Community

My monthly Payroll was scheduled for Tuesday; 10% of my employees reported they were impacted and didn't get paid until Friday.

I read the whole deck to reach the conclusion that when they refer to "programmes" (as in 500 reduced to 200) they mean "change packages" rather than application programs or systems - so why not use less ambiguous language - are they deliberately confusing the analysts? 

Luddite I may be, but I find the sites using VR that ask for "YES" or "NO" rather than '1' or '2' are difficult to use - they usually can't understand me (I have a lifelong speech impediment). God help those asking for even more spoken word.

I've found site's where you have to try 3 times to know whether they are programmed to only recognise 'oh', 'zero' or 'nought'

I haven't used one of these lobby access points for a few years (I used to live near a Lloyds & HSBC that had them), but surely there ought to be an emergency exit procedure in the event of fire or a power cut?

Cheques are very useful & efficient ways of paying a refundable deposit for the hire of outdoor equipment like bouncy castles etc. That way the cheque simply gets torn up afterwards, and no transaction charges are incurred by either party.

Whilst I can pay my local council by Direct Debit or BACS, they still don't accept Credit/Debit Cards. If I instigate a transaction with them, where they don't know beforehand I'm coming and so haven't prepared an Invoice, such as for a Liquor License or Car Parking Permit, then I have no choice other than to pay them by Cheque.

I hope the UK Banking Industry has taken pre-emptive steps to prevent the sort of fraud they've had in the USA - but somehow I doubt it.

Back in June 2013 Brian Krebs

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/06/double-cashing-with-mobile-banking/ 

reported on a criminal case where someone in Kentucky had used mobile remote deposit capture (mRDC) which allows banking customers to deposit a cheque by taking a picture of it with a cellphone. The risk for financial institutions that allow mRDC is that the customer retains the paper cheque, and can potentially deposit it again and again at other institutions. The key challenge for banks is that they can't detect in real-time when an item has been deposited via the mobile channel, and then deposited at a branch. 

Very good Matt!

Well I wonder what market demographic Barclays are focussing on?

I would have thought a tie-in with Waitrose or Marks and Sepencer would be more in tune with their profitable clientele they presumably wish to retain - would they be seen dead going into Asda?

My nearest ASDA is 7 miles away, whilst my nearest Barclays is half-mile walk - but as an alternative I've Lloyds, Santander, Nationwide and HSBC to choose from within a 100 yd stretch. 

Who does this not surprise me.

When I was doing a Due Diligence of Acquiring a Credit Card portfolio based in Leeds, I found that the systems documentation stated that the Statements had been outsourced and were produced in Bristol by CSC. A little research via Google showed that this datacentre had been closed down, and the Statements were being produced by CSC in Melbourne Australia. Further research by me showed that the PIN Mailers were also being sent (unencrypted) to the other side of the world to be printed, and then mailed back to the UK via the public postal service.

So try hacking the print servers - its easy.

I recall many years ago (probably the late 1980's), when a woman went to a fashion store in Brussels and purchased a dress for BEF18,500 (then approx GBP240). The store assistant was new to the POS terminal, and erroneously entered an extra 6 '9's, ie 18500999999, and convinced the Customer to sign the [American Express] Charge Card sales slip.

That transaction sailed all the way through, rang no alarm bells within Store or with Merchant Acquirer, and was applied to the Charge Card account.

Warning bells then came the next day from Treasury, who recognised an extreme exposure to BEF.

As the Customer was also enrolled in Direct Debit, I had the fun and games of working out how best to reverse out the erroeneous transaction and apply the correct amount before the deadline for issuing the Direct Debit request.

Thereafter we did have a 'reasonability' check, but it did still have to be denominated in "millions" to allow for exceptional purchases such as Jet Aircraft Engines (that's another story, involving Guinness Peat Aviation at East Midlands Airport)