The Finanser’s Week: 2nd November – 8th November 2015

Our main stories this week include ...

Are bankers just rearranging deckchairs?

I had a really interesting evening this week, moderating an industry roundtable with panel organised by DataArt.  It took place in the Armourer's Hall, a place that resonates of wars and battles, which was a fitting location for a discussion about Fintech versus Banking.

The end of a 'bank account' as the digital me takes over

I had a really interesting conversation with Chris Barker, Head of Digital and Engineering for Royal Bank of Scotland.  As usual, the conversation moved around data analytics, deep learning, artificial intelligence, building enterprise data systems, separating content from processing, re-platforming the back-end infrastructure and core systems and more. 

#Money2020 in one tweetfest feed

A follower of my twitter feed kindly aggregated all of my Money 20/20 tweets, so here's a great summary of the conference this year:

The rise of tokenization to secure the Internet of Things

There are many interesting technologies out there and I haven’t blogged much about one of them: tokenization.  Why am I talking about tokenization today?  Because it was referred to many times by Visa, MasterCard and the card processing firms at Money2020 last week as the key to future transaction security.

What does the blockchain mean for our payment systems?

I don’t know about you, but I’m completely confused about blockchains, sidechains and such like.  I admit it.  It’s beyond me and, if it’s beyond me, gawd knows how normal folk will make it out. 

This week’s major news headlines include … 

VIDEO: Wi-fi can identify people through walls - BBC
The tech which uses wi-fi signals to identify and track people through walls

Bank report regulator 'lazy' say MPs - BBC
The man who is leading the UK regulator's inquiry into bank accounts has been accused of 'laziness' by a group of MPs

PayPal TV advert accused of 'ruining Christmas' - The Independent
PayPal apologised and said it would only show the advert after the watershed

Apple Pay warning: Storing your partner's fingerprints is like 'giving away your Pin' - The Telegraph
Banks warn users of Apple's Touch ID that storing partners' or spouses' fingerprints will be seen as 'you failing to keep your details safe'

HSBC is enjoying a trip down the Pearl River. But don’t mention Jaws - The Independent
Outlook: Perhaps it was the questions raised about HSBC’s leadership that annoyed Mr Gulliver

One chart that shows the highest paying jobs in finance - The Independent
The top spots go to investment bankers, with salaries topping £600,000 for managing directors in structuring and trading

Standard Chartered cuts 15,000 jobs - BBC
Standard Chartered, the Asia-focused UK bank, is to cut 15,000 jobs and raise about $5.1bn (£3.3bn) to create a "lean, focused and well-capitalised" group.

Wonga hires serious director in bid to show it is growing up - The Telegraph
The controversial payday lender has to show regulators that it is a mature and reliable firm rather than the wild child of the industry

Eurozone banks still swamped with bad loans - The Telegraph
British and American banks have acted fast to clean up their balance sheets, but European lenders are still weighed down with loans which are not being paid off

Technology: Banks seek key to blockchain - Financial Times
Financial groups seek to harness the power of the transaction database as they see it slashing costs

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