Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Uncategorized

Meet Bill Clinton, James Cameron and me!

Just got an invite to an event in July that sounds amazing, www.resource2012.org, and thought it worth noting on the blog for those who can make it.  Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen and film director James Cameron will join President Bill Clinton at Oxford University this summer (12-13 July) for a ground-breaking forum on resource scarcity…

The end of ‘free’ banking

In the 1970s, the UK's Midland Bank introduced a new competitive service – free banking. It wasn’t free of course, but it appeared that way. The idea being that if you stayed in credit, they wouldn’t’ charge you anything. It was a huge success. So much so that Midland acquired many customers from Barclays, NatWest…

Flying_pigs

2013 European Payments Research – Free Report Now Available

For the fifth year, the Financial Services Club ran a survey of payments professionals worldwide to see how successfully regulations and technologies are changing the European payments landscape, sponsored by CGI and EBA CLEARING.            The survey ran during the spring of 2013, and was completed by 422 participants across over…

Logo_clearing_twitter

In finance, facebook is just a phase we’re going through

My grumpiness just got ten times worse at this treasury conference, as I stood up and started talking about how I use facebook, twitter, blogging etc to leverage my business. I could see a veil of abandonment enter the faces of the room as they struggled to get what I was saying, so I asked…

How to market a bank? Cuddly toys of course!

It’s always intriguing to see what banks and insurers are doing for marketing purposes. Take current accounts. HSBC offer a whole range of current accounts, but with no obvious gifts or special offers shown on the website.     Barclays offer a simple current account plus, which immediately stood out for its free mobile phone…

HSBC

How to market a bank? Cuddly toys of course!

It’s always intriguing to see what banks and insurers are doing for marketing purposes. Take current accounts. HSBC offer a whole range of current accounts, but with no obvious gifts or special offers shown on the website.     Barclays offer a simple current account plus, which immediately stood out for its free mobile phone…

HSBC

CAS-WG and the next Plenary

Further to the launch of the Clearing and Settlement Working Group (CAS-WG) two months ago (read more here), we have been a little quiet as the core membership of the group determined to map out details of subject groups and next steps. Each subject group held initial meetings in April and are now ready to…

CAS-WG and the next Plenary

Further to the launch of the Clearing and Settlement Working Group (CAS-WG) two months ago (read more here), we have been a little quiet as the core membership of the group determined to map out details of subject groups and next steps. Each subject group held initial meetings in April and are now ready to…

54 Hedge Fund managers join the 1,000 richest people in Britain

There are 54 hedge fund managers among the Richest 1,000 people in Britain in The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, to be published this weekend. THE 20 RICHEST HEDGE FUND MILLIONAIRES   Name Hedge fund 2012 wealth 2011 wealth 1 Alan Howard Brevan Howard £1,400m £975m 2 Robert Miller Sail Advisors £955m £1,000m 3 David…

54 Hedge Fund managers join the 1,000 richest people in Britain

There are 54 hedge fund managers among the Richest 1,000 people in Britain in The Sunday Times Rich List 2012, to be published this weekend. THE 20 RICHEST HEDGE FUND MILLIONAIRES   Name Hedge fund 2012 wealth 2011 wealth 1 Alan Howard Brevan Howard £1,400m £975m 2 Robert Miller Sail Advisors £955m £1,000m 3 David…