Trends in Financial Services

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

Retired Member 

It had better be a really smart phone

A lot is riding on the little piece of technology we have in our pockets. Besides the telecoms companies and handset manufacturers the most recent industries to stake their future on the 3ounce (85g) electronic gadget are Banks and the Music Industry. Both see the mobile device as the key to a rich and rewarding future. Google and Apple have wade...

03 January 2008 /payments

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Digital cash and other payment myths

We’ve seen plenty of posts on this community that play with the idea of virtual currencies, the eradication of paper-based cheques and the ultimate demise of hard cash. The emergence of a truly digital economy has been a favourite topic of commentators and futurists since the first stirrings of business interest in the Internet in the mid-1990s. ...

02 January 2008 /payments /retail

Retired Member 

Outlook 2008: A Nutshell

Time to consider what the year ahead might have in store. Volatility and uncertainty seem to be at an all-time high making an already difficult project that much more challenging. What follows are what we believe to be the four key drivers underpinning financial affairs in the coming year. 1. U.S. Economy Overall, we expect 2008 to be a year of...

29 December 2007

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

The 2007 Finextra Awards

So, it’s late December. The post Christmas party hangovers are becoming increasingly frequent, you’re just about done with the shopping, and the urge to work is waning. In short, it’s a great time of year to announce the inaugural Finextra Awards. Thankfully there was no shortage of topics to base the awards on – with a wide range of good, bad and ...

19 December 2007 /retail /wholesale

Retired Member 

Facebook and the Financial Analyst

Investing has evolved into a highly social activity, as evidenced by the countless chatrooms, blogs, and message boards populating the Internet. With the Facebook Platform API now available we would expect to see a rash of applications for investment analysis and portfolio management. By incorporating Amazon S3 or Rackspace for data storage, a sc...

14 December 2007

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

NYSE Euronext's single global e-trading platform

I had an interesting conversation today with Steve Rubinow, CTO of NYSE Euronext. Just over a year after the third phase of NYSE’s Hybrid trading system went live, heralding the massive shift away from the floor and specialist trading, HP’s PR people contacted me this week with an announcement that the Hybrid system is running on HP Non-stop and bl...

13 December 2007 /wholesale

Alan Goodrich Regional Sales Manager at ERI

What is the future for Retail Branch Banking..?

I’m not going to comment on the content of Chris’ and Michael’s blogs, but do look forward to the “event” that may bring them together into the public arena in February – I hear Sky Box Office has had strong demand for pre-ticket sales! :-) And I may be partly to blame for stoking the flames with a previous blog (To IP, or Not To IP..?) that could ...

11 December 2007 /retail

Alan Goodrich Regional Sales Manager at ERI

To IP, or Not To IP..?

After yesterday's blog sparring session between Messrs Skinner and Goldman, I thought I'd add my own 2p worth to the debate and risk being accused of not reading or understanding either gentleman properly! Those who have followed my blogs on the subject of innovation in banking will not be surprised to learn that I fall more into the corner of Chri...

29 November 2007 /retail

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Hedge fund buys Argentinian mountain

I attended an interesting roundtable held by Omgeo this morning. Kicking off the discussion, Omgeo's industry relations manager Tony Freeman reported a few things he'd heard at a recent ISITC event that supported his view that globalisation and diversification of increasingly complex tradeable instrument types is taking the market into new territor...

28 November 2007 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Mobile payments gather momentum

Royal Bank of Scotland is to conduct internal staff trials of mobile payment technology using MasterCard's PayPass contactless system. News of the pilot comes the day after the card scheme announced plans for a public trail of the technology in downtown Oslo with DnB Nor and Telenor. Field trials have also been scheduled for Japan. The latest in...

23 November 2007 /payments /retail