All articles by Douglas Blakey

Channel investment pays off for Akbank

Aldan Bilgen, Akbank Direct’s digital channels management and marketing vice president tells Douglas Blakey about the bank’s drive to breathe new life into the digital age of banking with its Akbank Direkt Mobil app. By all standard banking metrics, the launch has been a soar-away success

Digital banking growth in the UK, but much remains to be done

Some interesting statistics come to hand courtesy of The British Bankers Association (BBA). The BBA has released the first of a series of reports highlighting the dramatic changes taking place in the way we bank, entitled reasonably enough: ‘The Way We Bank Now’, writes Douglas Blakey

Empowering women, empowering India

It is a hugely ambitious and exciting target: to empower women across all of India by boosting financial inclusion. Usha Ananthasubramaniam, chairman and managing director of India’s Bharatiya Mahila Bank tells Douglas Blakey that the start-up bank, only launched in November 2013, has got off to a flying start

The European Digital Financial Services Power 50

Call for Nominations

The Digital Banking Club is delighted to announce the launch of the European Digital Financial Services Power 50, the first and only independent ranking of the most influential people in digital – and we’re talking mobile and online – financial services in Europe.

Hold on to your hats, 2014 will be quite a year

The year 2014 promises to be just fascinating. Early dates in the diary, from a parochial UK viewpoint, include 11 and 27 February, when Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will release their annual results. And a bit more. There is Project Cook, the internal name at RBS for CEO Ross McEwan’s strategic review, writes Douglas Blakey

A good news story to end the year: McKay takes top slot at RBC

At this time of the year – it was just prior to the editorial Christmas party more years ago now than I wish to recall – I am apt to recall the parting advice of my predecessor as RBI editor

RBS: Still a long way to travel

41,500 and counting – that is the total of job losses at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) since 2008. The bad news for RBS employees is that the New Year will bring another wave of headcount reductions. It is reasonably safe to forecast that that figure will exceed 50,000 in the short-to-medium term, writes Douglas Blakey

Has multi-channel had its day?

For some time, the argument has run as follows. Banks need to achieve revenue growth and reduce their cost-income ratios: this has however to be accomplished in a multi-channel world. Branches and the staff who man them are expensive in contrast to digital channels: so transform the branch into a channel focussed on selling and customer service as opposed to its historical transactional focus, writes Douglas Blakey

Efma and Accenture announce winners of global banking distribution and marketing innovation Awards

Efma and Accenture have announced the winners of their inaugural Global Distribution & Marketing Innovation Awards for retail banks.

Good start – but let’s not get carried away

After all the hype and the ads and the PR activity relating to account switching, fairs fair: the banks have got off to a decent start. Douglas Blakey reports