Numbers

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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%) …

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 yesterday, this second part looks at the views of employees. This view is actually darned hard to find out. Although there are …

I blogged about Santander last week and embedded the survey results on service, which actually warrant a blog entry in their own right, so here it is. Now I love customer surveys of views on banks, but they are published too far and few between and often with poor density, …

Following on from the comments on UK Bank Stats from the BBA, and the report from TheCityUK, here's a few more statistics focused upon home ownership. Just a century ago, nine out of ten homes were rented in the UK compared to only one in three today. Since 1976, owner-occupier …

Following on from yesterday's number – UK Bank Stats: a fascinating portrait of life -I was sent another report today from TheCityUK, the trade body that promotes the interests of the City of London.There’s loads of numbers in this document that are useful, which I will post in a few …

I just got a copy of the BBA’s Annual Abstract of Banking Statistics. Fascinating stuff, and the data shows a real insight into the way we are living our lives.  For example, every ten minutes: 35,000 people use the internet to check their bank account balance or statement on-line, 4,500 …