There is much talk about the end of things as we know it.  Raoul Pal founder of Global Macro Investor “previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners (ht ZeroHedge) and wrote this straightforward piece.. The single piece of evidence in this piece is one that I have mentioned here often.  That is the $600/ 700 trillion in derivatives that exist.  The set of financial hedges that represent 10 x world GDP. Right after the crisis began there was much talk and effort focussed on unwinding those contracts. not only did that not happen, they have grown from 600 then to … Continue reading The End Game | Raoul Paul

A strongly worded warning on Canadian housing prices from the EIU and backed up by comments from the OECD. Canada banks: Piling up profits | Economist Intelligence Unit (reg’n required) The OECD has taken notice of Canada’s housing bubble, advising the Bank of Canada to begin hiking interest rates with a target of 2.25% by the end of 2012, up from 1% where it has stood since September 2010. The fear is that Canadian homebuyers are borrowing more than they can sustain once rates turn higher. This situation could result in a real-estate bust and massive mortgage defaults in a … Continue reading Canadian housing price warning from Economist Intelligence Unit

The best they can do is come up with a statement like this. Police warn of Toronto debit card skimming scam Urging retailers to pay close attention to their point-of-sale (POS) devices, Toronto and Peel Regional Police announced newly discovered technology used in the scams Thursday. Pay close attention?  How many merchants lock their devices away at night I wonder? Just to be clear, here is the issue that I have been ranting about ever since the early days of chip card planning at the bank where I worked. There is no issue with chip cards per se.  Consumers can … Continue reading The Canadian Police are helpless in the face of the chip card offerring from Canadian Banks.

A brilliant and insightful few minutes with Niall Ferguson on the precipice we face today.  ht Zerohedge. http://www.cbc.ca/video/watch/News/TV Shows/Lang & O’Leary Exchange/ID=2239470660 Continue reading Are The Europeans About To Start The Second Half Of Our Great Depression?

Who knows if the audience in this survey is accurate but the sentiment certainly rings true.  A large proportion of bank customers would happily do everything online if it was available.  Half of Americans want to do all banking online | Finextra Of just over 1100 respondents, 52% say that their provider’s Web site is their primary method of banking, with 48% revealing that they would do it all online if it were possible. In contrast only a third of respondents consider the branch their primary method of banking. Currently, Web banking is used primarily to check account balances and … Continue reading Message to Banks: Most people want to do much more online

The Economist has a special report on international banking, and the section entitled Retail Renaissance was a trip down memory lane.  Then some lessons learned for banks. First the memory lane part.  I was with mbanx in Canada since 1996 and then Wingspan in Chicago emulated in 1999 (ok my opinion) Retail renaissance | Economist “IF YOUR BANK could start over, this is what it would be,” trumpeted the marketing campaign for the launch in 1999 of Wingspan, an internet bank. The following year the bank was gone. In September 2000, a few months after the dotcom bubble burst, it … Continue reading Retail banking is the backbone of bank profitability but can it evolve and innovate under current leadership

I have covered here since the banking crisis the scale of ‘notional’ derivative activity in the banking economy.  That last time I saw a number was Dec 2010 and world derivatives totalled $600 trillion.  To place in perspective that number is 10 times world GDP.  That number has grown since the banking crisis by 10%. According to Fortune Magazine (below), the derivatives at JP Morgan account for more than 10% of all world derivatives, and might well account for a chunk if not all of the growth in notional contract amounts.  Growth in all derivatives since 2009 is $43 trillion, … Continue reading JP Morgan derivative update | Fortune

The Canadian Bankers Association have released an important document outlining standards for integrating mobile payments into the Canadian Payments networks.  Its reasonably detailed at 133 pages.  Page 40 outlines Square requirements for electronic receipts, suggesting some reasonable new thought has gone into this.  It has flow charts for standard payments, refusals, and even loyalty points treatment.  There is some security stuff including key management. The flow charts that outline how cards would integrate into the current payment networks are well laid out. http://www.cba.ca/en/component/content/category/89-mobile-payments-in-canada http://www.cba.ca/contents/files/misc/msc_20120514_mobile_en.pdf Continue reading “Canadian NFC Mobile Payments Reference Model” released by Canadian Bankers Association