The Finanser’s Week: 14th September – 20th September 2015

Our main stories this week include ...

The European Digital Bank Plan: It's Official!

I was honoured to be invited yesterday to address the European Banking Federation’s (EBF) annual conference in Brussels.  There were many dignitaries there, as well as a number of senior Eurocrats, and so felt that my message of Fintech, Blockchain and Real-Time for Free might fall on resistant ears, but quite the opposite. 

Banks have time, but is time on our side?

I chaired a dinner with a large group of senior bankers this week.  As a dinner, the group was too big for me to manage a normal facilitated discussion, so we just did a round robin and each person gave a comment about their biggest concern right now.  As we moved around the table, the topic had a common thread:

The implications of PSD2 and third party access to accounts (research)

I just found some interesting research about how banks in Europe are reacting to the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), and what other banks worldwide think about it.

The Finanser Interviews: Ron Suber, President, Prosper

Ron Suber is President of Prosper, one of America’s first and largest peer-to-peer lenders.

Fintech is not disruptive, as banks adapt and thrive

I’ve written a lot about banking not being disrupted by Fintech, no matter how much the upstarts claim.  A few articles of note:

This week’s major news headlines include … 

German bank Fidor launches in Britain - The Telegraph
The online-only lender's chief executive says it is more like a social network than a traditional bank, with online communities offering finance tips, peer-to-peer loans and financial market trading facilities

The end of free banking will come 'in the next five years' - The Independent
Banks may start charging UK customers to hold current accounts within the next five years.

The end of cash? It might not come as fast as you think - The Telegraph
The Bank of England predicts that demand for cash will remain 'substantial', in part because hoarding remains so popular

UniCredit plans to cut around 10,000 jobs: source - Reuters
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - UniCredit , Italy's biggest bank by assets, is planning to cut around 10,000 jobs, or 7 percent of its workforce, as it seeks to slash costs and boost profits, a source at the bank told Reuters on Monday.

Exclusive: Deutsche Bank to cut workforce by a quarter - sources - Reuters
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank aims to cut roughly 23,000 jobs, or about one quarter of total staff, through layoffs mainly in technology activities and by spinning off its PostBank division, financial sources said on Monday.

Please tell Sabadell not to bank on lightning striking twice ... - The Independent
The events of the past decade have proved that deal sprees in banking generally end badly. Even when they don’t result in institutions that engage in them going belly up and nearly taking the UK economy with them (see Royal Bank of Scotland) they still have the potential to stoke

Thousands more UK bank branches could face closure - The Telegraph
Britain's banks could operate with as few as 7,500 branches, down from almost 10,000 today

Digital bank Tandem joins ranks of challengers - Financial Times
A new digital retail bank is launching in the UK in an attempt to capture the soaring number of people using mobile banking.

Bank details of thousands of Lloyds's customers lost - The Guardian
Premier Banking customers advised to take out insurance against fraud as banking details go missing

RBS appoints BoAML to ready 2016 listing of Williams & Glyn - Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to prepare a spin-off of its Williams & Glyn-branded retail branches in the second half of 2016, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

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