Social Lending

Zopa, CEO Douglas H. Dolton – SNW Interview

Colin Henderson

Interview with Doug Dolton, CEO of Zopa, the social lending company with offices in UK, US, Italy, and Japan. He has some interesting thoughts, and bullish views on the scale that social finance will achieve over time. Social Networking Watch: Zopa, CEO Douglas H. Dolton – SNW Interview What is your long term vision? Where could you see Zopa and the industry being in 10 years time? I honesty think that the efficiency, convenience and trust that you get with dealing with an entity like Zopa will become more and more attractive to people. I can see this will be … Continue reading Zopa, CEO Douglas H. Dolton – SNW Interview

subprime

Two more Banks shut down by FDIC

Colin Henderson

Two down, and approx 88 to go if current estimates are correct. There is an update due in August, and I would not be surprised to see the 90 estimate increased. FT.com / Companies / Financial services – US regulators seize two more banks Two weeks after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp seized IndyMac, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said it closed First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank NA of California. Continue reading Two more Banks shut down by FDIC

Innovation

“GE launches radical shake-up” | ft.com

Colin Henderson

Off banking topic; thinking about disruption, and systemic economic change its worth reflecting and remembering how GE was held up as the MBA case study for many years in the 90’s for their management approach, yet the environment has still shifted away from their manufacturing roots, and caught them off guard. FT.com / Companies / Energy Utilities Mining – GE launches radical shake-up GE’s shares have underperformed the S&P 500 Index in the past five years and are down 23 per cent in 2008, emboldening some investors to press Mr Immelt for more dramatic changes, including a possible break-up of … Continue reading “GE launches radical shake-up” | ft.com

Innovation2 Comments

Next step in open innovation | McKinsey

Colin Henderson

New report from McKinsey [free] on open innovation, or co-creation of products and services. The usual examples are offerred, from Linux, LEGO, Missha, and ATLAS (Scientific). next step in open innovation – The McKinsey Quarterly – next step in open innovation – Information Technology – Networking # Cocreating products and services with customers, however, is uncertain territory fraught with challenges and questions—for instance, who owns the resulting intellectual property? Nonetheless, smart companies are now beginning to encourage their customers to help them develop the products and services consumers really want. There is discussion of governance, and some skepticism that the … Continue reading Next step in open innovation | McKinsey

Uncategorized1 Comment

Yodlee launches expedited payments offering for online banking sites

Colin Henderson

Interesting new service from Yodlee, offerring same day bill payments, something thats hard to do today. Whats interesting is that there is an additional charge for same day payments. This means in effect that the delayed payments that exist today, are now hard wired as the standard, and anything faster costs more. Finextra: Yodlee launches expedited payments offering for online banking sites With Yodlee PayToday, financial institutions can take immediate advantage of the opportunity to generate new fee revenue by offering their customers the convenience of guaranteed, same-day electronic payments to hundreds of national and regional billers across multiple biller … Continue reading Yodlee launches expedited payments offering for online banking sites

subprime

Given a Shovel, Digging Deeper Into Debt | Nytimes

Colin Henderson

This has to be the most depressing piece on the true underbelly of the subprime situation in America. Note how lenders have shifted to fee revenue to optimise the high personal debt situation. Given a Shovel, Digging Deeper Into Debt – NYTimes.com Lenders have found new ways to squeeze more profit from borrowers. Though prevailing interest rates have fallen to the low single digits in recent years, for example, the rates that credit card issuers routinely charge even borrowers with good credit records have risen, to 19.1 percent last year from 17.7 percent in 2005 — a difference that adds … Continue reading Given a Shovel, Digging Deeper Into Debt | Nytimes

Open Source Banking3 Comments

Banks | time to be afraid

Colin Henderson

Mint has officially joined my list of top disruptive services in financial services. Till now, I only had one. These statistics below from TechCrunch suggest staggering and unique opportunities, data sharing potential, and the opportunity for shared user generated advice. The other disruptive service for similar reasons, is Wesabe. Mint Adds Support For Mortgage And Loan Tracking further expanded its services by introducing support for mortgage and loan tracking. Users will now be able to keep tabs on their loans from over 1,000 supported institutions….. Mint has seen extremely quick growth since its launch at TechCrunch 40, and is now … Continue reading Banks | time to be afraid

AI3 Comments

Financial Services in 2010 – Deloitte | Review and analysis

Colin Henderson

Thought provoking and well prepared new report from the prolific team at Deloitte. Following is a brief summary and analysis of the report, then my take on the conclusions. [hint: no-where in this report does the word internet or social media appear – is that right or wrong?] Financial Services in 2010 – Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu [produced June 2006] The worldwide market for financial services is evolving rapidly, and is likely to look very different by the year 2010. This study from Deloitte Research identifies major market drivers and operational challenges that financial institutions will likely face over the next four … Continue reading Financial Services in 2010 – Deloitte | Review and analysis

Social Media16 Comments

The social media conversation at a bank near you

Colin Henderson

Ron raises an important and fundamental point here. As a Bank what is the approach to incorporate social media into you business strategy? Twitter / rshevlin: @edolan FIs do NOT need a S… @edolan FIs do NOT need a SM strategy. they need to figure out how SM fits with (or chgs) their biz strategy. Big difference. Icon_red_lock7 minutes ago from twhirl in reply to edolan First off I accept that the end goal is a business strategy that includes all appropriate components. However trying to fit a social media strategy into the overall business strategy would truly be trying … Continue reading The social media conversation at a bank near you

Business Models, Open Finance, Open Source Banking4 Comments

A complete stranger told me … | The power of wesabe

Colin Henderson

A sobering and powerful post on the power of social media for financial services. [hat tip mmpartee] Such advice is interesting. At first glance one might ask whether it is serious. On the other hand would this not at least make a person sit up and take note. And what if others chimed in and the average response was that the advice was correct? If we consider the development of Linux, where people participate and improve the system because they want to. Such selfless assistance is natural and a proven model. Cogent Thoughts » Blog Archive » Social Media vs. … Continue reading A complete stranger told me … | The power of wesabe