Innovation in Financial Services

EUR 33m to reinvent the wheel...

15 Jun 2009

Arguably this is not a blog, as it has been too long since my last missive - perhaps on this occasion it should be categorized as a periodic rant in disbelief at human ability not to learn from others’ mistakes? In this month’s issue of IBS Publishing (Issue 18.9, June 09) a lead article described a project at Caja Madrid, the fourth largest saving...

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Trends in Financial Services

SCARY MOVIE... prepare to SCREAM!

01 Feb 2008

Seriously, those of faint disposition should have a cushion handy to hide behind! How often do we read about and debate the moral dilemma of mere mortals "playing God" in areas such as medicine, e.g. stem cell research, and physics, e.g. creating anti-matter – but do we ever have that debate in financial services? On the publicly availabl...

Trends in Financial Services

Anyone got 1 Euro to spare..?

28 Jan 2008

On 5th March 1995 Dutch banking and insurance group ING bought Barings for £1 and assumed liabilities of over $600m. According to some McKinsey research presented by Mark Lawrence at a PRMIA event I attended in London on 18th December 2006, based on a sample of more than 350 operational loss events, normalized for industry performance, the decline ...

Trends in Financial Services

The Retail Branch debate won't die...

28 Jan 2008

Just when you thought the subject had safely swam off quietly into deeper waters, frightened off by crazed French bankers; the debate resurfaces thanks to those nice analysts at Celent.