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Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Does Jon Stewart use inside information?

Having mopped the floor with Jim Cramer and CNBC, the Daily Show's Jon Stewart has turned his attention to the practice of short-selling in this typically barbed report from regular correspondent Samantha Bee (AKA the Money Honey Bee). For a comedian, Stewart's done a lascerating job in exposing Wall Street hypocrisy and cant. But is he trading o...

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Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Bernie Madoff is the Cookie Monster

Want to know how Bernie Madoff swindled his billions, but only got a minute to spare? Ernie from Sesame Street explains all here. Not sure that I fully approve of Ernie's rather Tarantinoesque retribution.

/regulation /wholesale Video extravaganza

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Barclaycard goes viral with waterslide creative

A good example of viral marketing from Barclaycard, which is challenging the public to create a home-made version if its waterslide TV advertisement, in which an office drone travels from work to home down a gigantic waterslide, paying for goods and services on the way using his contactless debit card. The bank has posted its own spoof ad at http...

/retail Video extravaganza

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

SFO to lift clear-up rates; invents new case in Ambridge

"Serious Fraud Office questioning Archers' Matt Crawford over possible fraud in Ambridge" That's the headline from a real piece of PR sent out by the real Serious Fraud Office about a probe into the activities of a well-known but fictional British businessman. For those of you not steeped in this quintessentially English institution, the ...

/retail /wholesale Whatever...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

There's one born every minute

You've got to admire those Nigerian 419 scammers. Here's the latest that popped into my inbox, offering compensation from the Nigerian government to all those sad individuals who have been conned in the past: FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (PANEL ON CONTRACT PAYMENT AND COMPENSATION) It has been resolved by the Senate special committee on Foreign Rel...

/security /retail

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Flying high: Ken Lewis stonewalls in style

Bank bosses just don't get it. BofA president Ken Lewis is once again in hot water after flying to a hearing in New York with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on a luxury private jet. Lewis was there to answer questions about billion dollar bonus payouts to Merrill staff in December. Officials say he refused to supply the information Cuomo wanted, but...

/retail /wholesale Whatever...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Protestors hang banking effigy at 'family event'

This is getting serious. Following on from the politically-sanctioned banking witch trials in Parliament, demonstrators have hanged an effigy of a banker from Marble Arch in protest at the growing financial crisis. The Evening Standard reports that a group called the Government of the Dead dressed up as zombies for the demonstration. Scores of rev...

/retail /wholesale Whatever...

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

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...

/retail Finance 2.0

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

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. ...

/retail Futuristic Banking

Paul Penrose

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

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 ...

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