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Ketharaman,

Great idea! Although I suspect the likes of Westpac thinks of social media like they do KYC - not in terms of actual customer engagement or knowledge, but as a legally constrained process.

BK

We're starting to see the brand dialog become critical to the trustworthiness of banking institutions today. Consumers (and Shareholders) are now assessing how in sync the bank is with their stakeholders by how engaged and connected the brand is with their customers.

Trust in 'banks' is no longer a given since the global financial crisis, it has to be earned again. The best way to earn trust is to be open and transparent. Shutting down customers who give negative feedback tells us that you are scared of what they are saying, or have no intention of fixing the problem - that is not a cause for me to trust you more. 

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms are about a dialog with your stakeholders. Big banks, in particular, are frustated that they can't 'spin' the brand message anymore - that they aren't in control. Customers are now in control, so if you don't engage on an equal footing, you brand will be hijacked and then you'll really have a problem.

Salil,

I think the regulators have a role to play, but I'd like to think if banks were proactive and took innovative approaches to customer engagement to the market and asked the regulator to support the move, that this would be a better approach than waiting for the regulator to define what is/isn't ok.

I think the key issue with waiting for regulators is that regulators are in the business of innovation, so expecting them to create a framework for innovation is foolhardy.

BK 

Michael,

The examples I listed such as the iPad giveaway, the use of a car image, credit card promotions, and a contact form, are not illegal in their current form. They fall under fair use guidelines.

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

On the power of social media, I think the fear of the 'crowd' is a bigger force to be concerned about if you're worried about 'managing' information flow, public opinion, etc - rather than the media platforms.

There's certainly ground being broken and it appears that the current copyright and IP legal frameworks are a poor fit for the internet generation.

BK

Michael,

I think your comments around legal's attempt to be compliant is correct, but the things I listed aren't illegal today under DMCA and Fair Use guidelines, they would be under SOPA.

The fear mongering is because the parameters of the law are so poorly defined. I'm not saying there should be copyright protection for copyright owners (I'm a copyright owner myself).

My concerns are:

1. The Department of Justice has no jurisdiction over a foreign company

2. There can be no lawful provision for DNS blocking of a domain outside the US' jurisdiction

3. Fair use should be retained

Regards,

BK

The fact is that despite the comments of doubters, there are already major shifts in approaches to bank marketing taking place right now. Take the example of Commonwealth Bank in Australia with their recent hire of Andy Lark, or RBS in the UK with their hire of Chris Popple. The smart money is on digital at the core today.

If you're not looking at major digital plays within the marketing team in the last couple of years, then you're already taking a hit on acquisition and ROMI (Return-on-Marketing-Investment) performance.

Probably 50% of the traditional marketing department is at threat right now due to this change in engagement models. And the cost? Can you really afford to keep putting ads in newspapers that no one is reading, or blasting out millions of DM campaigns that get infinitesimal response rates, or on TVCs that your target audience is fast forwarding on their DVRs? 

The facts are that in an environment where customer behavior changes as rapidly as it does today, we can't expect bank marketing to be stagnant and produce the same results. Sure, it is a ongoing project, but sitting back and waiting for 3-4 years before you start is a disasterous strategy.

Martin,

But isn't this all relative?

The title of your post leads me to think about how safe my physical wallet is/isn't. Compared with the mobile, even with it's shortcomings, my wallet is not even close to being as 'safe' as a mobile wallet. A plastic card is far easier to corrupt and steal than the capabilities required to hack a phone through vulnerabilities. 

Or am I missing something?

Brett King
BANK 2.0 

I saw this tweet go out to HSBC based on this story:

"@hsbc_uk_press http://t.co/hr9zYuvq join them in 90 days or my accnt will go to them just so I can use their mobile app! It's not that hard"

It's clear banks have lost touch with the majority of their retail base. For any major retail bank not to have a competent mobile App platform today is lunacy or laziness.

Brett King
BANK 2.0 

Uri,

This is exactly the sort of thinking needed. Too often discussions on fraud are on the risks of 'new things' that threaten existing IDV and fraud processes. The reality is, the new things will always come and be a threat to the old.

So we have to think 'new' - flexiblity is key.

Brett King
BANK 2.0 

Gerhard,

You're right of course. We ultimately need better digital identity and the banks/government should work on this together.

I'm also delighted that I lift your day with my musings :) That is my intention too.

BK