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Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

How to slow down Faster Payments

In a last-ditch effort to avoid incurring another exorbitant penalty fee at my bank for (once again) overstepping my overdraft limits I authorised a transfer from my Internet-based savings account with Egg to my current account. Problem solved? Er, no. it seems that the payment will take three working days to clear, (ie five days if you count the ...

/payments /retail

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Ibos and Swift at loggerheads over Alliance Lite

Swift chairman Yawar Shah opened an unexpected can of worms when he approached shareholders for feedback on how the bank-owned co-operative could add more value to its members. Obligingly, Ibos MD Bob Lyddon has responded with a long list of complaints about Swift’s new Alliance Lite interface, which is being showcased at Sibos as a cheap and che

/payments /wholesale Finextra@Sibos

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Zealous penetrates new markets

Adult Entertainment Capital claims it will be the first BDC ever to focus purely on the "Adult Industry" which has been largely shut out by Wall Street firms. The company expects to announce more than 6 new portfolio investments before the end of September, ranging from credit card processing for the "Adult Business" to real est...

/wholesale Whatever...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

ABN Amro prepares for the virtual world of banking

ABN Amro was one of the early pioneers in buying virtual real estate in Second Life, the Internet-based 3D fantasy playground. In 2006, the Dutch bank snapped up a large number of islands and opened a virtual financial advice centre to interact with the role-playing denizens of the alternate world. More recently, and in line with other banks like ...

/retail Futuristic Banking

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

The top ten questions for dark pool providers

Courtesy of Greenwich Associates, ten questions every institution should ask its dark pool providers: Are you a true dark pool, (i.e., completely anonymous, without any information leakage) or will information regarding my orders be conveyed to potential liquidity providers? Does your platform route orders out of your dark pool or from any other...

Finexpo

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Chip and PIN fraud kit for sale online

UK computing title The Register says it has alerted Apacs to an underground forum post spotted by Net security firm PrevX that suggests expertise on defeating anti-tampering protection on older Chip & PIN card terminals can be bought for as little as $4000. One thread, posted in early July, is from someone in the UK asking for information on h...

/security

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Chip and PIN security screen smashed?

The police raid in Brimingham opens a worrying new front for the banking community in the fight against organised card crime. The introduction of Chip & PIN has been a big suceess in stamping out fraud on the high street. However, it now appears that the criminal community is coming to terms with the new security measures and finding ingenious ...

/security

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Rethinking micropayments

How do you define a micropayment? In the early days of the Web a micropayment was defined as 1/1000th of a US dollar. With the Internet providing a shop-front for the sale of small value items - such as a software application or an individual news story - the search was on for an economically viable means of conducting such miniscule transactions....

/payments Trends in Financial Services

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Wall Street got drunk

Words of wisdom from President George W Bush on the financial malaise gripping the world economy and the sub-prime mortgage crisis, captured surreptitiously on video at a private event and posted on YouTube. More hilarity - only this time of the genuinely funny kind rather than hysterical - from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, comparing and cont...

/retail /wholesale Video extravaganza

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Cityboy: The musical

I fear the exploits of Cityboy at the Glastonbury music fest may have gone to the poor chap's head. The ex-DrKW analyst is back on YouTube promoting his catchy new single 'Cityboy'. All together now: 'I'm just a Cityboy Another lonely pretty boy Columbian exports in my brain I'm off my face again' Burt Bacharach he ain't. Maybe he should have sta...

/wholesale Video extravaganza

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