All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
NAB counts cost of retail price war
National Australia Bank (NAB) has reported a 21.4 percent fall in first half net profits to A$2.09 billion ($1.92 billion). Earnings within NABs retail-focused Personal Banking unit fell by 22.3 percent to $317 million, in large part as a result of the banks aggressive fee-cutting strategy. Less than two months after a critical survey of banking fees in Australia was published in June 2009, NAB kicked off a retail banking price war, cutting a A$30 overdraft account fee on all NAB personal transaction and savings accounts (see RBI 617).
US customer loyalty declines sharply
Now in its fifth year, this years JD Power Satisfaction Index finds that overall satisfaction of retail banking customers in the US averaged 748 on 1,000- point scale in 2010a slight decrease from 749 in 2009. In addition, the percentage of customers who say they definitely will not switch banks during the next 12 months has decreased significantly during the past three years to 34 percent in 2010, compared with 46 percent three years ago in the 2007 study.
Piraeus goes live on Fiserv platform
The Egypt-based unit of Greeces Piraeus Bank has gone live on Fiservs Universal Banking platform, following the lead of its Cyprus-based unit, which implemented the vendors technology in January 2009 Fiserv, the US-based IT provider which topped the FinTech 100 rankings in 2008 and 2009 (see RBI 623) has announced that the Egypt-based operations of Greece headquartered Piraeus Bank have gone live on the vendors Universal Banking platform.
Cash to be redundant in UK by 2050
Cash will be all but redundant by 2050 according to a report entitled The Way We Pay 2010, published by the UK Payments Council. The report said that cash usage in the UK had risen by only 7% during the past 10 years while total spending had doubled overall. Switching away from cash saves UK consumers carrying around £102bn ($158bn) each year;
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Santander, Lloyds post Q1 cheer, but Barclays retail profits fall
First quarter earnings from leading European banks including Santander, Barclays and Deutsche Bank confirm improving conditions as margins increase and bad debts stabilise. In particular, the UKs largest retail bank Lloyds Banking Group reported it had returned to the black in the first quarter, sooner than forecast by the majority of analysts. Santander also buoyed the market, unveiling first quarter net profits of 2.21bn ($2.93bn), a 5.7% increase on the corresponding period a year ago and ahead of analyst forecasts.
White Eagle enters mobile banking
White Eagle plans to offer current cardholders a range of SMS based services, which include: card activation, PIN notification, 247 real-time balance checks, mini statements, instant account to account transfer, card blockunblock, reporting cards lost or stolen and real-time foreign exchange rates.
FSA takes aim at five UK lenders
UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), is to take tough action after finding weaknesses in the way five banks handle customer complaints, with two banks referred for further investigation by the FSAs enforcement team. The FSA declined to name the banks in question, but in March the Financial Services Ombudsman Service reported that Lloyds TSB received the largest number of customer complaints in 2009 followed by Barclays in second place (see RBI 627) Following a review of UK lenders complaints handling, the FSA found poor standards of complaint handling within most of the banks assessed, including:
Bank of America to double online ad spend
Bank of America (BofA) is to double its expenditure on online advertising, reversing cuts made in its digital marketing strategy last year. BofA head of marketing Claire Huang told a conference organised by US trade journal Ad Age that the bank is not giving up on any form of media, however it is shifting its focus to emerging outlets.
Emirates NBD Q1 profits drop but beat forecasts
The Middle Easts biggest bank by assets Emirates NBD has posted a 11.9 percent fall in first quarter net profits to AED1.1 billion ($302.2 million), in the process beating analyst forecasts. Total assets grew by 3 percent to AED289.8 billion with total lending down 1 percent to AED211.9 billion and deposits up 6 percent to AED191.3 billion.