Trends in Financial Services

A community to discuss the future of financial services and any other interesting trends, strategies, ideas, views.

Retired Member 

I prefer the casino

" Surely the stockmarket can't go any lower" Alot of people have been asking this question recently and wondering if its time to step in to the markets! After five days or so of heavy losses in the global stockmarkets finally we had a big bounce. But is this any different to red coming five times in a row on the roulette table and bettin...

15 October 2008 /retail

Jonathan Rosenne Chairman at QSM Programming Ltd.

Is the use of PIN for every purchase justified?

Every use of the PIN exposes it, and the exposure has a cost attached. For small value transactions, say less than 50 Pounds, it is probably not economically justified. Moreover, establishements where most of the transactions are low value could probably use much cheaper terminals, that do not have PIN pads at all. No PIN used, no PIN stolen.

13 October 2008 /retail

Retired Member 

This sucker could go down

It seems that George Bush has more insight than I thought after making this comment last week. Alan Greenspan wrote a now famous research article on how the monetary system risked collapse if it wasn't fully backed by Gold. This was in the 70's shortly after the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement, and it seems that the old adage applies - that...

10 October 2008 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

The silent but deadly bank run

"We are not currently processing any deposits or any withdrawal requests through our Icesave internet accounts. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers. We hope to provide you with more information shortly." The notice posted on the Icesave Web site today is the electronic equivalent of a Great Depression bank shut...

07 October 2008 /retail

Retired Member 

Micro-Markets Vs Interbank markets.

Surely not! How could anyone possibly suggest that P2P lending markets could even sit at the same table as the wholesale lending or repo markets. No prizes for who can guess which one is currently completely frozen up and which is booming. The speed at which banks have stopped lending to their clients and to each other surely is a sign that the cu

06 October 2008

John Cant Managing Director at MPI Europe Ltd

What do Boris Johnson and Wikipedia have in common?

Well not the most obvious question I know. Boris Johnson – London’s headline grabbing mayor – and Wikipedia – an on-line encyclopaedia with definitions generated and maintained by its users – don’t seem to have obvious overlaps. However, they do both generate strong polarised opinions. Take Boris’s famous, or should that be infamous, “ping pong” s...

03 October 2008 /retail /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Crisis-hit banking sector picked over by retailers

Tesco's decision to expand its banking business looks like a smart move, as consumers seek a safe haven for their cash away from the carnage in the traditional banking sector. UK supermarket chain Tesco - which serves 20 million customers a week - says it has seen the number of applications for savings accounts double in recent days. The group rece...

01 October 2008 /retail

Retired Member 

APACS and card fraud

"One of APACS' key responsibilities is co-ordinating a whole range of activities to tackle payment-related fraud" Does this mean that there's work for APACS as long as there is payment fraud? I ask this because its truly confusing to alert APACS of a solution to payment fraud and there simply is no reaction on their part. What do they mea...

01 October 2008 /security /payments

Retired Member 

100 percent capital reserves.

People are beginning to wonder what the alternatives are to having savings in the bank. The average person now understands that banks use our savings for a multiple of financial endevours and only keep a capital to loans ratio of about 10% at best. One journalist in the weekend papers said that she did not want to deposit any funds in her bank acco...

29 September 2008

Retired Member 

Ready or not, customer-controlled accounts are coming

That title is actually one of Javelin Strategy & Research's News Item : http://www.javelinstrategy.com/2007/11/02/every-new-idea-looks-crazy-at-first-attention-e-bankingpayments-product-or-security-managers-ready-or-not-customer-controlled-accounts-are-coming/ In another Javelin's news item, James Van Dyke stated : "....on this subject is ...

27 September 2008 /security /payments