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Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

The iPhone as money

Apple filed a rather fascinating patent application in December last year for a wireless communication system. "A processing system is described that includes a wireless communication interface that wirelessly communicates with one or more wireless client devices in the vicinity of an establishment. The wireless communication interface receiv...

/payments /retail Futuristic Banking

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Just how rich is Michael Bloomberg?

John Thain estimates that Merrill Lynch's 20% stake in financial information supplier Bloomberg could be worth up to $6 billion. The valuation puts a $30 billion price tag on the company and makes Thomson's $8.8 billion buy-out of Reuters seem a positive snip. It also offers an insight into the personal net worth of the company's eponymous founde...

/wholesale Finextra50 fintech index

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Children of the revolution

I took delivery of a new home computer this week. First task: set up the Internet connection, download Firefox and check my e-mail. I then let the kids (ages 9-16) loose on the machine. First task: log-on to social network and download the open source equivalent of MSN for instant messaging. E-mail? That's so last century. This is the next generat...

/retail Finance 2.0

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Life after Swift

Belatedly proving that there is life after Swift, the banking co-operative's former head of securities James Donovan has landed a new role at US self-regulatory authority Finra. In his new job, Donovan will take charge of Finra's corporate technology and strategy, and will also be responsible for registration and disclosure, market transparency fa...

/sibos /wholesale Where are they now?

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Large value subject, low value research

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York yesterday published a paper that describes ten major long-range trends in the settlement of large-value payments worldwide. The trends are driven by technological innovation, structural changes in banking, and the evolution of central bank policies. The authors observe that banks are increasingly making large-...

/payments /wholesale Finextra@Sibos

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Digitally challenged

Finblog's been out of action for the past ten days after suffering a traumatic amputation of the middle finger at the hands of a faulty lawnmower. I'll spare you the gory details, suffice to say the mangled finger-tip was considered not to be viable for transplantation and now resides in a pickle jar somewhere in the dark recesses of Bristol Infir...

/security /retail Whatever...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Finextra equals community

Financial Insights has issued a briefing note on the social networking phenomenon and the opportunities and threats posed to financial institutions. The study seeks to provide a framework that defines social networking for the financial services industry, as well as provide guidance to fintech software houses and infrastructure vendors and invest...

/retail /wholesale Finance 2.0

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Australian central bank cries foul over eBay PayPal mandate

Australia's central bank has stepped into the debate over eBay's proposals to make the use of PayPal mandatory for buyers and sellers on the online aution site. In a submission to the country's competition commission, the RBA raises three issues of concern: "The first is that it could limit the ability of new on-line payment systems to become...

/payments /retail EBAday

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

City exposed as institutionally corrupt and morally bankrupt

A broker writes: "Behind the headline-grabbing stories of rogue traders losing billions, the more mundane, day-to-day world of high finance is as wild and unregulated today as it ever has been. Brown envelopes stuffed with £50 notes change hands every lunchtime in bars across the City; drugs wreak havoc with traders' judgments as they stake f...

/wholesale Finextra50 fintech index

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Granville's insolvency a sign of things to come

The descent into administration of UK business intelligence vendor Granville Associates reawakens the spectre of insolvency for smaller software companies in the fintech space. For the best part of the past decade, companies with a sluggish sales pipeline and cashflow problems have been able to keep themselves afloat by taking on more debt and bor...

/retail /wholesale Finextra50 fintech index

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