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Paul Penrose

Head of Research

Finextra

Member since

06 Oct 2006

Location

London

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Paul's opinions

UBank's Twitter offensive

At the risk of becoming a Twitter bore, here's another innovation from the land down under: NAB direct banking offshoot UBank is offering a free IGB USB flash drive to its first 1000 followers on Twitter. The social media-savvy bank has been twittering since October, and currently has over 300 followers. Paying for followers may not be the best wa...

06 May 2009 /retail Finance 2.0

ANZ CEO announces resignation - on Twitter

Twitter ye not. Brian Hartzer, CEO of ANZ's Australian operations has just announced his resignation - on Twitter. In a valedictory tweet posted Monday, Hartzer says: "Folks, this is my last tweet as I've resigned to pursue an overseas opportunity. Thanks for your continued support for ANZ. All the best." The smart money says Hartzer is ...

05 May 2009 /retail Finance 2.0

Twitter and other banking fads

LloydsTSB's James Gardner has caused a bit of a stir with some provocative comments on his BankerVision blog about the value of Twitter to banks. The Twitterati don't take kindly to criticism (constructive or otherwise), as I discovered personally a few months back when I made the mild observation - in an otherwise flattering take on Twitter - th...

30 April 2009 /retail Finance 2.0

Smoke, mirrors and financial accounting

How did the basket-cases of the US banking industry manage to post such, relatively, healthy results? It's all done by sleight of hand, as Dealbook helpfully explains. I particularly liked Goldman Sachs' stunt of simply eliminating a bad month from its quarterly report. That's financial genius at work. Are US banking executives so schooled in the ...

22 April 2009 /wholesale Finextra50 fintech index

No more 'free smiles' as JPMorgan brings back boring banking

Conventional wisdom has it that bank branches should take their cue from modern retail practices. They should be bright and welcoming, preferably open plan with comfy seating and staffed by approachable, friendly sales people. So why is JPMorgan taking a bulldozer to the WaMu Occasio branch concept, a $1 billion branch remodelling exercise that fre...

17 April 2009 /retail Trends in Financial Services

The pound in your pocket may be worth less than you think

The number of fake pound coins in circulation may be twice Royal Mint estimates, says the BBC. Official figures suggest around 2.5% - or one in 40 - are copies, but coin testing companies say it is one in 20. This would put the number of bogus coins in circulation at 73 million. The Royal Mint is playing down the data, as it doesn't want to underm...

08 April 2009 /payments /retail

Too big to fail, or too big to compete?

UK retailer Tesco is not alone in enjoying the benefits of 'safe haven' status as consumers turn away from distressed banks and move their assets to more trustworthy institutions. The UK's Co-operative Bank - which last month posted a 70% rise in underlying profit for 2008 - is reporting a 123% annual increase in customers switching their current a...

08 April 2009 /retail Trends in Financial Services

Building the bomb that blew up Manhattan

The man who wrote the software that became the industry-standard method for securitising mortgages tells all, in this mesmerising account of a 15-year career on Wall Street that runs from the go-go 80s through to the high-living excesses of the noughties.

01 April 2009 /regulation /wholesale

Make love, not leverage

Twitter seems to be coming into its own as a medium for reporting fast-moving events. Up-to-the-minute citizen reportage on the G20 protest rally can be found here. This just in: Protestors urinating in the Royal Bank of Scotland. 'Well, we do own it', says one tweet. More coverage from the FT's team at http://twitter.com/g20ft. 'Make love, not l...

01 April 2009 /retail /wholesale Finance 2.0

What's the point of Twitter?

So, everyone's a'flutter over Twitter? I wouldn't count on it. Here at Finextra we set up our own Twitter feed last year, just as an experiment. To set the ball rolling, we identified all Community members with a Twitter account and started following them. Over the past couple of months there's been a noticeable drop-off in tweets from individuals...

27 March 2009 /retail /wholesale Finance 2.0