Whatever...

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

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

The gospel according to Martin Lukes

Praise be! The FT has resurrected Martin Lukes, the deluded and corrupt former chief of fictional company a-b global, who disappeared from view some years back after being convicted of insider trading. In tune with modern social media trends, Lukes - who declares himself "480% innocent" of the charge - now has his own blog, wirtten from ...

05 November 2009 /retail /wholesale

Retired Member 

Good Time To Lengthen Those Passwords

The good advice has always been to have a long password. Cloud computing has a silver lining for hackers or anyone with a decent limit credit card. The guys at somewhere (if you need to know I'd be happy to recommend them but I don't really think I'll share it here) have done some interesting work in the clouds - started at the request of a client...

04 November 2009

Retired Member 

Just a little note for writers or those who hesitate

The US has been drafting laws covering internet copyright, libel, protection of sources etc. The UK libel laws are somewhat fierce but I don't know whether the finextra.com gives any protection. There has been some radioactive discussion on the wording with previously bloggers left out and here is the latest version of what or who constitutes a 'co...

03 November 2009

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Crunch - the game for utter bankers

We missed this first time around, but it should definitely be on the Christmas shopping list for all self-respecting Finextra Community members. Crunch - the game for utter bankers is a devious card game that places you at the head of the boardroom as a CEO of a global bank juggling the conflicting demands of your ailing bank and your future retir...

30 October 2009 /retail /wholesale

Retired Member 

My Love Affair With Smart Cards

I note that since the wimps who don't like to hear the truth about their dogdgy products bleated I've been banned if I mention the word mobile. So today I'm going to tell you about my little fling with smart cards, back about a dozen years ago. I was an enthusiastic adopter of new technology and those little smart cards really did seem like a smart...

30 October 2009

Retired Member 

Westpac Boss Rethinks Branch Closures

There is an article in the newspaper quoting Peter Hanlon expressing the view that branch closures may have been a tactical error which reduced the quality of service and damaged the customer relationship. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/money/westpac-group-executive-peter-hanlon I have mentioned the lost resource that the local branch represent...

27 October 2009 /payments /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Bloomberg help desk saves balloon boy

A heart-warming story currently doing the rounds in financial circles. A trader at Natixis Bleichroeder Capital Management was apparently so distraught at the unfolding boy-in-the-balloon saga that he called the Bloomberg help desk to vent his feelings. The exchange was first posted by Chris Rovzar of the daily Intel, who says the desk jockey in q...

22 October 2009 /wholesale

Elizabeth Lumley Global FinTech Commentator at Girl, Disrupted

The translation divide

Fresh off the news that Nomura required female executives to attend 'tea making' courses - now comes the news that the Asian bank has banned 'gay' nail polish. Before the Gay and Lesbian Alliance start picketing their offices in Canary Wharf it seems this edict was a result of a poor English translation asking staff to refrain from wearing brightl...

20 October 2009

Retired Member 

Instant Cure For Identity Theft

I gave up talking about identity theft. That horse has bolted and the barn door has been wide open too long. As I predicted some time ago, ID theft , and personal data theft enabling ID fraud is so rampant that sellers of such data are overlapping and the market is almost saturated. It's time to fix it. We've had some mention of gadgets and frustra...

20 October 2009

Retired Member 

Microfinance Debt and Credit Card Debt - Similar?

Does this have any relevance to western 'micro-credit' or consumer credit cards? I notice the default rate heading over 10% for credit cards. This is a quote from a World Bank site discussing microfinance. "Let’s start with the concept of a loan loss rate–the percent of my loan assets that I lose in bad loans each year. As it happens, the maxi...

17 October 2009 /regulation