The Finanser’s Week: 17th August 2009 – 23rd August 2009

Finanser in the news:

Can Zopa beat the banks? 
(Financial Times)
Social media facts businesses cannot ignore (Computer Weekly)

The biggest news stories of the week include:

Fed's Ben Bernanke says global economy 'beginning to emerge' from recession (Telegraph)
City taken by surprise as Bank of England’s figures herald end of recession 
(Times)
UK banks ‘may need to shut third of branches’ (Financial Times)
US tax investigators win fight to force UBS to disclose accounts worth $18bn 
(Guardian)
US man 'stole 130m card numbers' (BBC)
Bankers' pay soars 6% despite taxpayer anger (Times)
Iceland: what ugly secrets are waiting to be exposed in the meltdown? (Telegraph)
Nigeria Plans $2.6 Billion Bank Bailout, Ousts Top Executives (Wall Street Journal)
Bank of China to 'cherry-pick' UK mortgage customers as lending drought persists 
(Telegraph)
Project Turquoise offered for sale to major exchange groups (Independent)

And our key stories include:

Cloud computing in banks

Our
PSD and SEPA survey has now finished but another one has started. This
one is all about cloud computing.  Cloud computing is a hot topic and
often on the agenda at conferences, so why isn't it being used around
the banking centres of the world more?  To find out, the Financial
Services Club is running another brief survey about Cloud Computing:
the reality.  Click here to take the survey.

Why social finance matters

In the fourth
of a series about innovation in banking, it’s worth looking at the
business models of the new entrants who are trying to disrupt this
space and pose the question: are they sustainable?

The debate continues about Zopa

Lots of facts, stats and presentations about social lending and, particularly, Zopa.

The FT picks up our social lending debate

The Financial Times' Money Matters Blog
has picked up on the debate  between James Gardner and I about Zopa. 
They've asked readers for comments. Here are a few of the
responses here so far ...

How a bank should respond to 'disruption'

The word ‘disruptive’ is being bandied about liberally in the debate about new competitors, such as Zopa.  So what exactly is ‘disruptive’ and how should a bank respond?

First Direct, Cahoot and Smile win again

Two
years ago, the BBC ran a survey of 13,000 viewers about their
satisfaction with banks and found that the leading financial providers
were Cahoot!, Smile and First Direct, whilst Abbey came last. Now Which? has surveyed 14,000
people during the first half of 2009 to find Britain’s best
bank. Here are the summary results ...

The UK's regal figurehead, Her Royal Majesty the Queen of England, has received two letters in the last month.
The first was from the British Academy, making an attempt to explain the credit crisis. 
The second was from a range of leading figures who claim that the financial system is killing the planet. 
Which is true and should the Queen  chair a debate about whether banks are killing the planet?

US bank failures list since the crisis began

With the largest American bank collapse of 2009 occuring last week
- the Colonial Bank Group was taken over by the FDIC, and its assets
handed over to BB&T - there have been 83 US bank failures to date,
since the crisis began.  Here's the list ...

Numbers Part 16: Cards, Cards, Cards

Just stumbled across a web page on CreditCards.com that's fantastic.  Full of stats and numbers such as the fact that there are 984 million bank-issued Visa and
MasterCard credit and debit cards in the USA in 2006, and many more.

Where is the Antichrist?

Ghost Rider has set out to kill the Antichrist, but first has to find him ... in a bank?!

Dilbert's Bank

Today's Dilbert is a cracker ...

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For news by date, click on the dates below:

• 22nd August 2009
• 21st August 2009
• 20th August 2009
• 19th August 2009
• 18th August 2009
• 17th August 2009