Our biggest stories of the past week are ...
What is the 'digital core' for a bank?
I’ve been talking about banks replacing their legacy mess with a digital core for a while now. Rearchitect your bank by getting rid of spaghetti based systems organised around products and channels to market, and redesign them for digital structures focused upon customers.
That is not easy, as it implies replacing systems in real-time. How do you change the engines on a jet when it’s flying high? is the usual question, but that is not what I am suggesting. This came to me the other day when someone said: “what do you mean by a digital core Chris?”
The biggest disruption in banking is NOT technology
Researching crowdfunding and P2P lending, I found three research reports and a newspaper article that give you a tip for the future of banking. The three reports go together and are all about millennials. Yes, that group of under 35s who grew up as net natives or, if you prefer, the folks born after 1980. The three reports are:
I was talking about the component-based model and how it was now moving into component-based regulation, when someone challenged this notion. “Not our regulator”, he said. “Our regulator’s going the other way, and consolidating all regulations under one national system”.
I thought: we did that years ago.
Wrappers, replacers and reformers are all targeting banks
I’ve been talking about the hot new start-ups targeting the banking markets for a while. There are literally 1000’s of them – the Fintech Awards had over 750 firms to review this year alone – and sifting the wheat from the chaff is hard. There are a few standouts however, and these are the ones I talk about in my presentations. They generally fall into three categories: wrappers, replacers and reformers.
Why is a strong payments system important?
I had a great meeting last week, which finished with a chat about why is the payments scheme relevant. You may think that’s a non-question, but it’s an important one if we are to keep track of why payments is worthy of dialogue when we look at things like bitcoin and Ripple, for example.
The major general news stories of the past week include ...
Wonga loses third chief executive in disastrous year - The Independent
Crisis-hit payday lender Wonga has lost its third chief executive in a year.
Coining it in: banking industry culture promotes dishonesty, research finds - The Guardian
Academic study testing bankers’ reports of coin tosses to gain winnings revealed cheating not found in tests of other sectors
Biggest bank account bribe ever - Yahoo!
Clydesdale and Yorkshire are offering £150 if you switch to one of their accounts.
RBS fined £50m for 2012 computer chaos - The Guardian
Penalty comes after bank was fined £400m for failures that allowed foreign exchange market rigging
Thousands join Lloyds investor lawsuit over HBOS takeover - The Telegraph
Around 8,000 shareholders including 140 institutions put name to £300m claim that bank misled shareholders before acquisition
Mark Carney pay plan comes under attack - The Telegraph
Industry figures warn against a move that would allow banks to recover employees' pay if they are found to have acted improperly
Apple now worth more than the entire Russian stock market - The Independent
Apple is now worth more than the entire Russian stock market as shares in the American technology giant continue to skyrocket.
Seven big U.S. companies paid CEOs more than Uncle Sam in 2013: study - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven of the 30 largest U.S. corporations paid more money to their chief executive officers last year than they paid in U.S. federal income taxes, according to a study released on Tuesday that was disputed by at least one of the companies.
HSBC accused of tax fraud by Belgium - BBC
Authorities in Brussels have charged HSBC's private banking arm, which is based in Switzerland, with assisting wealthy Belgians - including diamond dealers - in avoiding taxes.
Snapchat adds money-sending feature - BBC
Disappearing message app Snapchat unveils Snapcash, a new feature that will allow users to send money to friends, in a partnership with payment-processing firm Square.
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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...
