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Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 10th June – 16th June 2013

Chris Skinner Author Avatar
by
Invest Northern Ireland

Our biggest stories of the past week are ...

When work and social life collide, we need social banks

One of the themes of
my presentations of recent times is how technology has bridged the divide
between work life and social life. This came up in force again, as we talked
about the role of social media in finance...

How important is real-time?

This is a question
that comes up more and more, and there’s an easy answer: it’s very important;
and a harder answer: it’s not always important; and this is a key discussion in
the context of immediate payments, something that...

Why insurance is so boring (and why it needn't be)

I began life in
finance in insurance, taking the insurance exams and gaining a professional
qualification. I’m still a Chartered Insurance Practitioner today, even though
the sector leaves me cold. Why? Because it’s run by Actuaries who are just
plain...

The continuing battle over interchange fees

At the Financial
Services Club Poland meeting last week, there was a ding-dong discussion over
the regulation of interchange fees, as well as a lot of talk about mobile
wallets.

Did U.S. Cyberattacks On Iran Backfire On American Banks?

In a guest post by
FSClub friend Tom Groenfeldt, we look at how the lockdown on Iran may have
backfired in creating a spate of attacks upon US banks including Bank of
America, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp, PNC, HSBC and
BB&T.  So far, the cost of these
attacks is millions and escalating.

  
The major general news stories of the past week include ... 
 

Full
memo from Stephen Hester to RBS staff
- The Telegraph
Read the full memo sent by Stephen Hester, the outgoing Royal Bank of Scotland chief
executive, to RBS staff.        


Labour
overpaid for RBS by £12 billion, minister says
- The Telegraph
Labour overpaid by £12 billion when it bailed out the Royal Bank of Scotland at
the height of the financial crisis, Treasury minister Sajid Javid has said.
       


Santander
invests €5m in mobile payments
- Financial Times
Spanish bank partners with Swedish start-up iZettle whose card reading devices
attached to smartphones allow merchants to receive payments


RBS
'should be more like Canadian bank', documents show
- The Telegraph
Hedge fund manager pictured with presentation on RBS, entitled "the case
for improving viability", which appeared to recommend that the lender
should become more like a Canadian bank.        


HSBC
tops list of Europe's biggest banks
- The Telegraph
HSBC leapfrogs France and Germany's largest lenders to take the top spot with
assets of more than £1.7 trillion.        


German
banker axed for 'sleep error'
- BBC
A German court has ruled a bank supervisor was unfairly fired for missing a
multi-million-euro error by a clerk who fell asleep during a transaction.


Banks
Race To Meet Account-Switching Deadline
- Sky News
Britain's biggest banks are racing to meet a deadline to allow customers to
move their accounts within a week as they bid to head off measures that they
claim will cost the industry billions of pounds.


Revealed:
a blueprint for banking reform
- The Telegraph
Ahead of the final report from the banking commission on raising industry
standards, Harry Wilson reveals the key areas that the dossier will cover.


Metro
Bank’s Anthony Thomson forecasts more entrants to banking
- Financial
Times
The UK will see between five and 15 new entrants to banking over the next three
to five years, according to the founder and former chairman of Metro Bank, the
first new high street bank for more than a century when it launched in 2010.


Facebook
virus that empties your bank account
- AOL Money
Internet security experts are warning of a virus embedded into pages on
Facebook. Users who click the links are taken to malicious websites, which
install a virus. The virus then quietly sits on your computer, stealing
passwords and account details until it has enough details to empty your bank
accounts.

 

If you like the Finanser, check out the books of the blog: the Complete Banker Series

 

The Financial Services Club is sponsored by:

Invest Northern Ireland 

For details of sponsorship email us.

 


Chris Skinner Author Avatar

Chris M Skinner

Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...

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