The Finanser’s Week: 27th May – 2nd June 2019

The main blog headlines are …

Earth’s future is all down to the banks

I’ve been struggling for a while now. My struggle is that I love flying around the world, seeing new places, meeting new people, finding new things … but I hate polluting the planet. This was brought to a head this week in a back-to-back meeting …

Customers don’t want digital banking

So my snarky little friend Ron Shevlin wrote a piece on Forbes claiming that Americans don’t want a digital bank. As the guy who wrote the book Digital Bank you might think I would take offence to such a statement, but no. I agree with …

The world’s most destructive bank?

I feel sorry for Deutsche Bank. I’ve worked with the bank and they have some great people. It used to be that their investment banking services were one of the best in Europe, alongside UBS and Barclays Bank. That was before September 2008. Since then, …

FinTech’s biggest new market is small business financing … but is it worth it?

I write a lot about FinTech payments, lending, roboadvice and such like. But there’s been a strong bubbling trend underneath all this that has not gone unnoticed. I’ve just not blogged about it enough. SMALL BUSINESS FINANCE People talk a lot about finance for SMEs …

And the top news headlines this week are …

Monzo apologises for bank transfer problems - Money Savings Expert
Monzo says that about 30% of bank transfers to its accounts are currently failing – meaning the person sending you the money will see the payment fail at their end – and the remainder are being delayed

Scam victims to be refunded by banks - BBC
New protection for individuals tricked into transferring money to fraudsters has now taken effect - but not all banks are signed up to the scheme.

The digital banking revolution is here. So why are so few people putting their salaries into app-only bank accounts? - MoneyWise
Despite a slew of digital-only banks exploding onto the scene, just one in 10 of us has switched all our banking services to one.

The Race for 650 Million Virtual Bank Accounts - Bloomberg
China’s tech giants have upended the country's payments system and promise to shake up its consumer-banking sector. The rest of the region won't be so easy.

Does Greed Drive Deutsche Bank And Other Banks Not To File Suspicious Activity Reports? - Forbes
The more information comes out in dribs and drabs about and from Deutsche Bank, I remain convinced that something is truly rotten there. But is that the only bank that has these operational risk management problems?

885 Million Records Exposed Online: Bank Transactions, Social Security Numbers, and More - Gizmodo
Several million records said to include bank account details, Social Security digits, wire transactions, and other mortgage paperwork, were found publicly accessible on the server of a major U.S. financial service company.

Global Payments buys TSYS in $21.5bn all-stock deal - Financial Times
Consolidation cycle sweeping through payments sector continues apace

Wife of Azeri banker spent £30k on chocolates at Harrods in one day as part of £16m spree - The Telegraph

'I replied to a genuine [Metro] bank tweet and lost £9,200 to a fraudster' - Guardian
Michael Johnson* and his business partner had struggled for a month to open a new account with Metro Bank, despite the fact that he was already a customer.

Monzo on track to hit 3m customers as CEO admits the bank 'fluffed' the launch of its premium card - Telegraph
Digital bank Monzo could reach 3m customers within months, chief executive Tom Blomfield said, following the launch of a new national television advertising campaign last week.