A year ago, I blogged about Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announcing the intention to become an MVBO – a Mobile Virtual Banking Operator. The idea is to offer the mechanism for anyone to process mobile payments through the RBS payments system. The first result of this strategy is the announcement of O2, the mobile…
The Financial Times' Money Matters Blog has picked up on the debate between James Gardner and I about Zopa. They've asked readers for comments. I thought I would re-post the responses here as it adds to the richness of the context of our discussion. Martin Campbell (the one that started this off) responds: Certainly wasn’t…
The Financial Times' Money Matters Blog has picked up on the debate between James Gardner and I about Zopa. They've asked readers for comments. I thought I would re-post the responses here as it adds to the richness of the context of our discussion. Martin Campbell (the one that started this off) responds: Certainly wasn’t…
The word ‘disruptive’ is being bandied about liberally in the debate about new competitors, such as Zopa. First, as I’ve said before, banks don’t really have any competition except between the incumbents, due to the structure of the industry. Second, where there are openings, then disruptive new players may find a way to find a…
The word ‘disruptive’ is being bandied about liberally in the debate about new competitors, such as Zopa. First, as I’ve said before, banks don’t really have any competition except between the incumbents, due to the structure of the industry. Second, where there are openings, then disruptive new players may find a way to find a…
James Gardner has responded to my post of yesterday, with a well-reasoned argument. However, he's made some error of numbers by stating that "consumer credit excluding credit cards from May 2008 – May 2009 was about £2.5 Billion. Let's take the easiest case for critical mass first, where Zopa achieves just 2.5% of that, or…
James Gardner has responded to my post of yesterday, with a well-reasoned argument. However, he's made some error of numbers by stating that "consumer credit excluding credit cards from May 2008 – May 2009 was about £2.5 Billion. Let's take the easiest case for critical mass first, where Zopa achieves just 2.5% of that, or…
In the fourth of a series about innovation in banking, it’s worth looking at the business models of the new entrants who are trying to disrupt this space and pose the question: are they sustainable? Zopa, Prosper, SmartyPig, Wonga, Mint, Wesabe and the many other new entrants into finance hoping to leverage the promise of…
In the fourth of a series about innovation in banking, it’s worth looking at the business models of the new entrants who are trying to disrupt this space and pose the question: are they sustainable? Zopa, Prosper, SmartyPig, Wonga, Mint, Wesabe and the many other new entrants into finance hoping to leverage the promise of…
