Latest opinions that Paul Penrose has shared on Finextra

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Paul Penrose

Head of Research

Finextra

Member since

06 Oct 2006

Location

London

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Paul's opinions

Bank of America outs Twitter imposter

Bank of America twitterer David Knapp at BofA_help has outed an impersonator operating under the monicker bofabanker. The anonymous BofA imposter set up his Twitter account yesterday and claimed to be a bona fide staffer at the West Coast bank. Knapp contacted him online saying: "I work for Bank of America, please send me a DM so we can disc...

25 February 2009 /retail Finance 2.0

What's the difference between Hbos and HSBC?

What's the diference between Bank of America and Wells Fargo? Citibank and JPMorgan Chase? Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC? Hbos and Barclays? From a consumer perspective, very little. They all offer much the same products, charge much the same fees, and use much the same distribution networks. For sure, some may be better capitalised than others. ...

25 February 2009 /retail Futuristic Banking

Mindboggling science and the arrival of home evolutus

TED speaker Juan Enriquez looks beyond the financial crisis at mindboggling science and the arrival of home evolutus. Here's the pitch: "Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and ...

25 February 2009 Video extravaganza

Shoot the messenger

A poll of CEOs at Fortune 1000 companies conducted by Frost & Sullivan has concluded that the global economic slump is all the fault of 'the media', which is twisting facts and exaggerating economic statistics in a desperate bid to sell more copies and attract more eyeballs. "Because of this, consumers and business have frozen spending, c...

20 February 2009 /retail /wholesale Whatever...

The PayPal Rally

PayPal in Germany recently conducted an interesting experiment to see how far you can get in the offline world using just an iPhone and a PayPal account. The firm equipped two competing teams on a trip from their hometowns to Hamburg – approximately 280 miles – with instructions that they could only pay for any goods and services they needed using ...

20 February 2009 /payments /retail EBAday

Save the children - The International gets an X rating

The New York Times does a good job of reviewing The International - a new zeitgeist-tapping movie that portrays the nefarious activities of a fictitious international bank dubbed IBBC. As the NYTimes reviewer wryly observes: "That multinational weapons manufacturers can be portrayed as more decent, civic-minded and principled than global fina...

16 February 2009 /retail /wholesale Whatever...

Andrew Cuomo's bonus crime sheet

Looks like New York's tenacious attorney general Andrew Cuomo has blown a gaping hole in the latest line of defence used by desperate bank chiefs to shore up bonus pools: ie that the bonus culture also rewards the blameless army of humble branch and back office staff who work hard day-in, day-out to keep the backing industry ticking over. The argu...

12 February 2009 /retail /wholesale

Risk managers: guiding light or pesky whistle blowers?

Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein won a lot of column inches for an article in the FT this week when he called on the industry to raise the status of the risk manager from obstructive killjoy to guiding light. "Risk and control functions need to be completely independent from the business units. And clarity as to whom risk and control managers re...

11 February 2009 /regulation /wholesale

'Tone deaf' Wells Fargo beats retreat

Whatever were they thinking of? Wells Fargo, a recipient of $25 billion of taxpayer bail-out money, has been forced to cancel a lavish all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas for up to 40 employees after facing a torrent of criticism from the public and politicians. Wells' rethink followed an Associated Press report that the company had booked 12 night...

04 February 2009 /retail /wholesale

Faster Payments?

The UK's Faster Payments service has taken a critical panning from the BBC. The Corporation's MoneyBox programme claims the system is in "disarray", as banks implement the technology in a disjointed patchwork fashion. Northern Rock, Citibank and Abbey have not started to make same-day payments. The Association for Payments and Clearing ...

26 January 2009 /payments /retail