Our biggest stories of the week are ...
Inside the bank's boardroom crisis meeting, October 2011
Welcome to the first of what may be many fly-on-the-wall (FOTW) reports of internal bank management matters. In this first FOTW report, we sent Marty, our Scottish fly, into the monthly management meeting of one of the world’s largest banks,...
I’ve recently been thinking about headcount cuts. It’s always hard … And it's getting harder. For example, I wrote in August that thousands of bank jobs were being cut, adding up to an expectation of 15,000 City jobs this year....
Just spent the day in a payments conference focused upon operational excellence. We talked about Basel III, SEPA, the PSD, Mobile … the usual stuff, but there was a particularly intriguing presentation from Olivier Denecker of McKinsey in the...
Banks have great treasures behind their marble veneers, as demonstrated by their art collections. UBS own around 40,000 art objects, including works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, and JP Morgan Chase is known for having a...
The major general news stories of the week include ...
Eurozone crisis could cause collapse of global banking system, warns Citigroup's Willem Buiter - The Telegraph
The world banking system could collapse if eurozone leaders fail to curb the region's sovereign debt crisis, according to Citigroup's chief economist Willem Buiter.
Euro rescue plan will not be enough and anti-capitalism protests will grow - The Telegraph
Roger Bootle: Inflation will peak soon, but support for the anti-capitalism protests likely to grow
Vickers calls for overhaul of retail banking boards - The Independent
Sir John Vickers yesterday warned that ring-fenced retail banks' boards would require a complete overhaul to meet the demands of his banking reforms.
'I don't think they appreciate what the City contributes' - The Independent
Financial workers returned to their offices in the City of London yesterday to find the hardcore remnants of a global anti-capitalist movement camped on their doorstep.
Google Wallet Now Lets You SingleTap That App - Techcrunch
Google Wallet continues on its slow (but exciting) march toward letting you pay for things simply by tapping your phone against a special, NFC-enabled credit card reader. Today, in a post on Google's Official Blog, the wallet team announced that it's rolling out support for SingleTap — a new feature that lets
VIDEO: Fred Goodwin says sorry for RBS - BBC
Sir Fred Goodwin apologises to RBS shareholders after the bank collapsed in 2008 and was bailed out by the government.
Barclays looks to bid for Spanish cajas - The Telegraph
Barclays is trying to bolster its position in Spain's high street banking market by eyeing a number of the country's cajas.
Europe's lost decade as $7 trillion loan crunch looms - The Telegraph
Europe's banks face a $7 trillion lending contraction to bring their balance sheets in line with the US and Japan, threatening to trap the region in a credit crunch and chronic depression for a decade.
Are Facebook ID Cards In Our Future? - Techcrunch
Facebook has filed for a trademark on the usage of the word "Facebook" on business cards and, more curiously, "non-magnetically encoded" ID cards among other things. If granted the trademark would protect using the word Facebook in the specified formats, not any actual invention. So what if Facebook just wants
RBS 'to overhaul investment arm' - The Independent
Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland is reportedly preparing an overhaul of its investment banking arm which could put up to 5,000 jobs at risk.
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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...
