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Oct 21, 2010

How will banking be different in 100 years?

This is the last of the six big questions we are tackling next week at SIBOS. In case you missed them, the other five are: When will we know there won't be another meltdown? Who will be the next global superpower? What happens when there is no more poverty? If payments are free, who pays? and…

Oct 14, 2010

The Long Now and #innotribe at #Sibos

I was going to write another big piece on a big question that we’ll talk about at SIBOS this year – it’s a big banking tradeshow in Amsterdam from 25-29 October as most of you know – and then got this video from Mariela at SWIFT and it says most of what I would say…

Oct 13, 2010

A brand new book on the PSD and SEPA

If you are unaware, a book has just been released by our good friend Ruth Wandhofer on the Payment Services Directive titled: EU Payments Integration – the Tale of SEPA, PSD and Other Milestones Along the Road. Ruth is well known in the payments industry for her in-depth knowledge of the regulatory, market and competitive landscape…

Oct 12, 2010

Fund manager who wants to be your teddy bear!

So I’m out and about in the town of London again, and the first thing I’m asked about is teddy bears. Hedge fund manager’s teddy bears to be exact. It’s all to do with the bad behaviour of one Paul Greenwood and his colleague who defrauded people by doing a Bernie Madoff style Ponzi fund…

Oct 11, 2010

Want to know how smalltown bankers feel?

I received an email from my friends at American Banker the other day. They had just published a letter from a rather angry CEO of an American Community Bank. Community banks are like mutuals, cajas or sparkassens over here, and they exist for their members’ interests. With that in mind, I think we can all…

Oct 8, 2010

Skinner does Die Hard

Being in New York this week, I decided to relax today and booked a trip around the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This was on a recommendation from a friend, and proved to be interesting, especially as there is gold in them, there vaults! The Fed only allow around 25,000 visitors…

Oct 7, 2010

If payments are free, who pays?

One of the big questions we want to focus upon during the Long Finance debates at SIBOS this year is: if payments are free, who pays? The discussion is all around the concept that payments have been so commoditised and disrupted that they are irrelevant as a source of value and revenue generation. There’s no…

Oct 6, 2010

Bloggerblast redux

Quite a few folks found it difficult to keep up with our bloggerblast with Matt Colebrook, CEO of First Direct last Friday. It was a blast, although a few folks found the conversation stream a bit garbled and confusing as there were at least seven people in the conversation. Furthermore, I think Matt was a…

Oct 6, 2010

Monthly MiFID MTF Monitor, September 2010

We are pleased to provide our eighth month of monitoring the MTF performances in European Equities trading, in partnership with Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter (EMSR). Market Share based upon Euro Value September 2010 August 2010 Source: Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter Market Share based upon Volume of Trading September 2010 August 2010…

Oct 1, 2010

Banking in 2031 … any different to banking in 1989?

I'm having a webchat today with First Direct's CEO, Matt Colebrook, who spoke at the Financial Services Club last Monday (more to come later). The discussion will look at how banking has changed over the last 21 years, as First Direct launched in 1989. The dialogue is between Matt and good mates Brett King of…