Whatever...

A place to share stuff that isn't at all fintec related but is amusing, absurd or scary.

Retired Member 

Happy Holidays

It has been a big year. It'll be hard to top that one but I look forward to more excitement in the world of financial services in 2010. I'd like to thank Citi for their very predictable share performance throughout the past year or so and nice to see those Tarp funds magically reappearing. Better get the rest of them sorted before the jig is up. C...

10 December 2009

Ainsley Ward Vice President, Payments Solutions at CGI

Are RFID tags the new chewing gum?

I appreciate that this is probably my first foray into Hyacinth Bucket territory, but I've noticed recently that there's been a new addition to the street litter here in Brussels. As the number of cigarette butts (and packets and plastic wrap) has considerably decreased there seems to be a new addition to the flotsam and jetsam - RFID tags. To be ...

02 December 2009 /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Goldman bankers tool up with handguns - allegedly

We hear from no less a source than a Bloomberg news columnist that the higher-ups at Goldman Sachs are loading up on pistol permits for fear of a popular uprising against God's own bankers. Now, the 'evidence' for this is anecdotal in the extreme. “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the goo...

02 December 2009 /wholesale

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

Retain the Cheques for Small Business and Small People

I see both sides of this coin at the Children's Charity (Playgroup) I run. Only yesterday I received 3 Invoices, none of which contained any Bank details, so I was obliged to pay by Cheque. I’m just finishing off a Cheque Book I started in September 2006. I even have some Suppliers whose latest Invoices show no Bank details, yet earlier Invoices di...

25 November 2009 /payments

Elizabeth Lumley Global FinTech Commentator at Girl, Disrupted

You can use it ...even if you are a Sugarbabe

I just needed to share this with the Finextra Community. So much better than the Window 7 house party - Push that button baby! (for those outside the UK - the Sugarbabes are an all-girl UK supergroup, (and I mean super) who tend to upgrade with new members every year. Kind of like...) See the ads here.

25 November 2009

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Thomson Reuters logo goes down the pan

Credit to Reuters' blogger Felix Salmon for picking this one up from the Post Secrets blog. The secret story of Thomson Reuters new logo, as told by a disaffected design team member:

16 November 2009 /wholesale

Retired Member 

Spam and the Phishing Opt Out

Given my fairly loud views about green browser bars and snake oil (in case you haven't read them - basically I put them on a par with the guys who sell those pills alleged to make one's parts bigger). I don't have a great deal of faith in them and I'm well endowed enough already. This didn't stop Verisign from sending me a suspicious email: "...

16 November 2009

Retired Member 

It Isn't Safer To Check Your Account Often Online

Given the level of malware we see evading virtually every anti-virus or security fix internet banking has never been less safe. At present the most sensible course of action is to put a freeze on your credit file, switch the majority of your funds a non-internet account and use cash. If the only one who knows about your account is you and the bank ...

15 November 2009

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

DEFRA Single Payment Scheme shows poor value for money

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Rural Payments Agency’s Single Payment Scheme uses a £350 million IT system to pay farmers the right amount in EU subsidies. But the National Audit Office said in a recent report that the agency’s systems are "very expensive", "cumbersome", "difficult to change t...

10 November 2009 /payments /regulation

Retired Member 

Ethics..............................................Gone

IT is blindingly apparent how to compete in the big bad world of investment banking (stinking). I don't suppose I'll be getting too many investment offers but to tell you the truth their money stinks to high heaven. I expect that a full FBI investigation into a lot of those fancy investment products would uncover a mass of bribed local officials, f...

06 November 2009