The Finanser’s Week: 20th October – 26th October 2014

Our biggest stories of the past week are ...

Watch your back door first, rather than the horizons

For a long time, we have considered that there will be massive change in banking; that new entrants like Google, Amazon and Facebook will eat the banker’s lunch; and that banks are weak and easy to attack.  This is completely wrong.

Why can’t banks behave more like IT companies?

I had a really interesting discussion with a bank about the component based model that I’ve been expounding for some years.  In brief, the core of this model suggests that every piece of banking is being attacked by specialist digital firms and that banks will become assemblers of these specialist pieces, rather than providers of all of them.

The three things you need to be a Digital Bank

As mentioned last week, I delivered a keynote at the DreamForce conference.  As it has been shared online, I’ll share it here.  If you can’t see it easily, the summary is this (taken from the review of my book Digital Bank by Nick Miller, CEO of Clarity Advantage …

Some bankers do have their head in the sand (luckily most don't)

So I just chaired a panel discussion between three global transaction bankers at Eurofinance 2014 in Budapest.  There were six statements made during the panel which I wanted to discuss on stage but, being the moderator, I couldn’t really say: “what you just said is complete balderdash my friend” …0

Wells Fargo's fail: employee publicly asks for raise and bank quotes T's & C's

There’s a great email leaked to the world just 13 days ago on Reddit.  The email is from a Wells Fargo employee to CEO John Stumpf, and reads as follows:  Mr. Stumpf, With the increasing focus on income inequality in the United States. Wells Fargo has an opportunity to be at the forefront of helping to reduce this …

The major general news stories of the past week include ...

Silicon Valley's billion dollar failures - BBC
Silicon valley's billion dollar start-up failures

If banks are worried about not being regulated tightly enough, something's wrong - The Telegraph
The new "senior persons regime" is supposed to make bankers more responsible and accountable. But it could have the opposite effect

Warren Buffett loses $2.5 billion in three days on Coca-Cola and IBM - The Independent
It's not been a good week for billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Lloyds to cut around 9,000 jobs - The Telegraph
Taxpayer-backed lender to reduce its workforce by a tenth and announce branch closures as part of chief executive's digital push

Convincing banks about Bitcoin is 'challenging' - The Telegraph
Coinbase provides Bitcoin wallets to over a million people and powers crypto-currency payments at Dell.com, Overstock and Expedia - so why can't it convince UK banks to give it a business account? Co-founder Brian Armstrong speaks to the Telegraph

Banks risk losing an arm with branch cuts - Financial Times
Leaving the high street risks alienating elderly, wealthy clients

Bank to probe system failure - BBC
The Bank of England has launched an official probe after an automated system that transfers billions of pounds between banks was suspended for much of the day delaying house movers.

KPMG targets SMEs with cloud software - Financial Times
‘Transformational change’ for firm’s business as it takes on rivals in a crowded market

The Bank of England has questions to answer over IT glitch - The Telegraph
The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street must hold itself to same standards it expects of the banks it regulates

Could your bank be the next victim of a cyber attack? - The Telegraph
Cybercrime risks becoming the next big banking scandal. What can be done to stop it?

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