It is high time that retail banks stopped thinking of electronic channels as extensions of the branch and started thinking about the electronic structure as the foundation upon which all the channels, including the branch, are built. By Chris Skinner.

If banks really do want to resuscitate personal mobile banking – and they’re spending huge sums doing so – they should look to the internet-based web service to prevent customer angst at the sky-high mobile phone charges. By Chris Skinner.

The lessons of the losses experienced by Lloyd’s of London in the 1980s were overlooked by banks embroiled in the subprime crisis, who recklessly issued vast amounts of collateralised debt obligations. By Chris Skinner.

Chief information officers complain that no one else in the business, least of all CEOs, realises that information is a core risk for a bank and must be managed. The best way is with the co-operation of the chief risk officer, says Chris Skinner.

All the talk of dealers and brokers giving up the ghost as a result of technology, regulation and margins is pure balderdash. They will take a leaf out of IFAs’ book by working harder to justify their existence and becoming more sought after.
By Chris Skinner.

The sky is the limit when it comes to the power of the chip – and size is certainly everything. Imagine a device as big as a flea that carries a complete biometric identity management system of your clients. By Chris Skinner.

The inexorable advances in storage capacity of simple-to-use USB devices makes bank databases increasingly vulnerable, and internal firewalls as well as devicewalls increasingly necessary.By Chris Skinner.

The drive for achieving ever-faster trade execution speeds in capital markets means that any glitch, gremlin or gulp will lead to serious consequences in terms of lost business and margin erosion. This makes the technologist’s role ever more vital. By Chris Skinner.

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.

EASDAQ, 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).