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The Finanser’s Week: 27th April – 3rd May 2015

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Invest Northern Ireland

Our biggest stories of the past week are ...

Why you should feel revulsion for the term ‘omnichannel’

A lot of folks are asking me whether I’m really saying that banks need to start all over again?  Is that really feasible, Chris?  How can you recommend that we tear down the house and rebuild it?  Well, there’s a lot of reasons I can say this, and believe it.

How to spot a fake Digital Bank

I just heard a presentation from a leading American bank on the need to be digital.  This bank claims to be a digital leader in the US and, from all the PR and headlines, you would believe they were.  Listening to their presentation, you might believe it too ...

The jury’s still out on Apple Pay…

This is a blog from the Hotwire PR website, written by Camilla Ives.  It summarises my good friend John Chaplin'sPayments Innovation Jury Report report well.  The report has been produced annually for the past four years and John will be presenting this in person to the Financial Services Club in England (June) and Poland (July).  In the meantime, here's the low down.

The Finanser interviews: Chris Larsen, CEO and cofounder, Ripple Labs

 Following on with our regular weekly interview the Finanser talks this week with Chris Larsen, CEO and co-founder of Ripple Labs.

If banking were a movie, which movie would it be?

So it’s late at night and we reach that point in the evening when one of the group pipes up: so let’s stop talking about us, but let’s talk about banking.  A big groan. If banking were a movie, what movie would it be?  

 

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

Once interest rates are on the move again, how fast will they rise? - The Independent
It is a huge question, not least for the next UK government: how fast will interest rates rise here and elsewhere in the developed world? For a start, the cost of funding will be a crucial element in the next government’s fiscal planning, for the faster rates go up the

Barclays takes extra £800m hit for forex - Financial Times
Pre-tax profits fall 26% to £1.34bn in first-quarter but investment banking rebounds

French IT firm Cap Gemini to buy U.S. rival IGATE for $4 billion - Reuters
PARIS (Reuters) - Cap Gemini SA , a French information technology services company, said it will buy U.S.-based rival IGATE Corp for $4 billion in a deal that would make North America into its biggest market and hand IGATE's founders a $1 billion windfall.

Investors question Deutsche Bank's overhaul - Reuters
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank's biggest strategic overhaul under co-chief executives Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen got a thumbs down from investors on Monday who judged it too little too late.

End of the bank holiday? Almost 100 NatWest and Barclays branches to be open in end of 144-year tradition - The Telegraph
RBS says customers struggle to make it to branches during working hours, as it opens branches on a bank holiday for the first time

Deutsche Bank strategy met with scepticism - Financial Times
Lack of detail in German lender’s five-year vision leaves analysts puzzled

HSBC considering spinning off British retail bank: Sunday Times - Reuters
(Reuters) - HSBC , Europe's biggest bank, is weighing plans to spin off its British retail bank in a 20 billion-pound ($30.37 billion) deal, the Sunday Times reported.

Lloyds takes £640m hit from TSB's Spanish sale - The Telegraph
Bank due to report fall in profits as it registers IT losses from Banco Sabadell's takeover of TSB

If Greece falls, no one wants their prints on the murder weapon - Reuters
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - "We're going bust." "No, you're not." "You're strangling us." "No we're not." "You owe us for World War Two." "We gave already."

The bizarre banking loophole that has opened up in Malta - The Guardian
Malta throws a spotlight on how secure our bank accounts really are – or aren't

 

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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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