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May 11, 2011

Creating a bank that makes money

So how are we going to make money in this brand new bank? This is the toughest question as it’s quite easy to make money in finance by focusing upon rate churn. Just offer lower interest rates on loans and credit cards and higher interest rates on savings and investments. This is the approach that…

May 10, 2011

Creating a cool and fair bank

Interesting reaction to yesterday’s kick-off about a new bank, with the responses being in three buckets: where’s the customer focus, how are you going to make money and what about the small business (SME) client? I’ll address those through the week, but want to start with the first as it strongly relates to culture. The…

May 10, 2011

PPI vultures and ambulance chasers

No sooner does the BBA announce that the banks will not fight the PPI battle, resulting in calls for recent FSClub keynote guest Angela Knight to resign as it could cost the industry up to £8 billion, than the vultures appear with one-page ads in the UK national newspapers … … nothing like capitalising on someone…

May 9, 2011

So how would you build a new bank?

If we were creating a bank today, how would we create it? This is a question that comes up regularly and I haven’t tried to answer it for a while, but thought I’d give it a go this week, as it’s timely. The reason it’s timely is that the last time I asked such a…

May 6, 2011

Customers need coaching, not channels

Building on yesterday’s blog, I was talking today about how banks deliver new channels to customers today. It is often not the best, as referenced earlier this week with the cumbersome way mobile apps turning customers off due to the way a bank delivers such service. If security, sign-on and opening of the new channel…

May 4, 2011

There is no revolution in banking

I think I had one of my unusual spouts of cynicism yesterday when, after realising that mobile and contactless and social is all the rage in banking, none of it is really hitting the mark yet. And, for all the talk about revolutions in banking, new models of banking, new ways of banking, new players…

May 3, 2011

Will and Kate’s bankers

So we’ve had a long holiday in Britain for the past two weeks, what with Easter and some Princely chap getting hitched to a commoner. It’s left us all a tizz over here in blighty, so much so that I haven’t thought about banking or blogging nearly at all. But now it’s back to the…

Apr 28, 2011

Is Sir Fred Goodwin’s personal life in the public interest?

It's hot news right now that Sir Fred Goodwin, the former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has filed a super-injunction to stop details coming out about his personal life in the press. The issue now is that everyone wants the super-injunction removed, with MPs threatening to make public and leak to the press…

Apr 20, 2011

Psychos, maniacs and nutters: the average trading room

Another aspect of trading that cropped up last week was the whole thing about trading psychologies. This was kicked off by one of the speakers, a Psychology Professor, exploring the psychology of trading. In his and many other studies, trading is very much akin to madness, with ‘the deal’ being linked to gambling, sex and worse. One of…

Apr 14, 2011

Strangers in the net

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about privacy and security over the past few weeks, as demonstrated by a range of blog entries: Will we ever have social security? Banks should advise customers on the do’s and don’ts of social networking Great identity theft infographic CNN – not news, but fraud How a cyber-security…