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American Banker - On Focus and In Depth

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Saturday, March 20, 2010, as of 11:39 PM EDT

Banker's Blog Watch

Track industry talk and discussion via headline feeds from industry blogs selected by American Banker editors.
(Let us know what you think about this service.)

 

Today's Featured Post:

Bank Innovation

Fixing the Bank Brand Nightmare
The results of the notorious stress tests separated the wheat from the chaff in banking, as it were. The starting point for a brand resurrection should be those results. What you are saying to consumers by focusing on your safety and soundness is, “Let's forget about the service, let's forget about the branch network, here's how I am. We're going to change the paradigm by explaining to you how it works. And this is the first of many changes in paradigm.”



Bank Lawyer's Blog

  • Wal-Mart's Revenge
    posted on March 18, 2010
    Under the title "Wal-Mart Marches On," last November we profiled Wal-Mart's post-banking plan to capture retail financial services from traditional banks (and other financial service providers) through its partnerships with General Electric's Money Centers and Fiserv's CheckFreePay unit. Yesterday, the...
  • More States Bashing Big Banks
    posted on March 17, 2010
    Last month, we reported about New Mexico's House of Representatives passing (unanimously) a bill that would have directed the state to move money from New Mexico branches of out-of-state banks to in-state banks. Although that legislation did not make it...

The Baseline Scenario

  • Metternich With A Blackberry
    posted on March 20, 2010
    By Simon Johnson If watching the twists and turns in European politics – “should we bailout Greece?”, “should we bring in the IMF?”, “should the Greeks go directly to the IMF, cutting out the EU?”, etc - has your head spinning and reminds you of overly complicated and opaque episodes from the history books, then you have [...]
  • Away Message
    posted on March 19, 2010
    By James Kwak I’ll be traveling and probably not blogging (hopefully not using a computer at all) until next weekend (March 27 or 28). Simon will be around, though. Bye.

The Bankwatch

  • Memo to the Financial Times - you were wrong to let this one get through
    posted on March 15, 2010
    I would say this piece in the usually venerable FT ought to be better placed in the comment section and hardly in the market insight section.  At a minimum read This Time is Different, and stick them both in the opinion section.  Eight centuries of empirical evidence or one mans irrational opinion. Japan´s mythical debt crisis [...]
  • Asset value increases hide a rise in Canadian debt levels
    posted on March 15, 2010
    Canadian´s balance sheets are improving following increases in real estate values and stock markets.  However in 2009 Canadians also increased debt through mortgages and loans, with the average ratio of household debt to income at 146.2%. Household net worth up 1.6%, StatsCan | Financial Post Canadian household net worth rose from October through December as individuals benefited [...]

Celent Banking Blog

  • Business Online Banking Risks - Banks Need to Proactively Educate Customers
    posted on March 17, 2010
    I just returned from the Digital Insight National Client Conference in San Antonio. I was invited to speak on social media for banking, and I also took some time to attend several of the sessions. One of the sessions I attended was a panel discussion with a group of four commercial businesses. These middle market [...]
  • Is There An App For That?
    posted on March 15, 2010
    As I wrote earlier this year, I have a confirmed case of iPhone envy.  As I scan industry news, that sense of envy is getting stronger.  This is because lately, I have been noticing iPhone apps that are leveraging what I believe is a credible role for mobile devices in payments — i.e., the ability to [...]

Financial Services Club

  • The beauty of hindsight ...
    posted on March 19, 2010
    Six months ago, I posted some cracking quotes about the crisis. I recently saw the Power of Yes by David Hare (well worth a viewing), and the programme has many more choice quotes to add to the list. Here are...
  • The new marketing segments of 2010
    posted on March 19, 2010
    Thinking about millenials, or Gen Y as some call them, reminded me of marketers wonderful ways of coming up with new terms for consumer segments. When I was growing up, it was yuppies - young, upwardly mobile, professionals. These were...

Credit Slips

  • Consumer Protection & Bank Soundness
    posted on March 18, 2010
    To date I've left the issue of the "Consumer Financial Products Safety Commission," or whatever name it ultimately ends up with, to my co-bloggers, who are much more versed in matters consumer. But then today I read that Senator Shelby...
  • The Financial Stability Oversight Counsel
    posted on March 17, 2010
    I want to pick up on yesterday's post by Bob and friend and expand upon it a bit. Under section 111 of Chairman Dodd's proposed bill, the new Financial Stability Oversight Counsel will be made up of the Treasury Secretary,...

Payments Views

Calculated Risk

The Week Ahead in the Capital Markets

 
 

Javelin Strategy & Research

  • Effective public education requires effective journalism
    posted on March 19, 2010
    This morning I was pleased to see a top news article citing (yet again) our latest news on ID fraud, showing that 18-24 YOs have a higher risk of fraud losses due to a lack of specific actions to prevent and detect fraud. Then as I read further I was disappointed to find the article [...]
  • Why it´s hazardous for bankers to ignore social networks
    posted on March 17, 2010
    I just wanted to add onto Jim Van Dyke´s blog today, in which he laid out reasons why it´s time to get over the shock and dismay that consumers are divulging too much private information on social networks — and start taking steps to help individuals maintain control of their records and reputation. As Jim rightfully [...]

