Our biggest stories of the past week are ...
Bank regulators have
got it wrong
I just found a fascinating report released by the Policy
Exchange earlier this year: Capital
Requirements: Gold plate or lead weight?
The report takes a big hit at the Bank of England and Treasury’s
approach to the UK Banking Sector and, specifically, the mandate to increase
capital buffers whilst also increasing lending for business.
The Financial Services Club opens in the Nordic Region
The Financial
Services Club further extends its geographic reach to cover the Nordic Region,
hosting a number of meetings in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo and Helsinki over
the coming twelve months in partnership with Capco, Cicero and FIS.
Denmark's major innovation?
Digital identities!
Just
on my way back from a banking conference in Copenhagen, and it surprised me. It
surprised me because, as I said to the audience, the Nordic and especially
Danish banks had always led innovations in Europe and yet...
Mobile payments gorillas are
already out there
It’s
getting crowded out there in the mobile payments space. After years of
inactivity, everyone’s woken up to the opportunities out there, not the least
PayPal. PayPal did nothing in mobile through the 2000s, and I worried they were
missing...
Are payments infrastructures
fit for purpose?
Our
annual survey: The Changing Face of Payments? is underway. To join in the
survey click here. This is the third year of the survey, and the last two years
have shown some fascinating results about SWIFT, VISA and our global ACHs. [Take the survey]
Not just a cashless future,
but a moneyless one?
I was
listening to a futurist talking about our planet, its growth, its
overpopulation, the challenge of feeding the planet, sustainability and more,
and in the middle of all of this he said that the future would have no
money....
The major general news stories of the past week include ...
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.
Branch
fears over Barclays shake-up - The Telegraph
The head of Barclays' retail bank has signalled a branch
shake-up that campaigners said could result in significant closures.
Lloyds
and RBS branch sales to be given green light - The Telegraph
Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland's efforts to sell off
almost 1,000 branches are expected to be given the green light by competition
regulators on Wednesday.
TSB
website crashes after Lloyds split - The Telegraph
TSB bank website suffers outage within hours of relaunching
as a standalone bank, with all Lloyds Banking Group customers reporting
problems.
Five
years after Lehmans, should you buy bank shares? - The Telegraph
Bank shares plummeted during the financial crisis, which
began five years ago this week. Are they now a good investment?
EU
lawyers say financial transactions tax is illegal - The Telegraph
European efforts to impose a financial transactions tax
(FTT) have been plunged into further chaos after Brussels' own lawyers
concluded that the levy is unlawful.
French
bank staff forget 91-year-old locked in vault - The Telegraph
A 91-year old French lady was locked in the vault of her
local bank for 23 hours after staff forgot her and shut up shop for the
weekend.
Bank
of the year - City AM
2013 may be remembered as the year the banking sector shook
off the shadow of the financial crisis and really came back into its own. Here
is our pick of the top five in this come-back kid sector.
Treasury
'drove out Stephen Hester to cut pay-off' - The Telegraph
The Treasury pushed Stephen Hester out of his job as chief
executive of Royal Bank of Scotland to cut the cost of his pay-off from the
state-backed lender, according to a new book.
New
UK bank Shawbrook passes one billion pound lending milestone – Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - New British bank Shawbrook has lent more
than 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) since its launch two years ago, it said on
Monday, showing that challengers are emerging to break the dominance of
Britain's biggest banks.
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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...
