All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
Financial services brands continue to struggle: Interbrand
Financial services brand comprise 12 of the Top 100 Global Brands according to the consultancy Interbrand but some big names have endured a difficult year. Interbrand, says AmEx, Morgan Stanley and are the most valuable banking brands but Barclays and UBS have dropped out of this years Top 100, reports Douglas Blakey
Greenlight reveals latest analysis of UK banks digital marketing strategy
More than 2.3m searches for retail-banking related keywords were undertaken in the UK in January according to a report released at the end of September by digital marketing specialists Greenlight.
European m-banking numbers soar
Figuresreleased today from digital consultants comScore highlight a major increase in mobile banking usage in the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) in the past 12 months. In July, 30m people in the EU5 accessed a bank accounts via their smartphone, an increase of 85% compared to a year ago. The UK had the largest user base with 7.3m smartphone owners accessing bank accounts in the month, nearly twice as many as just one year ago
BBVA launches flagship branch
Spain-headquartered BBVA, has launched a new flagship branch in central Madrid featuring an advanced multimedia signage system, the largest of its kind in the country. The display, created by retail marketing agency John Ryan, is designed to underscore BBVA’s longstanding commitment to innovation in retail banking reports Douglas Blakey. Another month, another launch of a flagship branch of the future. This time, it is the turn of Spains second-largest bank by assets, BBVA. It has rolled out a state of the art store in the centre of Madrid featuring a series of touch-screen kiosks and tablet devices, which are fully integrated with a queue and appointment management system.
Profit from loyalty programmes
Can card issuers turn loyalty programme costs into a revenue generating operation? Just how strong is the case for what are increasingly referred to as merchant-funded reward programmes? Research from Celent suggests that it is an area offering huge potential with impressive success stories already in the bag. Advisory firm Celent has conducted interesting and worthwhile research on the current state of the merchant-funded rewards market. Released in August, the report: Can Card Issuers Turn Loyalty Programmes into Revenues: A Case for Merchant-Funded Rewards Programmes considers the current state of the market and considers its likely future direction.
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About time too!
At last. A universal bank Barclays – has appointed a CEO, Antony Jenkins, from a retail banking background. Jenkins track record at Barclaycard makes favourable reading. As CEO, he can prove that a background in investment banking is not a pre-requisite to hold the top job. And in keeping with the new normal back to basics or safety first era of banking, a safe pair of hands is exactly what Barclays needs. His retail banking background also fits in perfectly with Barclays more traditional role as a Quaker-formed conservative and cautious lender.
Costly complexity afflicts banking
Professor Simon Collinson tells Douglas Blakey that complexity is one of the biggest challenges facing modern business, slowing companies down and costing them over 10% of their profits and harming employee morale. Yet very few people are offering practical advice on how to solve this problem. Professor Simon Collinson tells Douglas Blakey that complexity is one of the biggest challenges facing modern business, slowing companies down, costing them over 10% of their profits, and harming employee orale. Yet very few people are offering practical advice on how to solve this problem. What is complexity? What is simplicity? What are the true financial costs of complexity and how can business change its behaviour to remove harmful complexity from processes, organisation design, strategy, product & service portfolios?
Co-op Bank H1 profits slump
The retail banking unit of the Coop (including the Coop, Britannia and smile brands) outperformed other units within the group: retail banking profit fell by 44% year-on-year to £32m (H111 £57.8m).
Amex tops Twitter survey
American Express (Amex) is the subject of more Tweets than any other US banking brand, accounting for 23% of over 2m million Tweets monitored in the banking sector in the 12 months to end March 2012 according to a report from consultants DigitalMR and Cicero.
ING Direct eyes sale of UK, Canada units
ING has announced that the future of its ING Direct operations in the UK and Canada is under review. ING Direct Canada has posted an accumulated profit before tax of 603m ($740m) in the period from 2005 to the end of 2011.