Our main stories of the past two weeks include …
That’s not 2,016 banking predictions, which could be good, but banking predictions for the year 2016. Happy New Year. As is usual at the start of the year, I normally make a bunch of predictions about what will happen in retail, investment and transaction banking …
The Top 10 challenges for investment banks in 2016
Accenture have produced a nice infographic and more, detailing the top 10 challenges for investment banks in 2016. Due to my limited wifi connectivity, I’ll just give you the headlines here but, if you have time, it’s well worth copying and pasting this link to …
Where will banks invest in technology in 2016?
Late last year SourceMedia released findings of a survey of US CIO’s that found the major focus for spending in IT in banks in 2016 would be on security systems. The only area of decreasing spend was on desktops. Interestingly most US bank CIOs will …
10 Fintech predictions for 2016
There are a lot of Fintech forecasts out there but two of the best I spotted were by David Gyori and Pascal Bouvier, so I decided to take the areas I agree with most to provide a few headline Fintech predictions for 2016 of my …
An optimists view of bitcoin in 2016
I said yesterday that bitcoin would be superseded by a corporate-backed digital currency, but not all would agree. Therefore in the spirit of fairness, a great article appeared on Coindesk last week by Tuur Demeester and I decided to finish this week’s predictions series on …
Is there any good news out there?
I’ve been wondering how this year would start and so far the answer seems badly. What with David Bowie’s death on the same day as I catch man-flu, could it get any worse? Well yes. I wake up to the headline: Sell everything ahead of …
Analogue criminals in a digital world
I was tempted to blog about Bitcoin 3.0 this morning, but Marcus Swanepoel has already done that – news of Bitcoin’s death has been overstated – so I thought I’d blog about robbery instead. Daylight robbery is far more exciting than investing in the future after …
Banks need to become Lords of Data
I have a range of technologies I use, but get frustrated with them all. My Apple Watch is redundant, as is my Microsoft Surface, and I upgrade laptop and desktop every 18 months or so, largely to keep up with the demand for speed and …
URGENT: Open this attachment or your account will be suspended
I wake up today with the usual massive dump of emails, two of which looked a bit suspect. The first is from DHL, saying my shipment is cancelled. I don’t use DHL and expect no shipment from them, so delete it. The second is an …
Global structures for trusted advice are hard
I was reflecting on something this morning that is endemic to both banks and technology providers. How do you provide great service to global clients? The issue is that most companies are split into three structures: product, process and customer. Product is the back office …
The past two week’s major news headlines include …
Deutsche Bank's Shrunken Ambition - Bloomberg
John Cryan is trying to make Deutsche Bank under his leadership look altogether different to the hard-charging institution led by his predecessors. Bonuses are out of fashion. Trading is passe.
Top Bank Stocks to Buy In 2016 - Motley Fool
The banking sector has some pretty attractive stocks as we head into 2016. Here are five of our favorites.
Sell everything ahead of stock market crash, say RBS economists - The Guardian
Royal Bank of Scotland warns of ‘cataclysmic’ year with slumps in shares and oil and advises clients to shift to bonds
After eight years, Iceland reimburses Britain for Icesave collapse - The Telegraph
The final instalment, paid earlier this week, totalled £374m
Virgin Money hires new directors from rival banks - The Telegraph
RBS and Tesco Bank executives will join the challenger bank
Spanish Bank BBVA Hires Barclays Top Tech Executive - Wall Street Journal
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA hired Derek White, one of Barclays PLC’s top digital executives, as the Spanish bank continues to ramp up its investment in new technology.
Smartphone-based UK bank gets additional £48m backing - Computer Weekly
Starling bank, which only offers a smartphone-based current account, has received multi-million pound backing and named its board of directors
Bowie's financial innovation - BBC
David Bowie was a pop music icon to many, but he was also involved in innovation in the world of finance.
The difficulty of leading a 'unicorn' - BBC
Why leading a 'unicorn firm' can be difficult
Upstart Atom Bank will offer biometric logins and personalised logos - Marketing
anking startup Atom Bank wants to stand out from high street rivals with highly personalised banking, including the ability for customers to log in using their face and voice, and tailored logos.
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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...
