All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
SocGen targets top 3 slot in Russia, CEE
Socit Gnrale (SocGen), has reaffirmed its commitment to grow its Russian unit, Rosbank, in stark contrast to international rivals such as Barclays and HSBC, both of whom are in the process of pulling out of the Russian retail banking market Frederick Ouda, SocGen CEO, told an investor conference in the US on 9 June, that the bank was targeting a top three position in international retail banking within Russia and Central and Eastern Europe by 2015. In it domestic French market, Ouda said that SocGen would continue to target increased operational efficiency and add a net 2m retail banking customers by 2015
NAB’s ‘break-up’ ad push adds 225,000 customers in 3 months
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 customers from rival banks has added 225,000 customers in the three month period since it launched. NAB chief marketing officer (CMO) Sandra de Castro told a marketing conference in Sydney on 7 June that the bank was “well on the way, more than halfway” to making up the A$300 million it lost when it reduced its overdraft fees ahead of the campaign.
Barclays’ Jenkins flags up possible European acquisition
Antony Jenkins, CEO of Barclays Retail and Business Banking (RBB) division, told an investors presentation on 7 June that the bank remains committed to growing its retail presence in Europe. Commenting on press speculation linking Barclays with a possible bid for a regional savings bank in Spain, Jenkins said:
Equifax and FICO release first UK joint offering
Information solutions vendor Equifax and FICO, the predictive analytics and decision management technology provider, have lost no time in launching their first joint offering for the UK market. On 2 June, the firms announced an enhancement in the UK market to FICO TRIAD Customer Manager that integrates Equifaxs Customer Insights service In May, Equifax and FICO entered into a new partnership in the UK with the aim of challenging the status quo in the risk management arena.
Co-operative Bank trials supermarket in-store branches
UK-based mutual, the Co-operative Bank, has opened five in-store bank branches within high street supermarkets operated by The Co-operative Group, the worlds largest consumer co-operative, as part of an eighteen-month pilot. The Co-operative Bank said that if the project is a hit there was scope for several hundred in-store banks to be rolled out across the UK.
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SBI UK unit set for further growth
State Bank of India is ramping up its international expansion plans and is eyeing retail banking growth in countries such as the US and the UK While new entrants to the UK retail banking sector such as Metro Bank, Tesco Bank and Virgin Money may have been grabbing headlines in the consumer and business press in the past year, another new entrant has been growing its UK presence, quietly and very effectively.
Regulatory requirements not enough
Enhancing Raiffeisen Bank Internationals retail risk management infrastructure to help it achieve regulatory compliance, combined with the challenge of operating in 17 markets, is an ongoing priority for the Austria-based lender The second of the Basel Accords (Basel II), covering international standards that regulators use when determining how much capital lenders need to put aside to guard against operational risk, presented a small number of vendors with a commercial opportunity.
FICO, Equifax: 1+1=3?
Equifax and FICO have entered into a new partnership in the UK with the aim of challenging the status quo in the risk management arena Mike Gordon, vice-president and managing director of EMEA for FICO, and Shawn Holtzclaw, Equifax UK managing director, tell Douglas Blakey it is a game-changing alliance. Following a 10-year courtship, FICO and Equifax have tied the knot in an alliance described by the vendors as the perfect match.
Growing interest in ACCIS: Munroe
In addition to his director role at Equifax, Neil Munroe is the president of the Association of Consumer Credit Information Suppliers (ACCIS), the trade body that represents the interests of European consumer credit bureaux and associates from around the world. To have an effective economy, there needs to be an effective payments system, a credit reporting system and thirdly, an asset register: the concept of being able to use assets in a business as security for further lending,” says Munroe.
Attensity upgrades text analytics platform
Takems of banking conversations from social media and give financial institutions a head start: that is Attensitys proposition to retail banks According to the US-based vendor, its latest product release will offer banks a measurable return from their investment in customer analytics investment