOR has been some kind of technocratically defined daily rate and that Barclays somehow subversively undermined that rate definition is a classic example of all … Continue reading Some selective memory on LIBOR shown today
Asana announces inbox–“Towards a post-email world”
A pretty lofty announcement from Asana today. And who or what is Asana you might ask. For the last few months we have been using as our project collection and prioritisation tool. We (ComunityLend) had tried several and our VP Technology came across this one in his research. Asana is being used by Twitter, Uber, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Rdio, NationBuilder, and Airbnb. There are several cool web based tools for managing tasks, including the leader 37 signals, and Asana is out to displace them all. This latest enhancement takes it a step further in their view, by taking task management out … Continue reading Asana announces inbox–“Towards a post-email world”
Banks are doomed when it comes to technology
What to make of RBS. Everyone in banking knows of the problem with old systems that rely on old guys with proprietorial knowledge. And I say that with the utmost respect for those ‘old guys’ – I have been there and banks cannot survive otherwise. So when banks turn over their network and application system management to a third party, Chennai in India in this case, it raises all kinds of questions. I pity poor Chennai and here is why. My understanding is that most, if not all, of the batch team were let go and replaced with people from … Continue reading Banks are doomed when it comes to technology
The debacle of Blackberry and the message for Banks
I grew up with Blackberry. In 1999 I was one of a few (< 30) people at my bank with the original Blackberry. Yes that would be the one on he left. It was magic. Finally I had the power of a computer in my pocket. I was the only one on the subway in those days reading todays news offline. But of course I wanted more. I used several more iterations of Blackberry and was still quite happy until 2007. The five years since then (yes its only 5 years) have killed RIM. Their refusal to accept the shift … Continue reading The debacle of Blackberry and the message for Banks
Euro crisis is now about avoiding an even larger Lehman moment | will they be forced to nationalise the banks?
The Euro crisis originated with the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) otherwise known as the peripheral economies. At first it was believed that the problems in those countries could be managed with a straightforward bailout with the set up of a bailout fund, and some haircuts for bondholders. However the brilliant Euro economists forgot that the bondholders are primarily European Banks. The haircut, which is a write down of an asset (bond issued by a PIGS country) , eats into their capital base. This required bailout provisions for banks in Greece and now Spain. The Germans insisted on this … Continue reading Euro crisis is now about avoiding an even larger Lehman moment | will they be forced to nationalise the banks?
Marks and Sparks move into banking
Banking is no longer about banks. Marks & Spencer to move into high street banking Over the next two years, 50 new ‘branches’ will be opened in M&S stores across the UK, with the first branch scheduled to open in July at Marks & Spencer’s flagship Marble Arch store. Continue reading Marks and Sparks move into banking
Chips, NFC and processing slowness
It is good to see someone finally call out card read speed as an issue. I feel the same about chip speed; there is a palpable delay after the clerk has packed my, lets say, bottle of wine, and we are both waiting for the response from first the chip, and then the bank. Mobile NFC fails TfL’s need-for-speed transit tests TfL ran successful tests of mobile access using a Nokia handset in 2007, but Verma says that industry changes since then to switch the secure element from the phone to the SIM has slowed the read speed down to … Continue reading Chips, NFC and processing slowness
Financial Services and regulation | too misunderstood and too political
The burden of regulation in financial services. This is all the talk in Europe at the moment, and this article sums it up in a way that resonates personally for me, and in a way that we can compare to the rules in Canada through our experiences with peer-to-peer lending oddly enough. (P2P lending is governed by securities regimes hence the personal connection through my association with CommunityLend) Investing: Tangled up anew | ft.com One of those start-ups is Premier Alpha Capital, run by Brian Cordischi, the American former head of investment management at Barclays Wealth. “The rules look like … Continue reading Financial Services and regulation | too misunderstood and too political
