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Case Studies

Spanish Banks leading in innovation – now the iPad Bank (UPDATE)

It surprises me how often I find Spanish banks surprise me. First, BBVA launch the first really cool Bank 2.0 apps two years ago. Then Caja Navarra launches a fantastic hybrid Zopa-Bank styled P2P lending service. More recently, Santander created a really interesting head office campus full of robots. And now Banco Sabadell is one…

IPAD Sabadell

Goldman Sachs … or Sack Goldmans?

There are so many articles and analysis into Goldman Sachs practices at the moment … … that I’m not going to write a lengthy analysis to add to all of these, but have picked a few of the best articles at the end of this blog entry. What I would like to say is that…

Goldman Sachs papers

Come and join the Ryanbank

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. The thought struck me yesterday when I took my brother-in-law’s lad to see Clash of the Titans – more my thing than…

Ryanair

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”. In 2007, Bank of America launched their mobile banking applications and has seen a rapid uptake of users. In less than a year, they reached a million customers on mobile, and saw…

Santander: confused, boring … or innovative?

Thanks to Andrew Carrier's tweet for spotting this brilliant story in Gizmodo about Grupo Santander's Head Office in Santander City, Spain. Gizmodo liked the fact they have wee little robots running around guiding visitors around their massive HQ. Their HQ “is so damn big and confusing to navigate that you'll desperately need these multilingual robots…

500x_gruposan

Online payments is far more than PayPal

As those who follow this blog know, I write regularly about services such as Facebook and PayPal. This is because they are disruptive and fresh, as well as being incredibly successful. For example, Facebook is now the world’s #1 website, bigger than Google. Not bad for a five year old. Meantime, PayPal is still growing…

Global Social Networks

Metro Bank: the first new bank for a while

So, we are finally seeing a new retail bank launched in Britain for the first time in, oh, living memory? Yes, it’s Metro Bank time. Opening in about two months time, Metro Bank plans to grow from a couple of London branches to a couple of hundred by the end of the decade. In the…

MetroBank

If identities are unique, why do I have so many?

It’s a question I’ve asked before, but is becoming even more pertinent as I see new identity management programmes being rolled out that are fragmented, uncoordinated and, in some ways, nonsensical. The point was brought home to me as I listened to the stream of discussion about identity management that took place as a workgroup…

More on Tesco, Virgin and Metro Banks

Data Monitor kindly sent me some slides about Tesco, Virgin and Metro Bank after my blog this week. Datamonitor FS Event, All Slides View more presentations from Chris Skinner. The slides are part of a series from Data Monitor, Ovum and Verdict Consulting reviewing: the new entrants into the banking industry: Tesco, Virgin and Metro…

Virgin, Tesco … where’s the new bank?

So, we are finally seeing some new retail banks launched in Britain for the first time in, oh, living memory? Sure, I can remember when Tesco and Virgin got into financial services, but they did so in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland because they couldn’t get a banking licence. Now, we have a sudden…

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