Technology

Nov 29, 2012

Can banks meet the hybrid challenge?

It’s taken me a while to work out why social media and stuff is such a fundamental change for banking, but I finally think I've got there and it's clearer. It started with the rise of blogging and social media such as YouTube. I still retell the story of McKinsey’s Chief Executive who was side-blinded…

Nov 29, 2012

Can banks meet the hybrid challenge?

Nov 27, 2012

£3 million from a simple ATM skim

I was just surfing the BBC news for information about the new Governor of the Bank of England and found this as the #1 most viewed video clip today. The story is about a Romanian fraudster who admitted to stealing £3 million from a card-skimming scam. He couldn’t exactly deny it, as he was caught…

Nov 23, 2012

Too fast to innovate, too slow to change

As mentioned yesterday, the regulator tries to keep up with the banks who try to keep up with customer, and I said that banks often innovate too slowly. There are many examples of this, but the one that I come back to regularly is Chip & PIN. Chip & PIN has been an enormous success,…

Nov 22, 2012

Why should we innovate?

I was talking at a conference and a regulator was on the panel. The panel chair asked him: “should we think about innovation first or regulation?” and he responded by saying: “It is not a question of regulation or innovation. I would rather ask the question: why do we need innovation at all? Who is it…

Nov 20, 2012

The last typewriter … what next?

I just saw a note today that the Science Museum has acquired the very last typewriter produced by the Brother factory: “The factory’s 200 employees witnessed the final model of the Brother CM-1000 being packed into its box to a soundtrack of emotional sighs and cheers. This object is the 5,855,533rd of its type to be…

Nov 15, 2012

Bank’s biggest weakness: drowning in data

I recently met Big Data in person. In real life. THE BIG DATA. Yes, I did. And here he is … Do you recognise him? No? BIG DATA? The guy. No? Maybe this will help you to remember. Yes, Big Data. The man, the legend, the person … … ah, you thought I meant Big…

Nov 14, 2012

Virtual currencies will explode thanks to mobile games

The European Central Bank (ECB) has just issued a report on Virtual Currency Schemes, with case studies on Second Life and Bitcoin (both previously covered in depth here). In the report, the ECB calls Bitcoin “the most successful — and probably most controversial — virtual currency scheme to date.” The ECB goes on to say that the…

Nov 9, 2012

A hundred years of cash

A hundred years ago, things were different but the same. We needed to eat, but what we ate was very much a national rather than international cuisine. We had to travel, but we would walk, bicycle of take the train. We enjoyed entertainment, with a visit to the cinema once a month as a treat….

Oct 25, 2012

More reaction to the RBS glitch

After last week's post about the meeting we had at the Club regarding the RBS glitch, I received an email from one attendee, Peter Miller. Well worth a read so I thought I would post it here as additional input to this challenging and important area in our group. Last week’s Financial Services Club meeting,…