Just been reviewing the results of Royal Bank of Scotland and, unsurprisingly, it’s the ghost of banking past. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported its sixth annual loss since it was rescued by the UK government in 2008. The bank's pre-tax loss for 2013 was £8.2 billion (£5.28 billion in 2012). However, excluding bad bank…
It’s over five years since the Global Financial Crisis (GFI) began, and the regulators woke up to the fact that a small number of banks had become Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs). Ever since, the powers that be have been working to prune, reshape and restore confidence in the system and yet, as the years…
It’s over five years since the Global Financial Crisis (GFI) began, and the regulators woke up to the fact that a small number of banks had become Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs). Ever since, the powers that be have been working to prune, reshape and restore confidence in the system and yet, as the years…
As mentioned in the previous two blog entries: Why governments will fail to block the emergence of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin What can you buy with a bitcoin? (we have a whole Bitcoin section on the blog if interested) Jon Matonis, Executive Director with the Bitcoin Foundation, spoke at our Polish Financial Services Club meeting…
I recently had an epiphany. It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…
I recently had an epiphany. It was not painful, but it was enlightening. The realisation occurred to me as I looked at this chart from Zopa: It’s an interesting chart, especially the hockey stick rise in funds transferred as the financial crisis hit, and relates to a recent headline in the Financial Times: “P2P group…
JPMorgan had this great idea this week: to host a twitter Q&A using the hashtag #AskJPM. It’s a #TwitterTakeover: We'll host our 1st live Q&A on leadership & career advice w/a leading $JPM exec on 11/14. Use #AskJPM to submit a Q — J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) November 6, 2013 They pushed the meeting quite hard…
JPMorgan had this great idea this week: to host a twitter Q&A using the hashtag #AskJPM. It’s a #TwitterTakeover: We'll host our 1st live Q&A on leadership & career advice w/a leading $JPM exec on 11/14. Use #AskJPM to submit a Q — J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) November 6, 2013 They pushed the meeting quite hard…
Today’s news in Britain is all about payday lenders once more due to a grilling of Wonga in front of a Parliamentary Committee yesterday. It’s amazing the emotions such lenders activities ignite. They make politicians and the media angry because they charge high interest rates … and yet they make their customers happy by providing…
It’s getting crowded out there in the mobile payments space. After years of inactivity, everyone’s woken up to the opportunities out there, not the least PayPal. PayPal did nothing in mobile through the 2000s, and I worried they were missing a huge opportunity to grow their business. In fact, being close to the UK PayPal…
