I found a mixed bag of themes this week as I’m scooping up numbers. First, some interesting numbers include the fact that Google has 750 people working in their Payments Division, having just hired PayPal veteran Osama Bedier to lead it. This is at the same time as PayPal hire Blackhawk Network founder Don Kingsborough,…
Ever since I got my iPhone, I’ve been hopelessly devoted to Angry Birds, along with about 75 million other people. 75 million! That’s 75 million playing a game on their smartphone. That’s more than the whole population of Britain all playing Angry Birds. Wow! How did that happen and what’s it got to do with…
Want to know the true story of debt in the UK? Well, here's a few stats and facts: Just to emphasise a few of these numbers: Total personal debt in the UK is running at £1.45 trillion (that's £1,454,000,000,000) Individuals owe more in personal debt than the country's annual output As a country we owe…
It’s the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week. It’s a big deal as the mobile operators and manufacturers announce their major news items for the year, such as Microsoft acquiring Nokia. That’s why Steve Ballmer is down there doing a keynote today along with Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter. There’s Eric Schmidt,…
I got a note today regarding the fact that the Head of Barclays Global Retail Division, Antony Jenkins, appeared on BBC Radio’s Today program this morning saying that the level of consumer complaints to banks in general, and to Barclays specifically, is “not acceptable”. The Financial Ombudsman Service said it received and upheld more complaints…
Here is the City has done a nice job of crunching some data to come up with a list of the biggest banks in the world by assets under management as at 31st October 2010. BNP Paribas $3.12 trillion in assets (+34.47%)* HSBC $2.74 trillion (+12.46%) Barclays $2.71 trillion (+37.03%) Royal Bank of Scotland $2.707…
Another great evening at the FSClub last week with the Samee and Dave show. OK, it’s not a double-act although I’m trying hard to make them into one, with Samee the straight guy and Dave the fungi obviously. Samee Zafar and David Birch are both great speakers about payments and, in particular, mobile payments. As…
OK, so it's not scientific, but I've been looking at the UK's banks from four dimensions this week: Customers Employees Investors Regulators To the best of my databank's knowledge, the attributes and reviews are pretty accurate and have turned up some surprising results. For example, who would have thought that the UK's most stable bank…
This week is dedicated to assessing the UK's best and worst banks from four dimensions: Customers Employees Investors Regulators Having looked at the banks from the customers’ perspective on Monday, employees on Tuesday and investors on Wednesday, today it’s the turn of the regulator. Now the regulators have been in a frenzy of self-analysis and…
This week is dedicated to assessing the UK's best and worst banks from four dimensions: Customers Employees Investors Regulators Having looked at the banks from the customers’ perspective on Monday and employees on Tuesday, today it’s the turn of the investment community’s view. Now then, you could say that this one’s easy: Barclays and HSBC…
