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First O2-RBS Visa Cards, now Nokia Obopay Money

A year ago, I blogged about Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announcing the intention to become an MVBO – a Mobile Virtual Banking Operator. The idea is to offer the mechanism for anyone to process mobile payments through the RBS payments system. The first result of this strategy is the announcement of O2, the mobile…

The FT picks up our social lending debate

The Financial Times' Money Matters Blog has picked up on the debate  between James Gardner and I about Zopa.  They've asked readers for comments.  I thought I would re-post the responses here as it adds to the richness of the context of our discussion. Martin Campbell (the one that started this off) responds: Certainly wasn’t…

The FT picks up our social lending debate

The Financial Times' Money Matters Blog has picked up on the debate  between James Gardner and I about Zopa.  They've asked readers for comments.  I thought I would re-post the responses here as it adds to the richness of the context of our discussion. Martin Campbell (the one that started this off) responds: Certainly wasn’t…

How a bank should respond to ‘disruption’

The word ‘disruptive’ is being bandied about liberally in the debate about new competitors, such as Zopa. First, as I’ve said before, banks don’t really have any competition except between the incumbents, due to the structure of the industry. Second, where there are openings, then disruptive new players may find a way to find a…

How a bank should respond to ‘disruption’

The word ‘disruptive’ is being bandied about liberally in the debate about new competitors, such as Zopa. First, as I’ve said before, banks don’t really have any competition except between the incumbents, due to the structure of the industry. Second, where there are openings, then disruptive new players may find a way to find a…

The debate continues about Zopa

James Gardner has responded to my post of yesterday, with a well-reasoned argument. However, he's made some error of numbers by stating that "consumer credit excluding credit cards from May 2008 – May 2009 was about £2.5 Billion. Let's take the easiest case for critical mass first, where Zopa achieves just 2.5% of that, or…

The debate continues about Zopa

James Gardner has responded to my post of yesterday, with a well-reasoned argument. However, he's made some error of numbers by stating that "consumer credit excluding credit cards from May 2008 – May 2009 was about £2.5 Billion. Let's take the easiest case for critical mass first, where Zopa achieves just 2.5% of that, or…

Why social finance, and particularly Zopa, matters

In the fourth of a series about innovation in banking, it’s worth looking at the business models of the new entrants who are trying to disrupt this space and pose the question: are they sustainable? Zopa, Prosper, SmartyPig, Wonga, Mint, Wesabe and the many other new entrants into finance hoping to leverage the promise of…

Smartypig-4

Why social finance, and particularly Zopa, matters

In the fourth of a series about innovation in banking, it’s worth looking at the business models of the new entrants who are trying to disrupt this space and pose the question: are they sustainable? Zopa, Prosper, SmartyPig, Wonga, Mint, Wesabe and the many other new entrants into finance hoping to leverage the promise of…

Smartypig-4

PayPal does have competition

I blogged yesterday about how PayPal is not as pally as they used to be. Some might say that this is because they are the last man standing in the last chance saloon of online payments, but that is not true. There’s always new competition. In fact, a year ago, I talked about one big…

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