Uncategorized

Mar 5, 2012

Chris Skinner: Competitive Hypocrite

I was defending the fact that there is huge competition in banking yesterday and realised that this makes me a massive, two-faced hypocrite, as I’ve blogged so often to say that there is no competition in banking. How can I be arguing both sides of the case? For those who know me, they know that I…

Mar 5, 2012

Chris Skinner: Competitive Hypocrite

Mar 1, 2012

Banks should follow Google’s approach to privacy

We talk about Big Data and information leverage a lot. Banks are underutilising the data they have about customers and should be far more holistic in approach. It’s a theme on the blog regularly, and is challenged by various issues: the appetite of the bank to invest in data leverage; the silo-structure of the bank…

Feb 29, 2012

Are bankers good, bad or really ugly?

It's a leap year, so I thought I'd celebrate by releasing some new books through my brilliant publishers, Searching Finance. There are two new books released today: Are Bankers Good or Bad for Society? and The City of London: How it Developed into the World's Leading Financial Centre Plus there's an update to a book…

Feb 28, 2012

Retail financial channels are not as simple as some think

A lengthy discussion yesterday about retail distribution channels for banks. The debate began with whether a traditional bank could succeed in launching new channels against clean sheet start-ups. The answer, imho, is no. First, a different audience is attracted to the new channel. Second, a traditional bank brand is not needed for the new channel….

Feb 27, 2012

Greece is the word … and show some support

Europe is full of stereotypes. The Spanish are always manana, the Italians are all corrupt, the Germans will force you to do it their way and the Brits are always drunk. Some of this is true – as we all have a generalisation of view that must emanate from somewhere. So yes, some Spanish are…

Feb 27, 2012

Greece is the word … and show some support

Feb 27, 2012

Monday fun

Various cartoons and images amused me last week. First was Brookes cartoon in the Times about Greek debt: And, in the same newspaper, the uneasy ride that Angela Merkel is taking with Nicholas Sarkozy as they try to steer through this disaster and his upcoming elections: Then I found this gate on my journeys: And…

Feb 27, 2012

Monday fun

Feb 24, 2012

Europe’s oldest and wealthiest are … Swiss!

News came out yesterday that Michel Barnier has created a high-level expert group to tackle reforms to the structure of the EU banking sector. Erkki Liikanen, Governor of the Bank of Finland, is going to be the Chairman of the Group, and Carole Sergeant, chair of the HM Treasury steering group in the UK, is tasked…