Uncategorized4 Comments

Hostile takeover attempt in Credit Union land

Colin Henderson

Fascinating and potentially troubling development in the world of Credit Unions. The story is the Wings Financial Federal Credit Union’s unsolicited and unwelcome bid to merge with Continental Airlines Federal Credit Union. Wings have set up a site, and this ‘advantage’ is displayed. Link to Benefits to You This will be interesting to follow.  While legal, it goes against traditional CU methods and views, and raises lots of issues.   Technorati tags: Credit+Unions, Wings+Financial+Federal+Credit+Union, Continental+Airlines+Federal+Credit+Union Continue reading Hostile takeover attempt in Credit Union land

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Online encyclopedias | Fact or fiction? | Economist.com

Colin Henderson

 Off topic, but this article is a bit negative from the usually objective Economist.  At least the title is.  The reality is that Wikipedia as one of the top 5 sites has proven its capacity to further encyclopedia’s evolution, in ways that will not be stopped by one errant person, or even two or three Ryan Jordans’.  He was caught, and others will be caught too. Wikipedia has strengths too, chiefly the resilient power of collective common sense. It benefits from the volunteer efforts of many thousands of outside contributors and editors. If one drops out, another fills his place. … Continue reading Online encyclopedias | Fact or fiction? | Economist.com

Business Models, Social Lending, Social networks

If I were a Banker …. a view from France

Colin Henderson

The always intelligent blog of Jean-Christophe posts a provocative view of Banking evolution. While the Mutual Credit launches an advertising campaign where it asks its customers what they would do if they were bankers, the bank of tomorrow is already moving& elsewhere Source: Translated version of http://capelli.typepad.fr/capelli/2007/03/si_jtais_banqui.html The English translation, courtesy of Google is here. Even with the rough translation, I like this point, that is fundamental to the success of social integration with real business – transparency and yet confidentiality.  Note I had to add some prepositions to make it closer to the French original: New tendency of Web 2.0 … Continue reading If I were a Banker …. a view from France

Payments1 Comment

Remote deposit capture shows exponential growth

Colin Henderson

 Since the advent of Check 21 regulations in the US, requiring Banks to use cheque images to settle, the introduction of remote deposit capture has taken off.  This capability allows for merchants to scan the cheque, send it off for credit, and the paper cheque is destroyed. Overall, there has been strong growth. According to remotedepositcapture.com, the number of Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) locations was expected to top 181,000 at the end of 2006. That’s up from 41,000 at the end of 2005 and only 6,500 in 2004. Not surprisingly, there also has been substantial growth in the total number … Continue reading Remote deposit capture shows exponential growth

Payments

US Federal reserve will nor process paper cheques after 2010

Colin Henderson

 The US Federal Reserve continue to close cheque processing facilities bringing their network to less than half of what it was as recently as 2003. By 2010 we will only support Check 21,” said Terry Roth, a vice president with the Fed’s retail payments office. Source: Small Business News Network – Barlow Research Associates, Inc.   Technorati tags: check+21, paperless, US Continue reading US Federal reserve will nor process paper cheques after 2010

Business Models, Innovation

A new asset class for investors – unsecured personal loans (Zopa)

Colin Henderson

Zopa pushes the boundaries and introduces more disruption within financial services, by bundling loans granted through its service, into Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) eligible investments. Social lender Zopa is offering Sipp investors the chance to make between 6% and 14% on their cash in the run up to retirement. Last week, Zopa revealed it was agreeing operational details with a number of specialist self invested personal pension with the view to offering its lending facility as a separate asset class within a Sipp wrapper. James Alexander of Zopa noted: ‘It will be very attractive to those over 55 who want … Continue reading A new asset class for investors – unsecured personal loans (Zopa)

Business Models

"Money and Modern Banking without Bank Runs"

Colin Henderson

This paper from “Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports” with the above title, introduces the notion that an old style run on the Bank cannot occur.  It goes further to propose that deposit insurance is not required, and in fact may encourage bank failures. Hat tip – Linkdump In a model of nominal demand deposits repayable in money within aclearinghouse, I show that interbank lending and monetary prices imply that traditional bank runs do not occur. This finding suggests that deposit insurance may not be needed to prevent bank runs in a modern economy. I am not qualified … Continue reading "Money and Modern Banking without Bank Runs"

Innovation2 Comments

Trabian is releasing their Credit Union CMS as Open Source!

Colin Henderson

 Trabian continue to lead the charge within the Credit Union movement, by releasing their Content Management solution as Open Source. Trabian (the people behind OSCU) just announced that they are releasing their Credit Union focused Content Management System (CMS) as Open Source. Source: (building the) Black Rock Federal Credit Union » Trabian is releasing their Credit Union CMS as Open Source!   Technorati tags: Trabain, Open+source, CMS Continue reading Trabian is releasing their Credit Union CMS as Open Source!

Business Models

Jean-Christophe Capelli: Les banques dans Second Life

Colin Henderson

 Jean-Christophe starts off a series about Banks in Second Life.  For the non French speakers, there are enough links in this post to make it very worthwhile. Aujourd’hui, 1er volet de la série “Les banques dans Second Life”, consacrée aux banques qui existent IRL (In Real Life) et qui sont également présentes “in-world” (c’est à dire dans SL) Source: Jean-Christophe Capelli: Les banques dans Second Life (1)   Technorati tags: SecondLife, Virtual+Reality+Banks Continue reading Jean-Christophe Capelli: Les banques dans Second Life

Uncategorized

TED 2006 | Multi-touch interface

Colin Henderson

 Imagine online banking with no keyboard.  Not so far fetched.  This is a fascinating glimpse into the future, and this was last years TED. Presentation by Jeff Han of a futuristic multi-touch interface during the Adobe sponsored TED2006. Jeff Han is a research scientist for NYU’s Media Research Lab, and the inventor of an “interface-free” touch-driven computer screen. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 09:32) Source: YouTube – Multi-touch interface (from Adobe TED)     Technorati tags: TEDtalks2007, interface+free, multi+touch+interface Continue reading TED 2006 | Multi-touch interface