Our biggest stories of the past week are ...
The story of the official Financial Services Club's Bear!
The Financial Services Club finished the year with a party, of course. This party was at one of the ancient livery companies of London, the Wax Chandler’s Hall (what’s a wax chandler?), and dedicated to the newly adopted bear of...
The Top 10 Bank News items of 2013
Looking back on 2013 We’re moving towards end of year mode, so it’s time to put a wrap on 2013. In the usual way, this is achieved by looking back over the year and seeing what news has hit the...
The Top 10 Blog Entries of 2013
Talking of the top bank news, here are the top 10 blog entries of 2013 by page views: Number 10: #AskJPM? No way … JPMorgan’s social media disaster November JPMorgan had this great idea this week: to host a twitter...
This is my penultimate review of 2013, as we head towards the shutdown season, so here goes 2013 was the year of meditation. Banks had the chance to think, reflect, plan and look ahead. After five years of manic panic,...
14 predictions for 2013: did they come true?
At the start of the year I made 14 predictions for 2013. Here they are. First, four forecasts for the economic movements of 2013. 1. The USA is a solid rock From the Economist I thought the US would be...
The major general news stories of the past week include ...
Bitcoin crashes as China's biggest exchange blocks Yuan deposits - The Independent
China's biggest Bitcoin exchange has stopped accepting deposits of Chinese yuan, prompting a decline in the price of the digital currency of more than a third in one day.
2013 in charts: A creeping ascent - The Economist
THE world economy continued to recover from the financial crisis in 2013, albeit wanly. Stockmarkets around the world rallied (chart 1). And companies are issuing what is likely to be a record amount of debt (chart 2), to take advantage of rock-bottom interest rates. The fear of further debt crises in
Payday lender First Financial fined £175,000 for spam texting - The Independent
A payday loan firm that persistently bombarded people with spam texts encouraging them to borrow money to have a night out has been fined £175,000.
Bob Diamond makes triumphant return to the City with a new African banking business - The Independent
The former Barclays’ chief executive Bob Diamond has raised a higher than expected $325m (approximately £200m) from investors as he returned to the London stock market today with a new venture targeting Africa.
Big retailers back cap on card fees - Financial Times
Fees on payments via credit or debit cards cost British retailers £850m per year with almost 70 per cent of retail sales now put on plastic
Chimpanzee dressed in a suit roller-skating through prostitutes and 'dwarves' in Wolf of Wall Street prompts boycott calls - The Independent
An animal rights group is calling for a boycott of Martin Scorsese's upcoming film, The Wolf of Wall Street , because it features a chimpanzee in a suit roller-skating through an office.
Standard Chartered forced by Bank to strip top exec of risk role - The Telegraph
The Bank of England has forced Standard Chartered to strip its finance director, Richard Meddings, of his responsibility for risk at the emerging markets focused lender
Bruiser Boucher, Irish banking's great survivor - Reuters
DUBLIN (Reuters) - In March 2011 Bank of Ireland had four months to find 4.2 billion euros or the government would seize control. The country's central bank was issued powers to fire senior financiers. The outlook seemed bleak for Richie Boucher.
JP Morgan to ban staff from instant messaging services - The Telegraph
Clampdown on chats used in Libor rigging could be enforced as early as this week
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.
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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...
