We seemingly spend all of our time bashing banks these days, me included. They’re either slow, unresponsive and ignorant of change, or they’re greedy, arrogant and screwing the economy. You can’t win. That’s why my new book was going to be called: “don’t tell my mum I work for a …
Read More »Barclays Bank: innovators do win more business
We seemingly spend all of our time bashing banks these days, me included. They’re either slow, unresponsive and ignorant of change, or they’re greedy, arrogant and screwing the economy. You can’t win. That’s why my new book was going to be called: “don’t tell my mum I work for a …
Read More »Never mind the channels, here’s the b******s
Apologies but it’s that time of year where my nerve endings jangle with tension as I get into another crappy debate about multichannel strategies. “We’ve got our contact centre, then there’s our internet banking division and now we have to integrate these mobile thingymyjigs. These channels are never-ending, wail, wail, …
Read More »This wirelessly connected planet
I was asked to chair a panel at the end of a one day conference on the future of payments. I therefore listened to every presentation carefully and, in opening the panel, was asked to give a ten minute summation of what I had heard that day. Here’s what I …
Read More »Computing: Banking on Innovation
This week's UK Computing magazine has an interesting interview with Barclays retail COO Shaygan Kheradpir. In a pure scrape of the entire article, I thought it worth reproducing here: Enabling customer-facing staff to access bespoke financial services apps using tablet computers is just one of several ways in which COO Shaygan Kheradpir is …
Read More »Tesco’s QR codes – another cash killer?
I’m at a payments conference today – and so will finish off the TEDx Wall Street story tomorrow – but wanted to post a quick update for those who are looking at mobile versus proximity payments. Here are two stories. The first is about the London Olympics, which will be …
Read More »Tesco’s QR codes – another cash killer?
I’m at a payments conference today – and so will finish off the TEDx Wall Street story tomorrow – but wanted to post a quick update for those who are looking at mobile versus proximity payments. Here are two stories. The first is about the London Olympics, which will be …
Read More »Innovators break the rules: here comes Apple’s iWallet
I did a speech about innovation yesterday. As usual, the opening question was: “which is the most innovative company in the world?” and, as usual, the answer shouted back was: “Apple”. Apple. The firm everyone wants to be like because they are cool, successful, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation …
Read More »Contactless payments are already past their sell-by date
Spent most of this week at a payments conference. The theme was relentlessly around mobile payments, as this area of the market has truly kicked off as a major focal point for banks, telecommunications firms, retailers and merchants. There was a particularly interesting debate about contactless payments, as this is …
Read More »US authorities start campaign against Bitcoin?
Several people pinged me yesterday to highlight the fact that Bitcoin has now become a target of the major payments processors. Not for acquisition. Not for partnership. Not for joint ventures. Not for support. No. Bitcoin is obviously becoming a threat to mainstream operations as it is now an active …
Read More »US authorities start campaign against Bitcoin?
Several people pinged me yesterday to highlight the fact that Bitcoin has now become a target of the major payments processors. Not for acquisition. Not for partnership. Not for joint ventures. Not for support. No. Bitcoin is obviously becoming a threat to mainstream operations as it is now an active …
Read More »The best of innovation in finance: #Finovate Europe 2012
The Financial Services Club is one of the major media partners with Finovate Europe, which took place last week. Last year I chaired the event, but my Ricky Gervais edginess proved too much for the American organisers at NetBanker, so this year was a slightly more dry affair, with a beauty …
Read More »What the Facebook IPO means for banks
I haven’t written much about social media lately. The reason is that it’s now mainstream and dull. When you're scanning future views, you’re not as bothered about Facebook and Twitter when everyone’s familiar with and using such services. Facebook's pervasiveness is well illustrated by the Facebook IPO announcement, which gave a …
Read More »What the Facebook IPO means for banks
I haven’t written much about social media lately. The reason is that it’s now mainstream and dull. When you're scanning future views, you’re not as bothered about Facebook and Twitter when everyone’s familiar with and using such services. Facebook's pervasiveness is well illustrated by the Facebook IPO announcement, which gave a …
Read More »How to create a banking strategy
Following on from my discussions of solutions versus product people and vertical alignment versus horizontal, the question came up as to how to think strategically. How can you really get inside the customer’s head? What keeps the CEO awake at night (literally in the case of Lloyds Banking Group)? And all …
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