Latest opinions that Paul Penrose has shared on Finextra

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Paul Penrose

Head of Research

Finextra

Member since

06 Oct 2006

Location

London

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Paul's opinions

A letter to the editor

Who would want to be a bank boss? Andrew Clare from the Cass Business School, clearly thinks it worth a punt. From the letters page of the FT: Sir I know that this is not normally the forum to advertise one's qualifications in the hope of finding a new career, but hopefully you will excuse the liberty. I have no experience whatsoever in running a b...

08 April 2008 /regulation /wholesale Whatever...

HSBC loses credibility as well as data

Given the regulatory and reputational risk associated with the loss of personal customer data it beggars belief that a top tier bank can still think it's OK to despatch an unecrypted computer disc containing sensitive information on 370,000 of its customers by courier. HSBC's defence - that the disc was password protected and contained no bank acc...

08 April 2008 /security /retail

Bank execs pay ultimate price for wrong bet

Two bank workers who stole 45 million yuan (HK$49.93 million) to buy lottery tickets have been executed in Hebei province, according to an AFP report quoting the Xinhau News Agency. The two vault managers started taking money from the safe to play the state lottery, hoping they would eventually win back enough to replace the missing funds. Makes y...

07 April 2008 /regulation /wholesale Whatever...

Credit risk transfer: Where did it all go so wrong?

"A few fundamental tenets of sound financial judgment appear to have been violated." That's the typically understated view of the Bank for International Settlements, in its first official review of the havoc wreaked on the financial markets by wanton abuse of credit risk transfer instruments. The central bankers bank first reviewed the CR...

02 April 2008 /regulation /wholesale Finexpo

Top 100 April Fool's day hoaxes

Dog racing on ice? (The Daily Mirror). Nicolas Sarkozy to be stretched? (the Sun - natch). UBS share price soars on news of massive write-downs? (All financial press - the madness of markets). On April Fool’s day it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Nor can you trust newspaper advertising - witness BMW's campaign today pr...

01 April 2008 /retail /wholesale Whatever...

Price war looms for European exchanges

European exchanges had best get ready for another round of fierce price cutting following the announcement by the US-based Bats ECN that it is to set up an operation in London. The Bats ECN launched in the US two years ago and now claims an 8-10% market share in US equities. Much of its success stemmed from an agressive pricing plan introduced in ...

31 March 2008 /wholesale Finextra50 fintech index

PCI compliance fails to prevent Hannaford hacking

The Hannaford card security breach is a worrying development for the payment card industry. The exploit - which would appear to be an inside job - exposes weaknesses in the PCI compliance standards explicitly and expensively promoted by the card companies as a solution to restoring consumer confidence in payment card security. Unlike TJX, Hannafor...

31 March 2008 /security /payments Trends in Financial Services

Citi's bank-branded mobile handset

From the public filings of the US Federal Communications Commission - a mobile phone manufactured by Mobicom but branded by Citibank. The phone has no numeric keypad but instead uses basic navigation buttons to interact with onscreen menus. Features include an MP3 player, speakerphone, PIN entry and NFC technology for making credit card payments....

31 March 2008 /payments /retail Futuristic Banking

Retailers count the cost of interchange

The European Retail Round Table has warmly welcomed the announcement of the European Commission that it is opening competition proceedings against Visa in relation to its multilateral interchange fees (MIF) for cross-border point of sale transactions. The lobby group, which represents 15 of Europe's largest retailers, is urging the Commission to t...

26 March 2008 /payments EBAday

First contact for contactless payments

Sandwich chain EAT has become the first UK retailer to go live with an integrated contactless point of sale terminal. The upgraded Chip and PIN terminal has been installed at EAT’s Moorgate branch and enables the retailer to select the method of payment that customers want to use – either cash, Chip and PIN or contactless. Over the coming weeks, ...

26 March 2008 /retail Trends in Financial Services