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Oct 8, 2010

Skinner does Die Hard

Being in New York this week, I decided to relax today and booked a trip around the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This was on a recommendation from a friend, and proved to be interesting, especially as there is gold in them, there vaults! The Fed only allow around 25,000 visitors…

Oct 7, 2010

If payments are free, who pays?

One of the big questions we want to focus upon during the Long Finance debates at SIBOS this year is: if payments are free, who pays? The discussion is all around the concept that payments have been so commoditised and disrupted that they are irrelevant as a source of value and revenue generation. There’s no…

Oct 6, 2010

Bloggerblast redux

Quite a few folks found it difficult to keep up with our bloggerblast with Matt Colebrook, CEO of First Direct last Friday. It was a blast, although a few folks found the conversation stream a bit garbled and confusing as there were at least seven people in the conversation. Furthermore, I think Matt was a…

Oct 6, 2010

Monthly MiFID MTF Monitor, September 2010

We are pleased to provide our eighth month of monitoring the MTF performances in European Equities trading, in partnership with Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter (EMSR). Market Share based upon Euro Value September 2010 August 2010 Source: Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter Market Share based upon Volume of Trading September 2010 August 2010…

Oct 1, 2010

Banking in 2031 … any different to banking in 1989?

I'm having a webchat today with First Direct's CEO, Matt Colebrook, who spoke at the Financial Services Club last Monday (more to come later). The discussion will look at how banking has changed over the last 21 years, as First Direct launched in 1989. The dialogue is between Matt and good mates Brett King of…

Sep 29, 2010

What happens when there is no more poverty?

I posed this question for the Long Now meetings we will be holding as part of SIBOS in Amsterdam in October. It goes with the other big questions tackled so far: When will we know there won't be another meltdown? and Who will be the next global superpower? The questions are important because, dependent upon…

Sep 28, 2010

Exclusive: Interview with First Direct

I'll post a couple of unique and exclusive items here in the next few weeks to celebrate First Direct's 21st Birthday, especially as the FSClub hosted their CEO to a dinner last night in this respect. This follows our celebration of PayPal's 10th Birthday, so we're getting a reputation for celebrating the birthdays of disruptive…

Sep 23, 2010

The end of the European Union?

On October 12th, I will be hosting a press conference to release the results of our European Payments Survey 2010. Last year’s survey’s headline was that 58% of survey respondents say that the PSD is being transposed inconsistently and 63% state that this is because of different interpretations at the country level, amongst many issues…

Sep 20, 2010

The Rise of Islamic Finance

Ron Robins, an Englishman now based in Canada who promotes the idea of ethical investing, shared another item with me this week which has some interest here. The Rise of Islamic FinanceBy Ron Robins, Founder & Analyst – Investing for the Soul Islamic finance is spreading around the world. Governments realising its potential for profits…

Sep 13, 2010

Googling for money

My good mate Brett King has just posted some really interesting analysis and stats from Google about how we find out about loans and finances, and the search behaviours therein. The headline data came from Google Australia, with the key trends showing a move away from branch towards search for financial news. For example, when…