Our biggest stories of the week are ...
Survey: are payments infrastructures fit for purpose?
This is the last week of our survey on payments infrastructures. Over 300 people have completed the survey and the results will be released in April. Have you taken the survey yet? If not join in: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P5KN6V3
It is clear that mobile is not only important; it is a real game-changer. Here are six reasons why mobiles are revolutionising banking and payments.
Banks should advise customers on the do’s and don’ts of social networking
Banks miss a trick in not advising customers how to network socially with safety, so here’s my top do’s and don’ts for social networking. It’s not exhaustive, but just those that are top of mind and banks would do well...
Banks "will absolutely not be disintermediated"
We got into another fine debate this week about bank disintermediation, a term used liberally throughout the 1990s and early 2000s when Web 1.0 came around, and then was dropped just as fast. Disintermediation – taking the bank out of the customer delivery cycle ...
Some interesting numbers include the fact that Google has 750 people working in their Payments Division, having just hired PayPal veteran Osama Bedier to lead it. This is at the same time as PayPal hire Don Kingsborough to go after Visa and MasterCard and Facebook announce the opening of a payments ...
Another day, another payments conference and just had an interesting discussion about the cashless society. We’ve talked about this so often that it’s pretty meaningless as, no matter how hard card companies and banks talk about a war on cash, cash is just as prevalent as ever ...
The major general news stories of the week include ...
Banks Bring Jobs to London, Pay Most U.K. Tax - Business Week
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employs almost as many people in London today as it did in 2007, before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history, sparking a global recession.
Hedge fund billionaire 'violated Goldman ethics' - The Independent
Jurors in the trial of Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund executive accused of insider dealing, came face to face yesterday with one of Wall Street's most powerful bankers, as the Goldman Sachs chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, took the witness stand.
António Horta-Osório reassembles his Lloyds executive team - The Telegraph
Lloyds Banking Group chief executive António Horta-Osório has reassembled his original executive team from Santander UK with the appointment of the Spanish lender's head of British retail banking.
Light-speed trick in stock trades - BBC
High-speed stock trading has become so fast that the speed of light is a factor - and financial institutions are looking into exploiting it, says a physicist.
Ireland warns it will fire top bankers found unfit - The Independent
Ireland has put the directors of its state-supported banks on notice that they will be sacked if they are found to be unfit for the job.
Break-up plans force FSA to accept limits - The Independent
The Financial Services Authority said yesterday it expects a tough year as it puts new initiatives on hold to cope with the heavy load of extra work created by the Government's plans to break it up.
Goldman Sachs takes the axe to its underperformers - The Telegraph
Several hundred would-be masters of the universe have drawn their last bonus cheque from Goldman Sachs as the US investment bank begins its annual cull of its also-ran bankers.
London tops financial services league - Financial Times
City relieved amid 'banker-bashing' as capital retains its slight lead ahead of Hong Kong and New York in list of 75 world cities
New banking stress tests come under fire - The Independent
Europe's regulators were still haggling over the details of new banking stress tests yesterday as the published terms showed up some major holes.
Reform of British banks may cost £15bn a year - The Telegraph
Forcing banks to fundamentally restructure how they operate in the UK could cost the big five banks £15bn a year.
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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...
