The biggest news stories of the week include:
National protectionism threatens to derail Payment Services Directive - report (Finextra)
Research Project Reveals Flaws in Europe's Payments Ambitions (GT News)
EU pushes for clampdown on bankers' bonuses (Euractiv)
Bankers in Europe Criticize Crackdown on Bonuses (New YorkTimes)
Barclays Capital fined £2.45m for data failure (Financial Times)
Former bank director guilty of insider dealing (Times)
A single market for cards: the missing piece in the SEPA puzzle,
speech by Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB
London Stock Exchange to replace Tradelect with Millennium (Computer Weekly)
What the G20 Finance Ministers actually agreed: 23 page pdf summarising key agreements
And our key stories include:
Financial Services Club, Winter Season 2009
We
have just completed the season outline for the Financial Services Club
this winter. It's a busy one, with several key events including the UK financial prophet Vince Cable, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and forecaster of the crisis and its impact in partnership with the Industry & Parliament Trust.
The Financial
Services Club is still running the brief survey about Cloud Computing:
the reality. If you have yet to take part, click here to take the survey.
What does the future bank look like?
This is the last of a series of blogs about social finance that has covered new entrants to banking, their barriers to
entry, how they might disrupt banks, social technologies and more. If
you missed the earlier entries, here they are:
- Why banks struggle to innovate
- The relevance of social media to banks
- Why banks have little competition
- How social finance could disrupt banking
- How a bank should respond to 'disruption'
In this final blog, I thought we would look at the likely picture of
the future retail bank, as a result of all of the above.
The Financial Services Club's research into the Payment Services Directive and Single Euro Payments Area are now officially released.
EUROPEAN PAYMENTS: A LAND OF CONFUSION
Major research project reveals the flaws in Europe’s ambitions
The European Commission Strikes Back
Just as we post over 500 pages of research
that conclude the European Commission's Payment Services Directive's
(PSD) implementation could destabilise the Single Euro Payments Area
(SEPA), the Commission strikes back.
It’s
been nice having a break, and feeling like the banking system isn’t the
only thing I care about in this world. Nevertheless, the eye wasn’t
completely off the ball as several grumblings and mumblings have been
taking place during the last two weeks. The obvious and biggest story being the need to sort out bankers’ bonuses.
No pinstripes, dirty pants and lipstick
During
the credit crisis, we have all tightened our belts a bit and swallowed
our pride. I know myself that I actually get on the Tube now and sit
next to members of the general populous, and some banking friends of
mine tell me they have even caught a bus! But if you really want to measure the scale of recession, you need to look at other factors.
Please go away, we don't want your business
No, it's not a write-up about RyanAir (although the title would fit),
it's a write-up about the Tampa branch of Bank of America and a bank in
Guangdong, China. What can these two banks have in common?
Yesterday, the ATM celebrated its fortieth birthday quietly.
Apparently, one entrepeneurial firm is customising their ATMs to suit local lingo by launching the world's first Cockney cash machine, or should that be sausage and mash machine?
Sir Howard Davies on leverage, the crisis and the FSA
Just found a great YouTube channel called the Banking Conversation with some great interviews, including a half-hour with Sir Howard Davies, former Chairman of the UK's financial authority and now a Director of the London School of Economics.
$10.2 trillion in bailouts so far
The BBC posted an interesting pictorial of the bailouts to date. Here's the summary.
City of London burns down, costing $100 billion
Whilst I was away, no-one seemed to bother reporting that the City of London had burnt down ...
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...