Middle East, Wireless2 Comments

For Low income Un-banked | Emirates Bank to Launch Global Remittance Services through SMS Technology and Salary Cards

Colin Henderson

Mobile payments around the world continue to evolve more rapidly than North American or European Banks, with a few exceptions, are adapting to. This example, form Emirates Bank in Dubai, is aimed at unbanked in the Middle East is a classic example. It is provided by a North American company. Emirates Bank Group In a pioneering effort to provide financial services to the thousands of un-banked people across UAE, Emirates Bank has signed an agreement with Infospan Inc, a California based technology company, to launch a unique global service that will enable users to send and receive money instantly around … Continue reading For Low income Un-banked | Emirates Bank to Launch Global Remittance Services through SMS Technology and Salary Cards

Social Lending, Social networks

Social computing/ finance definitions and potential success criteria

Colin Henderson

The conversation in the comments surrounding the Zopa post make me thing even more about why its important.  First some definitions from the experts. Benjamin at Forrester defines Social Computing — a social structure in which technology puts power in the hands of communities, not institutions. Jim Bruene at NetBanker defines Social Personal Finance:  – Sharing personal finance questions with others in a defined online community I believe as do these folks, that social finance will change Banks and financial services.  We can debate the degree of change and the timing, but change will nevertheless happen.  For me part of … Continue reading Social computing/ finance definitions and potential success criteria

Open Source Banking, Social Lending7 Comments

Zopa is not a Social Lender, and why that matters

Colin Henderson

Back in June, Zopa was voted “Best Internet Project” by The Banker Technology Awards, 2007 and I posted about it here.  I was a little sceptical at the time, of the award being judged by people such as the CEO of Lloyds, HSBC, and CitiBank, and this quote: The judges particularly liked the fact that with just 25 staff it wasable to provide a seamless customer experience. Using a discussionboard and a blog it is able to listen and learn from its members,providing an innovative and more efficient marketing model. [emphasis mine] So, for other reasons, i was doing a … Continue reading Zopa is not a Social Lender, and why that matters

AI

Billeo represent an example of dis-aggregated financial services

Colin Henderson

Billeo announce some enhancements to their service this morning. They are up to over 6,000 billers, and have additional tools available including a toolbar. Press release here: SANTA CLARA, California – July 16, 2007 – Billeo, Inc. (www.billeo.com), today announced that the company has launched a series of solutions which give consumers unprecedented control and flexibility in online bill payment. Billeo lets you pay virtually any bill online, using any payment method desired, including credit cards and debit cards. If paying by credit card, the average Billeo user can reap over 5,000 additional points per year as part of their … Continue reading Billeo represent an example of dis-aggregated financial services

AI

Price comparisons for Banks getting closer

Colin Henderson

Paul at Finextra comes up with an interesting evolution that we have been eagerly awaiting;  a Bank (Tesco) aiming to provide price comparisons online. This aligns with what customers expect online, so lets see how far Tesco push it. Royal Bank builds its own glasshouse Interestingly, Tesco Personal Finance is thought to be gearing up to launch an online price comparison service in the autumn. Spokesman Matthew Dransfield confirmed to Finextra that the supermarket bank has registered the domain name tescocompare.com but refused to comment further. Technorati Tags: bank+price+comparisons Continue reading Price comparisons for Banks getting closer

Uncategorized

Interpreted information as a source of organisational power

Colin Henderson

There is much talk nowadays of attention led by people such as Linda Stone, and Stowe Boyd.  The premise is that Continuous Partial Attention is a new and trainable way of thinking.  I like the way JP approaches it in this post, relating the tools GenM use in comparison to the tools corporations use.  More importantly the implication that I read into it, is how use of the old MS Office tools, and especially Powerpoint provide adequate opportunity to control, manipulate and interpret information, into conclusions.  The obvious result is the classic, “information is power”. OLDMore on visualisation and flight … Continue reading Interpreted information as a source of organisational power

Business Models

Change is not so fast | understanding the future

Colin Henderson

As fast as we think things are changing, not so.  Blogs have been around for 10 years, even though they only gained mass prominence from 2003 onwards.  Blogs inroduced the concepts of simple mass web site opinion creation (posts) and conversation (comments).  [Note, the concept always existed in NNTP discussion boards, but they were not mass] Since then those blogging concepts have been evolved, combined with email and IM concepts, and the result is Social Networks.  Clearly the desire always existed, but the confluence of the right tools provided the recipe mix. NewsTrust – About this Story – Happy Blogiversary … Continue reading Change is not so fast | understanding the future

AI

Advertising acceptance in FaceBook | banner ads need not apply

Colin Henderson

Jim’s comment from his college age neice is perceptive.  Business will always try to stick traditional advertising into new media, and users are likely to generally resist it, unless new ways of approaching users can be developed.  Banner ads need not apply. The Aging of Facebook Makes it a More Appealing Platform for Financial-Services Firms (NetBanker) To her, it’s a privileged place for her friends to communicate: uncles, aunts, and especially parents, are definitely not on the invitation list. It will be interesting to see what happens to the hip kids as the establishment invades their turf. Technorati Tags: marketing, … Continue reading Advertising acceptance in FaceBook | banner ads need not apply

AI

While GenX/Y lead, Banks should watch their valuable boomer customers

Colin Henderson

Jim notes the recent stats on Social Networks to draw out that all age groups are involved. I support this view – Banks should increasingly build out for GenX/Y all the while remembering that all generations will use it. Gen X/Y provide the future clues for strategy direction, but don’t assume those valuable boomers are not there too, because they are. The Aging of Facebook Makes it a More Appealing Platform for Financial-Services Firms (NetBanker) Significance for Banks As you consider your social networking strategy, don’t think it’s only for the under-25 crowd. Some of your prime customers, the 30-somethings … Continue reading While GenX/Y lead, Banks should watch their valuable boomer customers

Social networks2 Comments

Google plan for social networks

Colin Henderson

When Google get serious about something its worth noting, just so that we can understand the impact on the web lifestyle.  Google Socialstream appears to be an effort to provide an aggregated view of a consumers social networking activity.  Socialstream Prototype Goal: Create a system for users to seamlessly share, view, and respond to many types of social content across multiple networks. Socialstream is a consumer view of all their online social contacts.  The central question here is the direction to social networks as an application layer.  FaceBook have introduced the F8 platform, that provides functional capability well beyond social … Continue reading Google plan for social networks