Hooray for Bethan. At last someone who has pointed out the facts around payments. I agree with her wholeheartedly. The future is about choice, and many people, like Bethan and me, want as many choices as possible. I use cash, cards and internet banking. I also have an Oyster card (I do live in London). But I will not be paying using my mobile phone for many years to come because I lack confidence in the security and do not want a contactless credit or debit card because of the risks involved if the card is lost. However, if others want to do so, that is their choice.
16 Oct 2014 11:43 Read comment
As a bank customer, why would I want my bank to have details of my expenditure? Of what value is it to me? Neither of the two main credit cards that I use are provided by either of my bank account providers and a number of my savings products are with yet another bank. Quite rightly, my expenditure is my affair.
16 Jun 2014 08:16 Read comment
Surely one reason is the black economy, which accounts for about 8% of the UK economy and more in Italy & Greece. It is not unusual in the UK for a builder to offer to undertake a job for cash. If you want to pay by any other method, then he will charge you VAT at 20%. There are no financial objectives to pay any other way than cash.
03 Jun 2014 11:32 Read comment
A pity that the statistics did not break down the preference between banking on the Web and mobile banking. Previous surveys have shown that Brits are not taken with mobile banking.
10 Jan 2014 09:27 Read comment
I note that you do not use 'The Big Short' by Michael Lewis as a reference. This one book explains why Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. It was caused by AIG, who lost $99 billion dollars guaranteeing sub-prime mortgage derivatives using ratings supplied by the rating agencies. Both AIG and the ratings agencies escaped without penalty (AIG was rescued by the US government).
Further down the article you mention that three of the four biggest banks are now Chinese. It is worth noting that in 1991 the four largest banks in the wrold were all Japanese. Why? because of the Japanses property bubble and a captive Japanese market. Let us see whether the Chinese can learn from this problem.
04 Oct 2013 08:05 Read comment
I do not see any mention of Armin's background. He is an ex-employee of Misys and has rejoined after a sojourn at Temenos, Misys biggest rival.
13 Jun 2013 07:50 Read comment
In paying for long term parking a year ago in a city that I had never visited before I was able to pay using my mobile device by texting my car registration number followed by the parking space number to the parking lot manangement company. The fee was charged to my mobile device account. No bank was involved. I would welcome doing the same at any parking meter or parking lot.
Why do we need wallets? Who needs a bank? Why not charge direct to the mobile device account?
24 May 2013 07:33 Read comment
I would be interested to know just how many Co-op customers use Twitter (or FaceBook). I doubt that the majority do.
My teenage son uses niether, having been bullied at school. He tells me that Twitter and FaceBook are relentlessly used by bullies. He has Skype and e-mail and seems very happy to communicate that way.
As a result, your last paragraph talking of 'the power of Twitter' does not ring true. It is one of many tools that banks need to empower, but certainly not the only one.
15 May 2013 10:08 Read comment
A very good description of core banking systems developed in the 1960s and 1970s, a considerable number of which are still being used by major banks.
The key, as you say, is that they are account and transaction based. They are not customer based. As a result, when a customer has four acounts - a current account, a savings account, a credit card and a loan / mortgage - linkage has to be established to tie them together, making the system over complex for what should be simple linkage.
The sooner major banks still using 40+ year old systems bite the bullet and decide to replace their aging systems, the more chance they have of surviving in the second decade of the 21st century.
25 Apr 2013 08:05 Read comment
The key to customer service is how the organisation handles something which has gone wrong.
In my experience telcos are awful at this. Banks are not a lot better, but have improved significantly in recent years.
Telcos are no more customer centric than financial institutions when it comes to resolving problems.
05 Apr 2013 07:47 Read comment
Tin GathaniManaging Director at Enigma Project Consultants Limited
Vilmos Levente KovacsManaging Director at Simplexion Informatikai Kft.
Alistair CattoManaging Director at Beyond
Svetlio TodorovManaging Director at emerchantpay
Marat NevretdinovManaging Director at HDI Embedded
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