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3660 Results from /retail

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Calling Dr. House...

Do you watch House, the US medical drama series? In it, the team, ably led by the wonderfully acerbic Hugh Laurie as the eponymous head doctor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, solve puzzling medical cases through a range of medical tests, brainstorms and lateral thinking. We need an equivalent person, and department, to help us get out o...

/regulation /retail Trends in Financial Services

Retired Member

Retired Member 

The Convenience of Cheques: Long May They Live

I wrote a cheque the other day. Only a small one; it was a present to a relative. A not very imaginative present, yes, but there you go. It got me thinking, though. If cheques disappeared, how would I send this present? Some people have said that this is where prepaid cards come in (indeed, in a past life, the use of prepaid cards as presents w...

/retail Trends in Financial Services

Retired Member

Retired Member 

History Rewrite at Northern Rock.

Interesting comment reported on the BBC website this morning. Gary Hoffman is quoted as saying (about the resumption of lending): "We can now return to what we do well - mortgage lending." Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was their mortgage lending policies and practices that got them into the mess in the first instance. By what yardstic...

/regulation /retail Trends in Financial Services

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Confusion Marketing, a CRM Malfunction, or Just Mad?

...or desperate, or trying to send me a message that is too subtle for my limited imagination...? They're teaching some pretty weird stuff about managing customer relationships in the marketing classes, these days. The direct mail I've had from my bank these last 4 months are as follows: an invitation to their premier banking service, which costs...

/retail Online Banking

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

There's one born every minute

You've got to admire those Nigerian 419 scammers. Here's the latest that popped into my inbox, offering compensation from the Nigerian government to all those sad individuals who have been conned in the past: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (PANEL ON CONTRACT PAYMENT AND COMPENSATION) It has been resolved by the Senate special committee on Foreign Rel...

/security /retail

Retired Member

Retired Member 

What else will the banks charge for?

An interesting article from Netbanker on bank charges. I am sure, every bank thinks on the topic: if no big money can be earned on (new) loans, then what is next? Transactions? Service? Additional products? The logical answer is to put charges on things which are big cost elements for the bank: branches, tellers, call centre people, paper statemen...

/retail Innovation in Financial Services

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Flying high: Ken Lewis stonewalls in style

Bank bosses just don't get it. BofA president Ken Lewis is once again in hot water after flying to a hearing in New York with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on a luxury private jet. Lewis was there to answer questions about billion dollar bonus payouts to Merrill staff in December. Officials say he refused to supply the information Cuomo wanted, but...

/retail /wholesale Whatever...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Incompetence and Ignorance Over Pension

There is mucho incompetence over the pension issue that is in the Press at present. Our politicians are jumping on the bandwagon and either don't understand the issues, or are playing dumb for their own ends, and it's not very edifying to see this happen. The truth is that, in the RBS pension scheme, anyone who leaves is entitled to claim their pen...

/retail Transaction Banking

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Protestors hang banking effigy at 'family event'

This is getting serious. Following on from the politically-sanctioned banking witch trials in Parliament, demonstrators have hanged an effigy of a banker from Marble Arch in protest at the growing financial crisis. The Evening Standard reports that a group called the Government of the Dead dressed up as zombies for the demonstration. Scores of rev...

/retail /wholesale Whatever...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Leave Fred's Pension Alone!

Picture the scene. “Hey, Tone. Many of of us don’t like the mess you left the country in, so you’re losing your PM’s pension.” “Maggie. Loads of your humble citizens think you wrecked the country when you were in charge. Say adieu to your pension. Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to pay back half of what you’ve received already.” “Johnny Boy...

/retail Online Banking

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