The Finanser’s Week: 12th August – 18th August 2013

Our biggest stories of the past week are ...

Wake
me up before September ends

It’s August and September is imminent.  What happens in September? The Financial
Services Club begins its new season of meetings? Yes.  The world starts preparing for the end of
summer / start of summer, dependent upon which hemisphere you live in?  Yes.  Green Day wake
up? Probably not. Anything else? Urmmm … oh yes, SIBOS happens.

#SIBOS
2013: The 'Long Tail' Model Is Coming to Banking (Part Two)

As mentioned yesterday, I’m joining Uday Goyal for the
opening session of innotribe at SIBOS 2013. The session focuses upon how
the business model of banking is changing, and includes discussions around all
aspects of innovation and change in banking.  A good insight into this
session has been summarised by co-founder and co-organiser of innotribe 2013, Mariela Atanassova.

#SIBOS
2013: Get on the train before it leaves the station (Part Three)

In the spirit of supporting Innotribe at SIBOS, Dubai 2013,
you may want to look at the rest of the program as it’s the fifth year of the
 flagship ‘Innotribe at Sibos’ event, and the team have decided to do
things a little differently.  The theme
this year is: ‘There is light at the end of the tunnel’, and with
an actual tunnel to travel down to enter their space in Dubai, they’ve designed
their programme like a metro map …

Get
detailed with the here and now, and macro with the yet to come

So I’ve had meetings with three vendors in the last week
where we’re talking about mobile and tablet computing in banking, Big Data,
Cloud and such like, and I’m sick to death of it.  Not of the vendors, but of this bandwagon
hype around jargonised words that are meaningless.

More
on Africa, Somalia, remittances, Barclays and HSBC

There have been some extraordinary activities of late, and
it is only going to get worse.  This led
to me blogging a piece earlier last month that gained some significant
reactions, including a dialogue with Mike Laven, CEO of Currency Cloud, that
clarified some aspects of what is really going on here.  

14th
October: Chris Skinner in India

For those who seek inspiration, there are two great
opportunities coming up in the next two months. 
First, I am going to be in India for a week from 14th October, and happy
to consider any bookings whilst there.  Just let me know if this is of
interest. If anyone wants an inspirational speech from Mark, let me know.  

  

The major general news stories of the past week include ...  

TSB prepares
to launch website for 5m customers - The Telegraph
Almost five million Lloyds customers who are being switched to TSB will get a
further glimpse of their new bank this week.        

Blame bank
regulation for Britain’s stagnation - Financial Times
The financial sector’s inability to support growth is due to regulatory
pressure, says Adam Ridley

Bank branch
cull in 'lull before the storm' - The Telegraph
Figures compiled by the European Central Bank show the number of branches
across the UK has fallen by 557 since the financial crisis struck five years
ago.        

Sallie
Krawcheck: 'Women must get better at playing the corporate game' - The
Telegraph
The former Bank of America executive - once dubbed Wall Street's most powerful
woman - talks to Emma Sinclair about life after banking, her top career tips
and why she's now in the business of women's networking.      
 

You think
Wonga's bad? Just look what the bank did to me - Daily Mail
We can criticise the men behind these companies for their interest rates, but
they are the only option when there is nowhere else to go. They meant I could
eat and my animals could eat. The people we should be criticising are the
mainstream banks – and this is why

All aboard
for Europe's shrinking bank branch network - Reuters
Banks have shut about 20,000 branches across Europe in the last four years,
including 5,500 last year and 7,200 in 2011, according to a Reuters analysis of
European Central Bank data.

Sants Joins
Inner Sanctum Of Bank Lobby Group - Sky News
Barclays compliance chief officer and former FSA Chief, Hector Sants, is to
take a role at banking industry's main lobbying group

Mark Carney
sparks 'stampede' for home loans - The Independent
Mortgage lenders and brokers have enjoyed a "stampede" of borrowing
requests since Mark Carney pledged to keep interest rates on hold for the next
few years.        

Monday
Interview: Head of Deloitte UK David Sproul - The Telegraph
It's time to move on from what happened with RBS and the MG Rover sale, says
the man heading one of the 'Big Four' auditors .        

Man who
created own credit card sues bank for not sticking to terms - The Telegraph
Bank apparently failed to read 42-year-old's amendments, signed the contract
and sent him a credit card.        

 

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