Finextra blogger too angry to blog after MS Office let down

One of our community members told me today they were too incensed to be able to form a sentence and type it into our system. Shaking with rage they were. It transpires that they were upset to discover...

Chew on this cubicle-dwellers

Is it an adventure theme park….a children’s nursery….a health spa? No, it's Google’s new European engineering HQ in Zurich. The 'office' space features meeting 'pods' in the style of Swiss chalets an...

Video extravaganza

Do you remember the first time? A Sibos virgin tells all

When was your first Sibos? It’s one those perennial questions for veterans of the international fintech circuit. Swift’s first international banking and operations seminar took place in 1978, attract...

Finextra@Sibos

Contactless has a much bigger foe than security: Apathy

Retailers are very pragmatic people. If something makes sense, works well and solves real problems, they’ll adopt it. Otherwise, no chance. While the banking community hypes up contactless cards and m...

SEPA and European Payments

Americans not interested in 'insecure' mobile banking

The interpretation of any survey is influenced by the motives behind the survey and the viewpoint of the reader. My interpretation of this survey is 'Americans don't want mobile based banking and shop...

Working Smarter, Not Harder

Are your days a battle between work, rest and play? Many women struggle to achieve the good work / life balance that we hear so much about. The competitive, demanding and rapid moving IT sector means ...

Women in Technology

You could be knee deep in alpha - and not know it!

I am usually surprised by the almost manic attention given to alpha these days. That may sound trite in present financial circumstances, although volatility in the markets is the mother of invention ...

Hedge Fund Technology

Card Fraud - truly globalized

APACS released the latest figures on UK Card fraud - http://www.apacs.org.uk/2007Fraudfiguresrelease.html It really shows how good criminals are in quickly exploiting 'systemic' loopholes. UK spent m...

Uncovering the hidden value in interchange fees

OK, I know that’s a provocative title, but bear with me. My last post showed how printing targeted promotions at the bottom of POS receipts costs merchants a few cents per impression versus close to ...

SEPA and European Payments

PayPass open to hack attacks?

A couple of weeks ago Finextra reported that security expert Adam Laurie has developed a script that lets fraudsters pull the names, account numbers and expiration dates from RFID enabled American E...

FSA shows naivety in response to Soc Gen fiasco

The reaction by the FSA to the Soc Gen disaster is just not enough! The recommendation for banks to tighten up systems and controls are laughable! I can guarantee you that the minute the news broke ev...

I feel a whole lot safer......yeah right

15 City of London and Metropolitan Police officers alongside five fraud specialists from the banking industry will no doubt be able to save us from thousands of evil fraudsters - don't you think? Do t...