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Andy Hunter - Perficiam Ltd - London | 06/08/2012 | 1725 views | 1 comment

Government's decision to wind up the Payments Council and vest control in some form of statutory body raises serious issues of governance and commerciality. The underlying assumption that civil servants are better able to determine market preference than bank executives seems an unlikely scenario. State managed Skoda was a constant butt of humour w... Tags: Payments, Retail bankingGroup: Transaction Banking

Andy Hunter - Perficiam Ltd - London | 11/03/2012 | 2407 views | 3 comments

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

When, in 1984, the marketing team at Midland Bank first removed charges from some personal accounts, they couldn't have guessed at the long term consequences for the UK retail market. At a time when cross sales of new services like mortgages and structured savings products was beginning to drive retail revenues, their objective was to win more cu... Tags: Payments, Retail bankingGroup: Transaction Banking

Andy Hunter - Perficiam Ltd - London | 01/03/2011 | 4180 views | 1 comment

The innovative world of UK payments

UK politicians often accuse the banks of failure to innovate in payments. The UK Payments Council was at least partly created and empowered to change this position but has so far failed to make its presence felt. So what's gone wrong? Firstly, the basic premise is deeply flawed. The UK payments industry is very innovative. Over the last twent... Tags: Payments, Retail bankingGroup: Innovation in Financial Services

Andy Hunter - Perficiam Ltd - London | 07/02/2011 | 4801 views | 7 comments

Making Faster Payments work

There was a time when bank marketing departments offered well crafted products delivering genuine value for money, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. Advertising is dominated by savings accounts paying way below inflation, and cash incentives to switch banks for no reason other than the cash itself. Whatever happened to the value proposition... Tags: Payments, Retail bankingGroup: UK Faster Payments