AI

The problem with card fraud is getting worse

Colin Henderson

Dave writes up the latest on card fraud in Europe and UK and touches on the US.  As Simon points out in the comments, its a chilling read, and highlights that the slow and gradual shift to secure cards and terminals is just wrong.  I have similar worries for North America as US sticks to mag stripe, and Canada to chip and mag stripe combined.  The opportunities for criminals are simply too great. I didn’t want to write about fraud yet again, but… | Digital Money Forum Total card fraud last year was UKP 535 million (about a billion dollars) … Continue reading The problem with card fraud is getting worse

Economy, Innovation8 Comments

Policies aimed at undermining innovation hinder an industry’s ability to compete globally | the case against new regulation

Colin Henderson

Nobel laureates Myron Scholes and Joe Stiglitz have been debating the question of regulation for financial services on Economist.com.  Its fascinating, and not as clear as one would think. For example, Scholes writing against additional regulation, notes And, in particular, since successful innovations are hard to predict, the infrastructure necessary to support innovation needs to lag the innovations themselves, which increases the probability that controls will be insufficient at times to prevent breakdowns in governance mechanisms. His point being that additional regulation will only deal with what we have already recognised as a problem.  In the case of sub-prime mortgages, … Continue reading Policies aimed at undermining innovation hinder an industry’s ability to compete globally | the case against new regulation

AI

ANZ Bank Brings Account Aggregation to Australia | Netbanker

Colin Henderson

In some refreshingly positive news, Jim at Netbanker highlights the new aggregation service, for ANZ Bank in Australia.   Click through for details, and screenshots. ANZ Bank Brings Account Aggregation to Australia; Introduces Robot Mascot Qi | Netbanker It turns out to be Qi (pronounced “key”), the robot mascot for Yodlee’s latest aggregation client, Australia’s ANZ Bank, which launched that day (press release). The new service is called MoneyManager(see screenshot below; note 1). Technorati Tags: netbanker,ANZ Bank Continue reading ANZ Bank Brings Account Aggregation to Australia | Netbanker

AI2 Comments

Strange and sad days for banks, and customers

Colin Henderson

There is a lot of news and mixed messages appearing.  I noted somewhere that the government would take a back seat to company operations despite the ownership of the banks.  The news and the messages are rapidly being overtaken by facts as complete nationalisation is now being spoken about in the UK. Government to take majority stake in RBS | Sunday Telegraph Treasury sources confirmed that the Government had drawn up plans to take on a majority stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and big holdings in Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Barclays under its £500bn plan to bail out the … Continue reading Strange and sad days for banks, and customers

AI

Which banks will break out and think about customers?

Colin Henderson

I was looking at the top posts on this blog, and this one on a McKinsey publication from 2006 ranks 7th.  Interesting, because I posted it in Sep 2006. The title [Profiting from Proliferation] is a bit abstract but the topic of customer segmentation could not be more relevant for today.  Some people are thinking about customers, because its the 7th top post.  Yet could banks be any more internally focussed today?  Its improbable that could be the case.  Which banks will break out of the internally focussed syndrome, and think about customers? Continue reading Which banks will break out and think about customers?

Economy, subprime

World economy 2013 | what should we expect?

Colin Henderson

A remarkable forward looking piece from Andrew at the ft.  Some of the implications: Russia extends influence through economic investment Stock values are one half of today’s value Interest rates are close to zero Dividends are at zero Central Banks are in complete control of regulation and of banks Banks are almost completely owned by the government A man from Fife is in charge of the world [scary] October 2013: that was the week that will be | ft.com By Andrew Hill What a week! The utility-dominated FTSE 100 celebrated the fifth anniversary of the crash of 2008 with a … Continue reading World economy 2013 | what should we expect?

Canada, Social Lending, US

The promise of social lending – one that stretches the known financial framework

Colin Henderson

This has been a weird week for social lending, but an email conversation with the always clear thinking Ron brought it into perspective.  Ron asked if the new model is in fact simpler – brilliant question. New Approach Puts Secondary Market to Work in P-to-P | American Banker [note:  access to full story requires registration] Edward Woods, a senior analyst for Celent, a Boston market research unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., said the model Lending Club and Prosper have chosen is the one most likely to thrive as this market matures. “You’ll see fewer experiments” along the lines of … Continue reading The promise of social lending – one that stretches the known financial framework

Uncategorized3 Comments

RBS and Lloyds/ HBOS are effectively nationalised

Colin Henderson

The slippery slope I talked about earlier is being borne out. The UK government will own a majority 60% of RBS is the estimate. Markets surge on £1,465bn European bank bail-out | ft.com In the UK, Gordon Brown, the prime minister, announced the effective nationalisation of three high street banks. Mr Brown defended his government’s “unprecedented but essential” £37bn injection that could leave it owning a 60 per cent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the world’s biggest banks, and 43 per cent of the combined Lloyds TSB and HBOS, which is set to be the country’s largest … Continue reading RBS and Lloyds/ HBOS are effectively nationalised

Uncategorized2 Comments

Unprecedented | UK Goverment to inject $35Bn into top banks

Colin Henderson

With RBS expected to get $15Bn, that emphasizes the extent to which the British government are apparently going to support British banks. State to save HBOS and RBS | Sunday Times The scale of the fundraising could lead to trading at the London stock market being suspended. This would give time for the market to digest the impact of the moves. Relevance to Bankwatch: How will this $35 Bn capital injection into RBS, HBOS, Lloyds, and Barclays help the immediate problem of frozen interbank lending? There are two problems with banks: 1) lack of capital to absorb bad loans 2) … Continue reading Unprecedented | UK Goverment to inject $35Bn into top banks