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Whatever...

A place to share stuff that isn't at all fintec related but is amusing, absurd or scary.

Retired Member

Retired Member 

US Retailers Gearing Up As Banks

I have reason to believe there are one or two US retailers with financial services squarely in their sights, and are looking to pull a Tesco in the US. Some retailers might just score a bulls-eye with their recession resistant business model and large store networks. I see there have been some tentative attempts by Carphone et al. Having a few hun...

/payments /retail

Keith Appleyard

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

Neither a Customer nor a Client or a Stakeholder be .....

The UK Local Government Association has compiled a banned list of the 200 worst uses of jargon, with "coterminosity" & "predictors of beaconicity" prominent in most press reports. The Council Leaders say such words and phrases must be avoided for staff to "communicate effectively". The list includes suggested trans...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Protestors vandalise Sir Fred's house

Public anger at banking excess seems to be boiling over into direct action and mob rule. Following the public hanging of a banking effigy at a rally in Marble Arch and the bus tours of AIG executive mansions organised by US activist groups, the latest person in the firing line is former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin. Police in Scotland are calling fo...

/retail /wholesale

Matt White

Matt White North America editor at Finextra

Bailed out JP Morgan goes jet shopping

According to ABC News, JP Morgan Chase is going ahead with plans to spend $138 million on two corporate jets and a "luxury" hanger to house them. But, incase you were thinking that seems a bit off in the current climate, don't worry - the purchase of these essential items won't be funded by the $25 billion in TARP money the bank recently...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Identity And The Technocrat Geeks

Like most rational men I still occasionally fall for the tricks of the mathematicks, but any maths you can invent today a child can do tomorrow. That is why maths per se doesn't provide the answer to the identity puzzle. I have a broader view of the issues with identity, but I agree that we should be able to have different anonymous aliases, for i...

Keith Appleyard

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

A bad banker and a dishonourable man.

I thought the Fred Goodwin saga was over, but it seems to run and run, so I thought I'd put in my two-penn'th The old RBS Pension plan allowed staff to retire at 60 on two thirds of their final salary after a 40-year career. If Goodwin was treated like any other RBS employee, then his actual service since 1998, plus pensionable service transferred ...

/retail

Keith Appleyard

Keith Appleyard IT Consultant at available for hire

How to Punish the Bankers - in the good old days

From The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (as sent by Colin Knox to Private Eye) : "AD1125 In this year sent the King Henry, before Christmas, from Normandy to England, and bade that all the mint-men that were in England should be mutilated in their limbs; that was, that they should lose each of them the right hand, and their testicles beneath. This was...

/regulation

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Self Regulation Dead On The Web Too?

A recent survey by TRUSTe reported in the NYTimes showed that over 90% of people surveyed thought that trust is 'really' or 'somewhat' important. 75 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “The Internet is not well regulated, and naïve users can easily be taken advantage of.” Even some of the experts have their tales. The FTC recently wa...

Steve Ellis

Steve Ellis Founder at Finextra Research

Wall Street Prison Consultants

It's good to know that there is a support infrastructure for these challenging times. Should you - or a friend - need help, go to http://www.wallstreetprisonconsultants.com Hat tip: Wade

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Restoration of Trust

For those of you who didn't sit in on Cohn & Wolfe's recent gathering to discuss the state of (dis)trust in financial institutions, I'll give you a quick rundown of their conclusions, which won't be any surprise to readers of my blogs. In a nutshell: Accept that trust has declined significantly and that consumers won't be pleased if you just go...

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