The Finanser’s Week: 28th October – 3rd November 2013

After blogging daily for over six years, I decided to edit the best parts of the blog that talk about the battle to digitise the bank into a book over the summer.  It’s not a Blook (Blog book) as it’s been written specifically as chapters, incorporating some of the best parts of the blog, but adding a lot more.  Officially available from today in both book and Kindle form, here’s the lowdown:

One of the great US Bloggers, Jim Marous, picked up on the release of my new bookDigital Bank, and asked for an interview with me.  As the discussion outlines the book's profile and content rather nicley, I'm republishing the interview here ...

A good friend of the Financial Services Club has launched a kickstarter project for her Future of Money TV Series.   Heather Vescent is one of a small group of visionary people involve in finance, and I've just joined her as a backer of the project.  However, with only 70 hours to go, will she make her target of $35,000?  To help her get nearer, here's the lowdown and if you want to find or fund the project you can get over to Kickstarter and put in some dough!

So I’m moving house – have I mentioned that before? – and have house cleaning, clearing and removal services all hovering around doing work this week.  Interestingly, all of them demanded cash.  Of course, it’s the old dodge the tax man trick isn’t it?  You get paid in cash, and no-one knows ...

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

That’s
handy… world’s first ATM for bitcoins opens in Vancouver cafe - The
Independent
As ATMs go, it’s an unusual one. A kiosk has been set up in a Vancouver coffee
shop that lets customers make transactions without needing a bank account or a
plastic card. The blue-black box resembles a standard bank cash machine, but is
in fact the first real-world portal to

Sins
of past, present and future haunt banks - Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - The cost to banks of cleaning up past misdeeds has soared
over $100 billion and is leaving lenders running scared from areas that put
them in potential danger of upsetting regulators.

JP
Morgan puts London FX chief on leave, Citi reported to do same - Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - JP Morgan has put its chief currency dealer in London,
Richard Usher, on leave, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday,
and Bloomberg reported Citigroup Inc had done the same with its chief dealer.

Barclays
boss will have to discover his inner Fred 'the Shred' - The Telegraph
The investment bank needs radical surgery, but Mr Jenkins will face a fight in
upsetting his golden goose        

Contactless
card data 'can be taken' - BBC
Researchers have said that data transmitted by contactless payments cards can
be picked up from a distance using inexpensive equipment.

If
RBS needs a bad bank why doesn't Lloyds? - The Telegraph
Government wants a bad bank at RBS but its bad non-core portfolio is valued at
£54bn while Lloyds' is £70bn        

Businesses
warn on bank ring-fence plans - The Telegraph
Some of Britain’s leading businesses have warned the Treasury that plans to
split retail and investment banking could harm their operations

Cash
cheques without going near a bank - The Telegraph
Taking images using mobile phones and scanners will speed up the clearing
process for cashing cheques

The
rise of the digital bank - Financial Times
Across Europe, retail banks have digitised only 20 to 40 per cent of their
processes; 90 per cent of European banks invest less than 0.5 per cent of their
total spend on digital. As a result, most have relatively shallow digital
offerings focused on enabling basic customer transactions.

All
aboard for Europe's shrinking bank branch network - Reuters
Banks have shut about 20,000 branches across Europe in the last four years,
including 5,500 last year and 7,200 in 2011, according to a Reuters analysis of
European Central Bank data.

 

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

 

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