Trends in Financial Services

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

Retired Member 

Who's in your Wallet?

We face a real and present threat to our national security. This threat originates from both domestic and foreign sources. As an increasing number of countries move to adopt secure credit card transaction technology, eastern European cartels are turning their attention to the relatively unprotected US card transaction system. However more sinister...

18 March 2008 /payments /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

In banking it pays to be disloyal

We know it costs more money to recruit a new customer than to cross-sell to an existing customer. We know also that a satisfied customer is a happy customer and good for some free word-of-mouth marketing to new prospects. So why is it that financial services companies continue to cheat and penalise their most loyal customers at any and every availa...

17 March 2008 /retail

Jonathan Rosenne Chairman at QSM Programming Ltd.

Diebold

Diebold is one of the leading vendors of ATMs worldwide, and is now in the news: http://www.diebold.com/ http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=dbd Whatever the outcome of the current boardroom hassle, it is obvious that things had gone wrong and that the future management of Diebold, whoever they be, will have to reassess the company and its ways. From a ...

08 March 2008 /security /retail

Retired Member 

There Will Be Deals

Looking at recent market activity it is difficult to imagine a time when companies might actually decide once again to engage in strategic transactions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in financial services - particularly in the brokerage subsector - but this market turmoil is creating an environment ripe for dealmaking. Many financial firms ar...

07 March 2008

Retired Member 

The mad ramblings of an Englishman

Last week I was out in New York attending the Global Association of Risk Professionals' (www.garp.com) annual conference. Part of my extra curriculum activities involved hosting a dinner at the Craft restaurant (www.craftrestaurant.com) at 47 East 19th Street. A great restaurant if ever you are stuck in New York and looking for some private dinn...

03 March 2008 /regulation

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Paper cheques are so 17th Century

A sign of the times: The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company (C&CCC) and Apacs, the UK payments association, has issued a new advice guide for consumers on how to write and receive cheques. Recent research conducted by C&CCC has shown that over half of all UK account holders are concerned about receiving cheques and around a quarter don't l...

26 February 2008 /payments /retail

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Do retail banks respond to emails?

I saw this survey last week that revealed 53% of UK banks fail to respond appropriately to online queries or emails. A US version of the same study last year found that of 72 banks surveyed, well over half - 67% - of firms did not provide satisfactory answers via e-mail. These survey results are obviously good marketing hooks for IBM and Kana (whi...

21 February 2008 /retail

Retired Member 

Move over Eastenders the next soap opera is here

Earlier this week, whilst catching up on news from America, I came across an article in the New York Times announcing, "The credit crisis is no longer just a subprime mortgage problem." Now no disrespect but I am sure the majority of people getting this newsflash from the New York Times have no idea what it really means. As for the rest...

15 February 2008 /regulation /retail

Ainsley Ward Vice President, Payments Solutions at CGI

Strange things afoot in the POS world...

When I worked for a terminal vendor a few years ago, I made a prediction that the market would quickly consolidate down to a few (probably 3) big players - and that they'd most likely be VeriFone, Hypercom & Ingenico - but what I didn't see coming was that the market would get as cutthroat as this. What's unfolding in the Hypercom/Ingenico/Th...

12 February 2008

Retired Member 

Back to basics for CIOs?

As Gartner predicts, apparently against the run of events, healthy growth rates in global outsourcing this year (8.1 percent IT & BPO), I wonder if financial sector CIOs aren’t actually considering the year with a wry smile? Despite contemplating a budget squeeze and the need to fully comply with regulatory issues such as MiFID and SEPA, they ...

11 February 2008