All articles by Verdict Staff
Verdict Staff
RBI Awards: The winners
RBI received a record number of nominations for the 2012 Awards, sponsored by Fiserv almost 300 banks in total. Cutting down the nominations to a shortlist of five for each category was no easy task and resulted in 62 banks across the 22 categories. Douglas Blakey summarises the best of the best. Standard Chartered (StanChart) scooped the top honour at RBIs annual industry awards: Global Retail Bank of the Year. StanChart also received the award for Best Online banking strategy. StanChart was a worthy winner of the main award, having reported record income and operating profit for the ninth consecutive year.
Retail banking excellence
The shortlist for the 2012 Retail Banker International Awards sponsored by Fiserv has now been finalised. The fallout from the banking crisis has shredded the reputations of some of the worlds highest profile banks but a notable number of lenders have excelled. It is no surprise that Standard Chartered, for example, is shortlisted in 10 of the 22 Awards categories. In Canada, Royal Bank of Canada has scarcely put a foot wrong recognised by its shortlisting in five of the Awards categories.
Don’t miss the social media bandwagon
Akbank, Turkeys second-largest bank by assets and market capitalisation, has earned a global reputation for being miles ahead of banks in more mature markets in terms of innovation and technology. It comes as no surprise that Akbank is one of the most successful retail banks in utilising social media to its fullest potential.
Go West’
Bank of the West has kicked off an advertising campaign to highlight the spirit of opportunity it says exemplifies life in the 19 Western and Midwestern states where the 700-branch BNP Paribas US subsidiary operates When Bank of the West set out to revamp is brand image and launch a new marketing campaign, it came up with the dream assignment for a couple of members of its new advertising agency: rent a van, drive across the West and capture scenery, and people.
Q&A with Bruno de Laage, deputy CEO in charge of retail banking, Crédit Agricole
RBI spoke to Bruno de Laage, deputy CEO in charge of retail banking and specialised financial service on the sidelines of Credit Agricoles investor day in Milan
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Get industry leading news, data and analysis delivered to your inbox
PwC: Bank power shift to China speeds up
China is expected to overtake the US and become the largest banking economy in the world by 2023, 20 years earlier than pre-financial crisis projections, according to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report.
NAB social media break-up campaign pays off
National Australia Banks (NAB) break-up campaign a promotion it commenced engaging various social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube in mid-February to attract mortgage customers from rival banks has become a marketing and commercial hit. NAB has recorded a “significant increase” in the number of mortgage customers switching from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac to NABs lower standard variable home loan rate since the launch of the break-up campaign by 43% and 37% respectively, according to NABs group executive, personal banking, Lisa Gray.
OCBC: customer insight crucial to payment innovation
Customer insights are crucial” for executing payment innovation, according to Kenneth Tan, head of debit cards and vice president at Singapores OCBC Bank. Tan added that testing and learning from customers ideas, as well as collaborative execution are further key steps in the process of creating innovative products, such as the OCBC YES Speaking at VRLs Retail Banking Payment Innovations 2011 conference in Singapore, Tan explained that in addition to customer engagement, innovation in payments involves delivering services that are simple and relevant for consumers, rather than just being fancy
ING begins sale of ING Direct USA
Netherlands-headquartered ING has commenced sale of its direct banking division in the US. The divestiture by 2013 was ordered by the European Union following ING’s receipt of a 10bn ($14bn) bail-out by the Dutch government.
Mizuho Financial Group 9M10 profits more than double
Mizuho Financial Group (MFG), Japans third largest bank by marrket value, has posted a net income of 422.1bn ($5.1bn) for the nine months to December 2010, an increase of 234% from the corresponding period a year ago