Opinion

Nov 23, 2012

Too fast to innovate, too slow to change

As mentioned yesterday, the regulator tries to keep up with the banks who try to keep up with customer, and I said that banks often innovate too slowly. There are many examples of this, but the one that I come back to regularly is Chip & PIN. Chip & PIN has been an enormous success,…

Nov 22, 2012

Why should we innovate?

I was talking at a conference and a regulator was on the panel. The panel chair asked him: “should we think about innovation first or regulation?” and he responded by saying: “It is not a question of regulation or innovation. I would rather ask the question: why do we need innovation at all? Who is it…

Nov 15, 2012

Bank’s biggest weakness: drowning in data

I recently met Big Data in person. In real life. THE BIG DATA. Yes, I did. And here he is … Do you recognise him? No? BIG DATA? The guy. No? Maybe this will help you to remember. Yes, Big Data. The man, the legend, the person … … ah, you thought I meant Big…

Nov 5, 2012

The man behind the mask

I’ve gotten into this habit of using the SIBOS closing party to do something a little bit on the edge. Controversial, but meant to be funny. Last year I was the world’s hottest banker … … and this year I was anonymous … The problem is that I wasn’t. I was spotted and it didn’t…

Oct 29, 2012

Welcome to SIBOS 2012

So here we are, a few of us anyway, at SIBOS 2012 in Osaka, Japan. Having faced a lengthy and, for some, gruelling journey of 24 hours or more, the welcome greeting you find at the INTEX Centre is second to none. But then you get into the spirit of things, and my spirit is obviously…

Oct 23, 2012

Has your customer sold their soul?

Every time I click on something online, I get this funny thing about agreeing terms and conditions. The popup window appears and my brain shuts down. I just hit ‘accept’, ‘agree’ and move on. I guess the reason is that I don’t care what the small print says, I just want the end result. I…

Sep 26, 2012

The future bank will be like Siri

I spent a day strategising with one of the Middle Eastern banks about the launch of a direct bank service. One of the key questions they asked me is: do we organise the back office in the same way as our contact centre and internet bank service? The easy answer would be yes, but that…

Sep 10, 2012

Britain celebrates euro failure

This week sees Britain celebrating. No, not the end of a phenomenal summer of sport. No, not the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee again. And no, not the 200 year anniversary of the start of the end of Napoleon after his fatal march to Moscow, although how we missed celebrating that one I don’t know. No, it’s none…

Sep 6, 2012

Cyberwars: a far bigger threat than hacktivists

Whilst consumers are electing the next major political leader via crowdsourced populism, governments and companies begin developing cyberarms. This cyberwarfare is already rife, with a host of malware targeting middle eastern nations (see end of blog entry). What is obvious from these developments is that cyberattacks are the new form of warfare that evades direct…

Sep 5, 2012

The Future of Hacktivism: the Collective Party

During the week, I’ve been discussing various aspects of risk and riot in the system, from the potential for an uprising to how anonymous works. One of the key areas to consider is also where all this goes in the future. That’s what I thought would be good to talk about today. I should be…