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What is a ‘social bank’?

A long conversation about digital worlds and social banks yesterday. I was asked what is a ‘social bank’, and had to explain two or three times to really get the point across. That worries me, as social banking should be a simple concept. The issue is that it gets confused with social work and social…

Why mobile is critical to the future bank

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,…

Forget privacy, I want prizes

I've been having an interesting dialogue with Jacques Bayens re information usage versus privacy and intrusion after my blog about information as a competitive weapon yesterday. The gist of Jacques point is that there should be limitations on data usage, as a bank pushing loan drugs to thirsty gamblers outside casinos is not a pleasant picture….

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Information as a competitive weapon

A year ago, I was hugely influenced by a 16-page technology supplement in the Economist that talked about information wars. The stand-out quote from that report was from Craig Mundie, Head of Research and Strategy at Microsoft, who stated: “ Data is the greatest raw material of business, on a par with capital and labour….

The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)

In response to my fifty years of magic blog, one reader felt that it missed a key point about SCOT. I thought they were firstly referring to Scottish folks, of whom I am very fond even though they wear skirts (that’s for all our FSClub Edinburgh friends ;-)). I then thought it might be to…

Look back in wonder: 50 years of magic

So I’m having lunch with a mate and half way through the conversation am hit with an epiphany. It went something like: Friend: “It’s amazing the movies that were so big over the last few years, like Inception and the Matrix. Love ‘em.” Chris: “So do I, but then I really like all the sci-fi…

Fifty years

Six key technology developments for banks in 2011

Looking at technology specifically in financial services, there are many that are being cited as hot for 2011: More social media developments as firms like Foursquare, Groupon and Quora add functionalities not seen before; More bank mobile apps, with clever structures and device-specific security; The creation of new retail payments structures, as Apple and Google…

Jennifer Aniston

Inspiration for #Wikileaks DDoS hive

I was following the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Visa, MasterCard and PayPal closely during the supporters campaign to target those financial firms who had cut any ties with Wikileaks. The group amalgamated under a twitter hashtag #operationpayback, and posted a variety of notes about who to target when and how, with clear…

2010 Review: Payments

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…

IPhone NFC

The Establishment is just PANTS!!!

I was quite intrigued to hear a speech by Ben Ramsden, Founder and CEO of Pants to Poverty. Ben's talk was all about social business which, when combined with social finance, creates a completely different and new form of commerce that, if the next generation has any say, will compete with and potentially merge with…

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