The Balance Sheet

  • The Tournament
    posted on March 18, 2010
    There are, as usual, no big surprises in my bracket (which you can view at the Sporting Scene blog), since I’ve picked three No. 1 seeds to make the Final Four. (I do have West...
  • Can We Admit There´s a "Too Big to Fail" Policy?
    posted on March 8, 2010
    Felix Salmon has been doing a bang-up job in recent days of debunking the misinformed attacks on the relationship between credit default swaps and Greek interest rates. So it’s dismaying that on the subject of...

Bank Innovation

  • Private-Label Pop
    posted on March 19, 2010
    How far can the private-label envelope be pushed?

    That's the question I ask myself when thinking about the future of wholesale banking.

    Bankers have historically walked a wholesale-banking tightrope. On the one hand, the nation's largest ba
    …
  • Copy Machines Can Store Your Private Info
    posted on March 19, 2010

    Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

    Today, copy machines, fax machines and many printers are just like computers; they´re sma

    …

CU Soapbox

  • What WON'T You Collaborate On?
    posted on March 15, 2010
    by Ron Daly Last Wednesday was a great day for those of us here on the East Coast. After months of snow and sleet and cold, we were treated to a mild, cloudy day and a visit from our fellow...
  • Buy the Cow, OR Just the Milk!
    posted on March 9, 2010
    by Ron Daly Let's pretend for just a moment that you run a credit union (and you might). Your credit union can offer checking and savings and loans, but has no online banking, no student lending program, and a weak...

The Daily Beast

Digital Money Forum

  • Complacent or short-sighted?
    posted on March 19, 2010

    I had the good fortune to be invited along to a Tudor Trust seminar on local currencies with Forum friend Bernard Lietaer and a number of the alternative and complementary currency issuers from around the UK, ranging from a Welsh time bank to the Brixton Pound. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear what's going on on the "front line".

    Now, I must be honest and admit that I was attending with a slightly mercenary bent, because I as looking to see if any of these experiments might inform new products and services being developed by our customers in the financial and telecommunications sector. As I have often said, I don't know what all this means, but I'm sure it means something!

    These opinions are my own (I think) and presented solely in my capacity as an interested member of the general public [posted with ecto]

  • Harry Leinonen, Bank of Finland
    posted on March 17, 2010
    [Dave Birch] Harry Leinonen is Advisor to the Board of the Bank of Finland and is in charge of payment and settlement system policy issues in the central bank. He is the Finnish representative on the payment and settlement system...

Netbanker

  • Citibank Launches a Blog at New.Citi.com
    posted on March 19, 2010
    One of the things I enjoy about using Gmail are the one-line ads displayed across the top of the screen. It's fascinating to see how Google's algorithm attempts to figure out what's on the top of my mind by...
  • Mobile Firsts: PayPal Launches Bump-to-Pay
    posted on March 18, 2010
    This month we've explored several new features that promise to propel mobile banking into the mainstream market. Unlike developing nations, where mobile is the ONLY way to conveniently bank, in the U.S. and other online-centric countries, mobile has to compete...

GonzoBanker

  • Workforce Management: Not Just for the Big Boys
    posted on March 19, 2010
    Workforce management allows for near-term expense reductions that can be maintained over time, provides a tool to make delivery more consistent, and can improve the managerial skills of front-line staff.
  • R.I.P. FDIC
    posted on March 8, 2010
    We must rid our industry of the Bank Insurance Fund and the FDIC, a punitive, dawdling embodiment of bureaucratic incompetence that has hamstrung, not protected, our industry.

Bankervision

  • Fake Experts
    posted on March 19, 2010
    It is possible that the most frustrating thing ever is to have to sit through meetings with people who have declared that they´re experts, and then discover that they aren´t. Here are the top five categories of people I´ve come across in the last couple of weeks who fit this category: 1. Innovation experts who say they know lots about the subject, but then dish out standard stuff that wasn´t current a few years ago. They toss out key buzzwords like "open innovation" and "radical Innovation" and "stage gates" because they´re the words that come up when you Google innovation....
  • Monetising an Online Book Part 1
    posted on March 15, 2010
    The www.LittleInnovationBook.com is an online book I´m proving free of charge for people thinking about starting an innovation effort. Well, actually, its not quite free. There are ads and some other things there as well. The other thing are the most interesting. Because I own the whole rights to the work, not my traditionalist publisher who has to do things in a certain way in order to fit in with the traditional publishing model, I have the liberty to use the book as a live innovation experiment. I promised readers a while back that I´d update on how my experiments...

White Papers

The CARD Act – Move Ahead of the Curve

9+ million records Prove Power of FICO® 8 Score for Bankcards (bankcard Validation)

Pulling FICO® credit scores on your customers: How often is often enough?

Enhanced Tools for Credit Risk Management

5 Ways to Improve Your Collections & Recovery Rates

Web Seminars

Achieving Sustainable Growth Through Strategic Cost Management Web Seminar
April 14, 2010

The Ins and Outs of FDIC-Assisted Deals
April 8, 2010

Banking Transformation & Customer Preference: The Benefits of Enabling Rapid, Cost-Effective Innovation
April 6, 2010

Banking Infrastructure Transformation and the Mandate for Change in 2010
March 25, 2010

Prepare for the economic recovery by acquiring the right customers
March 23, 2010