Crime

Apr 21, 2010

Cover payments – a real pain?

A while ago, I talked about cover payments and the introduction of the changes to SWIFT MT202 message types. A wee bit technical for the blog, but worth it as the costs of implementation of the changes were, and are, a major concern for the banks I deal with. Today, a press release landed in…

Apr 20, 2010

Goldman Sachs … or Sack Goldmans?

There are so many articles and analysis into Goldman Sachs practices at the moment … … that I’m not going to write a lengthy analysis to add to all of these, but have picked a few of the best articles at the end of this blog entry. What I would like to say is that…

Apr 2, 2010

What if the internet is your bank … and you can’t access it?

After Brett's post the other day which posed the question: "what if the internet is your bank?", I was quite amused just now, as I loaded Citibank's homepage and nothing loaded. Nothing at all. Nowt. Nada. Zero. Nothing. Why so? Because I use an add-on in Firefox called NoScript. NoScript describes itself as the "best…

Mar 30, 2010

If identities are unique, why do I have so many?

It’s a question I’ve asked before, but is becoming even more pertinent as I see new identity management programmes being rolled out that are fragmented, uncoordinated and, in some ways, nonsensical. The point was brought home to me as I listened to the stream of discussion about identity management that took place as a workgroup…

Mar 22, 2010

Credit crunch bank robberies

I guess these desperate times cause desperate actions, as the last few weeks must have created the funniest spate of bank robberies ever seen. First, there was the Russian Sumo wrestler who wrestled an ATM out of the wall … March 9th – Total Pro Sports You always wondered why these sumo wrestlers gained all…

Dec 2, 2009

Facebook is now bigger than America

If you didn’t spot it, Facebook just reached 350 million users. That’s a lot. In fact, Facebook is now bigger than the USA (population: 307 million) and would be the third largest country on the planet if it was a country. Not bad for a website launched on February 4th 2004. To celebrate, founder Mark…

Dec 2, 2009

Facebook is now bigger than America

Nov 21, 2009

Get 1000’s of card numbers for $750

I'm loving Robert Siciliano's latest blog entry on buying an ATM off Craig's list, and finding 150 feet long printout of card numbers because the bar owner who sold it to him forgot to delete the transaction history. You can watch the story unfold on this FOX News clip: or read all about it on…

Nov 21, 2009

Get 1000’s of card numbers for $750

Nov 16, 2009

Mashup technologies in real-world banking

For quite a while, I've been trying to find some real-world examples of mashup technologies in banking. I use these services extensively in other areas of my life – on this blog (the widget for search for example), my Facebook account (feeds and videos), my Twitter account and more. However, I've never found a bank…