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Case Studies

Fintechs are attacking all bank services, not just retail banking

Someone was attacking the premise of digital bank change the other day, by claiming it only refers to consumer banking.  Nothing is changing in corporate or investment banking, they claimed. Wrong. All areas of financial processes, products and services are being attacked by some new start-up company somewhere.  I realise this every day when I…

Wallet wars solved by the payments processor …

As mentioned earlier this week, whilst in Turkey I visited with BKM, the interbank clearing system for low value payments. Owned by the largest 10 banks in Turkey, BKM opened for business in 1990 and now processes half of the transactions in the country. The other half are run on a 'as on-us' basis on…

Why are some countries more innovative than others?

I recently chaired a dinner in Turkey. Turkey is one of the hotbeds for retail bank innovation, alongside Poland, in Europe (assuming you count Turkey as European). It was in Turkey that I first saw a strong and concerted push into contactless payments. Remember this ad for Garanti Bank: It was in Turkey that I…

Metro Bank: opening 14,000 new accounts per month

I was lucky enough to visit with Metro Bank recently, and they gave me startling stats and insights to the emerging business. Launched in June 2010, Metro Bank has rapidly grown to 27 branches today, with a plan for 32 by the end of this year and 48 by the end of next. Initially, they…

MetroBank1a

Nordea’s use of Facebook and social media to engage their customer

I really enjoyed the presentations in Oslo, particularly the case studies by Nordea and ValYou. Nordea spoke about their experiences with social media usage.  This, in itself, is fascinating as just a few years ago no bank spoke about social media in finance.  Now, I am building case studies about how banks see this as…

Nordea’s use of Facebook and social media to engage their customer

I really enjoyed the presentations in Oslo, particularly the case studies by Nordea and ValYou. Nordea spoke about their experiences with social media usage.  This, in itself, is fascinating as just a few years ago no bank spoke about social media in finance.  Now, I am building case studies about how banks see this as…

A quick check on social banking in Britain

I’ve written lots about USAA and First Direct as leaders in new media.  Both are financial firms without branches and both are loved by their customers.  The key thing that differentiates both institutions is that they recognise they exist as a remote engagement and hence truly understand the art of creating digital relationships. By way…

First Direct

The state of RBS: a ghost of banking past

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…

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The state of RBS: a ghost of banking past

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…

1375427851-363

Why you might love Goldman Sachs

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…

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