The biggest news stories of the week include:
Queen outlines new banking laws - BBC
Barclays accused of taking unfair advantage in Lehman purchase - The Telegraph
Tobin is not a mythical monster to frighten the City; it has a moral force - Guardian
John Varley's blueprint for successful and responsible banking - The Telegraph
JPMorgan to take full control of Cazenove - Financial Times
Bankers intent on flouting pay rules should quit mainstream, says Myners - The Times
And our biggest stories of the week include:
It’s the third week of November and usually I’m off to the USA for a tradeshow. Not this year.
My usual American show took place earlier this year and so I missed it and, instead of going to the US of A, I’m Back in the USSR. Or Russia as it is today, a thriving economy of diverse ethics and structures.
You may be wondering what I’m doing in Moscow ... it’s all to do with new opportunities as the doors open. I
was invited here to join a small software firm who have had success in
the Russian and other emerging markets, and are looking for some advice
as to how to get to the next level of business. They are introducing me
to their Russian clients, including the Stock Exchanges MICEX and RTS,
as well as some of their core banking customers in the retail and
commercial banking space.
What has MiFID done for democracy?
Fascinating
meetings with the Russian exchanges RTS and SPIMEX yesterday. After my
reference to military intelligence yesterday, you may wonder whether
SPIMEX is something to do with finding out who started the swine flu
pandemic but no, it’s the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange.
Mashup technologies in real-world banking
For a while, I've been trying to find some real-world examples of
mashup technologies in banking. Mashups are where many independent web services can be plugged together
easily into a 'mashup' that is personalised. Examples are easily
seen in Facebook where video and games are plugged in by users at the
click of a mouse. In banking, there are a few examples, but in the real-world with
consumers? Not really. But I have found an IT provider who gave me a great example as to how
this might work in banking.
Wells Fargo, PNC, HSBC and more have all been rolling out iPhone apps
for banking recently. Now, in a major public push, NatWest have
followed suit and are running a mainstream advertising campaign to
support their release. But are iPhone apps really up to the job?
Who can be trusted after the financial crisis?
Just found a great paper by the Centre for European Policy Studies
(CEPS) titled: "Who can be trusted after the financial crisis?" Using extensive research they draw four main conclusions, including the
fact that European citizens really do not trust the European Central Bank!
As
we look towards the end of the year with America suffering one of the
worst year's for bank failures in recent history (over 120 so far this
year), I was impressed by an image at the Tretyakov Gallery of Russian Art in Moscow.
Get 1000's of card numbers for $750
I'm
loving Robert Siciliano's latest blog entry on buying an ATM off
Craig's list, and finding 150 feet long printout of card numbers
because the bar owner who sold it to him forgot to delete the
transaction history.
American word of the year: 'unfriend'
Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary chooses a word of the year. This year's word is: unfriend, which is "to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook."
Just found this great online game called Fat Cat Cash Back, based upon the escapades of Fred Goodwin.
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...
