As the Web 2.0 age dawns, banks must wake up to the fact that the successful companies of the future will not have customers, they will have participants, and that rather than having a business, they will have a community.By Chris Skinner.
Latest articles from Chris Skinner
MAIN STORY: Pan-European exchange follows MiFID vision
November 6, 2006EASDAQ, the European exchange that disappeared in the internet bust, will be resurrected in April 2007 under the name Equiduct, writes Chris Skinner. It will offer a pan-European pre- and post-trade reporting service, alongside best execution, and aims to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
Fraud, Money Laundering and Theft: Inevitable Consequences
November 6, 2006A recent roundtable organised by The Banker looked at the opportunities and issues faced by banks in dealing with fraud and money laundering. A group of anti-fraud professionals from leading banks took part in the discussion, chaired by The Banker’s contributing editors Mike Imeson andChris Skinner.
Exchanges face stark changes
November 6, 2006Two underlying themes of MiFID – forcing systematic internalisers to become transparent and defining liquid shares for all EU member states – will result in the role of national exchanges and market data providers being called into question. By Chris Skinner.
Summer of my discontent
October 2, 2006Banks have taken automation to the extreme in their bid to cut costs. Now when their customers’ problems don’t correlate to the prescribed formulae, the system breaks down – as Chris Skinner discovered recently.
Fortunes of the merry-go-round
August 7, 2006Trying to maintain systems built using old programming languages can be costly for banks and rewarding for programming specialists. But what happens when the specialists retire? By Chris Skinner.
Terrifying Europe’s ‘bad’ banks
July 3, 2006Inefficient banks used to operating in protected domestic environments are likely to suffer the heaviest casualties once the single European financial market becomes a reality in 2010.By Chris Skinner.
Pointing the finger at banks
June 5, 2006Biometric authentication has advanced considerably in recent years, and sceptical sections of the banking community should start using them as a method of identification.By Chris Skinner.
PayPal is a hard act to follow
May 2, 2006Banks’ risk-avoiding trait of being lemmings not leaders has left the payments arena wide open for PayPal to build up its $27.5bn business. It seems unlikely that the banks will be able to catch up.By Chris Skinner.
Corporates press their point
April 3, 2006Corporate treasurers’ group TWIST is putting pressure on banks to create a single payments standard and to stop trying to manage identities. The case is strong and SWIFT is already listening.By Chris Skinner.