So, there are a lot of things we’re juggling around with in the payments arena, from real-time to TARGET2 to SEPA to SWIFT ISO20022 to mobile to contactless to biometrics and more. I guess I can summarise this area best by using the results from this year’s payments survey because the last section of the…
So this week I thought it worth posting a few reflections on 2010, the year that was, and begin with some thoughts on retail banking (tomorrow will be payments and Wednesday, capital markets). Surprisingly, retail banking has not had any really startling changes. Branches are still the focal point, as evidenced by Santander who increased…
I was at a fascinating meeting yesterday looking at developments in credit, debit and prepaid cards. There was a standout moment when we had a discussion about China Unionpay (CUP), China’s card processing operator. First a bit of background. CUP was set up under the auspices of China’s central bank in March 2002, and is the…
At the Euro Finance conference in Frankfurt this week was a stream all about transaction banking which yours truly attended. The great and the good of our transaction world were also in attendance, as demonstrated by this short list of speakers: Albert Lechner, Vorstand Zahlungsverkehr, Betriebs-Center für Banken AG, München Andreas Kaiser, Leiter Cashmanagement, Bayer…
So to the really interesting question: if the industry is a polluting, festering, rotten and foul mess, should we try to shut it down? The reason I ask this is that this is the question that came up as I was writing yesterday's blog, debating the similarities between the banking and oil industries. If BP and…
I recently chaired a conference focused upon FXMM, or foreign exchange money markets for those unfamiliar. It’s a strange territory full of hedging and algo’s, but the bit of the day that really caught my attention was when Heather Pilley from the OTC Derivatives and Post-Trade Policy Division of the FSA, presented the plans for…
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…
One of the big topics in capital markets is intra-day liquidity and post-trade transparency. Such discussions are far more noticeable now because the whole reason for this crisis, according to some, was the loss of trust between counterparties. That loss of trust was based upon counterparties not having enough liquidity to cover their positions. After…
