All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
Ceská ramps up direct marketing
Michel Seifert, head of direct marketing at Cesk sporitelna, the Czech Republics largest retail bank, tells Douglas Blakey of a major increase in his budget and discusses plans to treble his marketing team
Tesco Bank ‘close to the finishing line’
Tesco Banks charismatic CEO Benny Higgins tells Douglas Blakey the retailer is well placed to take on the high street banking sector with the launch of current account and mortgage products.
i-bank showcases Greek innovation
The banks target: to attract and acquire new customers, challenge perceptions of the NBG brand and utilise the latest digital technologies and communication methods
ASB expands outside home base
Scotland-based Airdrie Savings Bank is the last of its type: the only remaining independent savings bank in the UK In a banking sector dominated by private sector rivals RBS and HBOS, ASB attracted little interest outside its home county but that all changed due to the economic crash
Complacency, crisis, caution, confidence?
Financial reforms remain threatened by an imbalance of risk management demands and actual programmes in place Worse, risk cultures have been overtaken by competing priorities that encourage growth and profitability Douglas Blakey reports from the Premier Business Leadership conference in Belgium.
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PNC set to close deal for RBC’s US retail unit
PNC has beaten off interest from BB&T to snap up the loss-making US-based retail banking unit of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in a deal worth around $3.5bn. In addition to acquiring $19bn in deposits and $16bn in loans, the deal will augment PNCs existing branch network of around 2,500 units by around 430 outlets. With a combined network of almost 3,000 outlets once the deal is closed, PNCs network will almost match that of US Bank, the fourth-largest US bank by branches with 3,082 outlets.
US bank failures hit 47 for year to date
The latest banks to close were Georgia-based McIntosh State Bank of Jackson it had $339.9m in total assets and $324.4m in total deposits at the end of the first quarter and Florida-based First Commercial Bank
Capital One to rank 5th largest US bank by deposits
Capital Ones acquisition of the US arm of ING Direct will catapult the former into the top five US banks by deposits, trailing only Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup (see table) At the end of the first quarter, Capital 0ne and ING ranked eighth and 14th largest US bank by that measure , with total US deposits of $124.4bn and $81.6bn.
IIF: risk IT investment ought to be key priority
It is essential that firms have in place a risk appetite framework that enables boards and management to take an informed view about the amount of all types of risk that can be taken throughout the firm, including all the business divisions, and link this directly to strategy and business plans, said Mueller.
SAS: Risk management under pressure as firms refocus on profits, growth
Financial reforms remain threatened by an imbalance of risk management demands and actual programmes and practices in place – despite lessons learned from the economic crisis, according to a report from business analytics vendor, SAS. Risk cultures are ill-prepared for current demands and have been overtaken by competing priorities that encourage growth and profitability without embedded risk strategies, the SAS report found.