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Do traders lack diplomacy and tact?

Reinforcing the idea that traders in the City have no diplomacy or tact, here's two adverts from online trading firm AvaTrade. Their newest ad obviously forgot about something called 9/11 … … whilst their previous ad got banned for sexual inequality. Obviously, equality is not 3 + 1 (and is it just me or is…

Banks designed for humans, not money

I was in an interesting debate yesterday about the future of banking, as usual, and the future of branches, yet again. It was all interesting stuff. Then one of the presenters – a design agency that created and designed the Apple stores – talked about designing branches for people, not money. He illustrated this with…

Iphone_3g_launch_nyc_apple_store

Bank security is like a King with a Princess

Once upon a time, there was a King. The King had been married to his Queen for three years, when the Queen gave birth to a Princess. Sixteen years later, the King was worried about his daughter. The Princess was very beautiful, and he did not want her to meet the wrong sort of suitor….

PRincess

Citibank: a flawed innovation process? No, but a ruthless one

I just got a heads-up about an interesting project taking place in Citibank called Darbie. Being aware of the challenge of new start-ups like Simple and Square, Citi are concerned that they might be disintermediated from the customer relationship, as are most old guard banks. But rather than ignoring this threat, Citi has taken it…

Not bank branches again (yawn, zzz, duh, wtf)

The hardy perennial discussion of whether we need branches or not comes up again this week.  It’s a regular debate on the blog and in the Financial Services Club, with various entries that are relevant to contribute towards the debate: To dump or not to dump the branch (2007) Branches Wanted: Dead or Alive? (2009)…

Why banks struggle with partnering in mobile finance

Following on from yesterday’s blog about the challenge of taking a vertically integrated bank and breaking it into pieces that can be assembled as part of an alternative service, such as a mobile app, reminded me of the build my own bank presentation from February 2009 (can this really be four years old already?). The thing is…

Mobile1

Why banks struggle with partnering in mobile finance

Following on from yesterday’s blog about the challenge of taking a vertically integrated bank and breaking it into pieces that can be assembled as part of an alternative service, such as a mobile app, reminded me of the build my own bank presentation from February 2009 (can this really be four years old already?). The thing is…

Mobile1

UK banks fudge Funding for Lending to SMEs

I was trying to find out about the UK Government's Funding for Lending Scheme and why it isn't working, and managed to meet a senior small business lending manager with one of the UK's largest retail banks. He spoke to me off the record, but here's a summary of the discussion.  It's pretty enlightening. I've…

Wolf-in-sheeps-clothing

UK banks fudge Funding for Lending to SMEs

I was trying to find out about the UK Government's Funding for Lending Scheme and why it isn't working, and managed to meet a senior small business lending manager with one of the UK's largest retail banks. He spoke to me off the record, but here's a summary of the discussion.  It's pretty enlightening. I've…

Wolf-in-sheeps-clothing

To regain trust we need to jail some bankers

I went to a Policy Review Summit yesterday, focused upon rebuilding trust in the banking system. We’ve had a few of these meetings at the Financial Services Club, and have two more in May, and the discussion usually comes around to a number of core themes: customers trust their bank accounts to be safe, secure…

Panel at FoFS

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