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@NickC + 1. With due respect to @BillG, I recently tweeted: "we underestimate the extent of sensible change in 2 years & overestimate the extent of frivolous change in 10 years."

https://twitter.com/GTM360/status/568719393674436608

Kudos to Samsung and Visa:

1. I know a cardiothoracic surgeon who picked up a stake in a stent manufacturer. Maybe Visa is following a similar hedging strategy by investing in LoopPay?
2. LoopPay is an innovative solution for a today's problem - old or new, magstripe dominates USA. Anecdotally, such solutions have gained mainstream adoption faster than wannabe innovative solutions searching for a problem.
3. And, in any case, what's to stop LoopPay from coming up with an EMV-compliant version of its technology by the time the installed base of EMV terminals achieves critical mass in USA?

All in all, seems like a smart move. 

Lest there be any doubts, HSBC is a UK bank and one among the Top 4 UK Banks at that.

"HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(banking)#United_Kingdom

"The UK-based bank..."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hsbc-profits-plunge-after-challenging-year-1489072

$18.7B is a huge profit, not a sign of struggling. Low ROSE may - repeat, may - be a sign that its investors are struggling. But that's another topic.

@AlexN: (1) Agreed. After overhyping its potential, when practitioners of Big Data use such ancient use cases to illustrate its power, skepticism mounts! (2) Actually, vocal flagbearers of Data Mining like ex Tibco CEO, Vivek Ranadivé, have been saying that Data Mining can provide answers where no questions are asked. I’ve given an example of such an answer in the hypothesis for Data Mining in my blog post Difference Between Data Mining And Predictive Analytics. However, the question that follows such answers is how smart the answers are!

This just out:  

"HSBC reported a 17% fall in profits to $18.7bn (£12.2bn) after a "challenging year" in 2014. The bank attributed the slump to the negative impact of a series of fines, settlements and customer redress." (Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hsbc-profits-plunge-after-challenging-year-1489072). 

As I'd suspected, channel mix - or, while on the subject, legacy systems - had nothing to do with why UK banks are reportedly struggling. 

On another note, does a $18.7B profit really sound like a "struggle"?

@AnjulS: I'd think God has done His bit! It's now entirely down to bank C-Suite!!

@JamesP:

TY for your comment.

Mobile RDC helps customers handle cheques without visiting a branch. Likewise, ATMs for cash. Mainstream adoption of Mobile RDC and ATMs in USA seems to rule out any significant correlation between greater use of cheques / cash - if that's the case - and branch usage in USA.

I agree with your Apple Store analogy. To continue my previous comment, merely having people at the branch is not enough. For banks to truly realize ROI from their branch networks, banks must have the right caliber of manpower and support them with the correct tools.

@AnjulS: TY for your comment. Given my experience with the on-demand offer of mortgage described above, I totally agree with your view about humans being good at intuitively figuring out what and how to sell to a prospect. That said, that statement is only applicable to humans as God made them but, at the risk of souding harsh, not necessarily to some bank-groomed humans. Just today, I visited the branch of a bank - not the public sector one described in my post - and happened to notice a poster for a new product. I'd to go from pillar-to-post to find out details of this product and its relevance for my needs. Long story short, I was reminded of one of those old "How many people does it take to screw on a lightbulb?" kind of jokes!

From personal experience of running practices: (1) Thought leadership and research into new competencies can even happen at the Nameplate level (2) Actual delivery happens outside the Practice. Practice temporarily transfers resources of the required skill levels to the delivery organization for the tenure of the engagement. Upon completion of the said engagement, said resources go back to the Practice where they await deployment to the next delivery organization that needs them.

FDIC is spot on - just that the "need for traditional branch offices" may be felt more by bankers than their customers:

Secret Of Survival Of Bank Branches