Thought I would try something new this week which, to be honest, I'm not keen on doing as I don't like seeing myself on camera - who does? - but it's a new toy and so thought we'd give it a go.
A brief summary of the week's news from the Finanser in video form.
The Finanser's Week, 18th April 2010 from Chris Skinner on Vimeo.
Related news to this week's video:
- SEC charges Goldman Sachs with fraud - The Telegraph
- Goldman Sachs - a dedicated section on the Finanser
- CDO's and their role in the credit crisis explained
Meanwhile, the rest of news stories of the week include ...
- Despite its grief, Poland is a beacon - The Times
- Iceland 'negligent' over banks - BBC and weather
- Eurozone ministers agree €30bn rescue for Greece - The Independent
- London bond trader creates JustGiving page to help
Greece ... £398 down, £99,999,602 to go - The
Telegraph - UBS investors vent anger against old board - The Independent
- Brown admits failure to crack down on banks - The Times
- Northern Rock directors fined and banned by City
watchdog - The Times - Cash is being 'replaced by cards' - BBC
- President Barack Obama’s finance reforms ‘the most
important in generations’ - The Times - Tories name men to lead break up of FSA if they win
power - The Independent - Top US banks face $30bn of mortgage losses, warns
CreditSights - The Telegraph - Decade of plenty is over for consultants - The Times
And our biggest stories of the week are ...
Branches are dead, the future is social
My latest presentation on the future of (retail) banking and an audio file to go with it.
The World is changing fast as industries are turned on their head by people self-publishing, self-distributing, self-advertising, self-managing their news, music, reading, writing and general media content online. What does this mean for banking?
Why mobile is changing the banking planet
Back in 2004, I asked a group of bankers when mobile would take off in
banking. They all said: “not in our lifetimes”. Six years
later, the battleground is already defined and being won. Are you
fighting in this space? Have you lost already? I wonder ...
As those who follow this blog know, I write regularly about services
such as Facebook and PayPal. But these sites are not the be-all
and end-all. You have to bear in mind that they are purely popular in
their language of origin: English. There are many other payment
systems out there. Of particular note are iDEAL, Yandex.Money and
Alipay.
Going back to the idea that a bank could offer a widget-based business model of functionality and
that everything these days is free, makes me realise exactly what
tomorrow’s bank will look like. Why not open the Ryanbank, based upon building a bank
services around the Ryanair
(South West
Airlines for Americans) business model.
Mortgage Lending Mantra: "I Like Big Bucks"
Story breaking in the USA this week is all about Washington Mutual (WaMu), the Seattle-based
mortgage bank closed down by the FDIC in September 2008 to be taken over
by Bank of America. What a difference a year or two makes. In 2006, an employee jamboree took place in Hawaii, resulting in a range of amusements which
WaMu has been trying to keep secret, but are now revealed
in the Senate Committee's investigations.
A friend in the USA sent me a link to the Huffington Post’s story
about the Fourteenth Banker. This is a new blog,
started last month, by a senior XVP in a Top Ten US Bank that has been
using TARP funds. Why has he called the blog the Fourteenth Banker?
Santander: confused, boring ... or innovative?
A brilliant
story in Gizmodo about Grupo Santander's Head Office in
Santander City, Spain. Gizmodo liked the fact they have robots guiding visitors around their massive
HQ. However, although Gizmodo
may like it, TIME Magazine labels Santander “the most boring bank in the world”.
Voice Commerce fail in bid for RBS WorldPay (UPDATE)
Just had a fascinating chat with Nick Ogden, founder and CEO of
Voice Commerce and previously RBS WorldPay which is now part of RBS
Global Merchant Services (GMS). As mentioned last week, Voice Commerce is one of the
organisations bidding for RBS GMS, now that it is up for sale again, and
this week was told that their
bid has been rejected. Here’s the detail.
What's on a Treasurer's mind?
On
22nd April, we have a great debate about: "What's on a Treasurer's
Mind?" with four significant practitioners in this space:
- Marcus Treacher, Head of e-Commerce, Global Transaction
Banking, HSBC; - Magnus Lind, Chair of the European Treasurers'
Peer Group; - Peter Matza, Head of Publishing, Association of Corporate
Treasurers; and - Sarah
Jones, Business Leader at Bottomline Technologies and former Head of
Treasury for Hewlett-Packard Europe.
If
you want to come along, click here and then register as a member or
non-member.
The Financial
Services Club is sponsored by:
For details of sponsorship email us.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
