Banks shift focus from products to customers

Reinforcing some of the statements in my piece on customer retention in the current issue of  Banking Technology, is this amusing comment from Stan Demarest, SVP of segment management at Hibernia National Bank:
“There was an article that came out probably 15 years ago in one of the banking trade journals, saying banks were so product-focused [...]

SEPA : users strike back

After lamenting the lowest common denominator approach taken by Sepa and the loss of functionality of its credit transfer and direct debit instruments compared to existing domestic instruments, corporates are taking the matters in their own hands.
Keen to avoid a “mini Sepa”, the French Association of Corporate Treasurers (AFTE) announced in its latest newsletter it [...]

Corporate banking relationships in need of counselling?

Heather McKenzie’s blog entry on April 10 underlines the need of corporates for adequate banking relationships. It reminded me of a column published at the end of 2007 by the French association of corporate treasurers,  AFTE, which poked fun at the apparent chaos the arrival of MiFID had caused in their banks’ customer relationship departments.
Indeed, French corporates [...]

Teen angst in the corporate world

It’s easy in the technology game to get carried away – anything new is hailed as “the next big thing”. But is anyone really innovating out there and does innovation matter?
In London on Monday night, at the Financial Services Club meeting, I listened to four corporates – two big, one medium and another small (their [...]

Banks Treated Us Like Lepers

The Financial Services Club meeting 7 April brought in corporate money managers to ask them what they wanted from banks.
 A little intelligent attention, it seems. “When we started, we were treated like lepers,” said one participant. ( the discussions are not for attribution)  His firm figures the threshold for getting respect was when it reached £50 [...]

The (Readable) History of Euroclear in Settlement

In the continuing drive to stay ahead of the markets and technology, it’s hard to remember what the front office of financial services looked like 20 years ago, never mind the back office infrastructure.
            In Plumbers and Visionaries, Peter Norman writes the history of securities settlement and Europe’s financial markets, a project sponsored by Euroclear. [...]

Remote Deposit Spreading Fast to Small Business – Aite

“Corporate remote deposit has been a hot topic in the banking industry for the last few years. Not since the introduction of the ATM has there been so much excitement around a product and such fast adoption of it. Almost three-quarters of the 30 largest U.S. banks offer remote deposit to their small-business customers, while [...]