All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
Retail at the heart of reborn RBS
Royal Bank of Scotland, the worlds largest bank by assets before its near collapse and rescue by the UK government a year ago, remains on taxpayer-funded life support But according to a recently released five-year turnaround plan, the banks core businesses offer strong prospects for growth
FNB mobile channel secures its first Lotto millionaire
South Africas First National Bank (FNB) has announced that one of its customers has won the countrys lottery by purchasing a ticket via FNBs Cellphone Banking. Purchases of Lotto tickets have been available via FNB Cellphone Banking, FNB Online Banking and selected FNB ATMs. Winnings are automatically paid into the customers FNB account within 48 hours.
Advertising a better future
While total US ad expenditure in the financial services sector fell in the first half of 2009 by almost a quarter compared to a year ago, early data for the second half suggests marketing spending is picking up
Citibank launches m-banking for Hispanic customers
Customers can access Citi Mobile En Espanol by visiting the same URL on their smartphone as for the US version www.citi.com from where they can view account balances and activity, pay bills and set up recurring payments, make transfers between Citi accounts, locate Citi branches and ATMs and connect to customer service.
It has been a very good time for us’
Douglas Blakey talks to Alexey Marey, head of retail banking at Alfa Bank, Russias largest privately owned banking group While the bank expects a souring economy to harm its bottom line in 2009, its retail focus remains on product innovation, superior customer service and multi-channel investment
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Double Action results from Crédit Agricole
Crdit Agricole has issued 850,000 of its Double Action two-in-one debit and credit cards in the space of 12 months, making the product one of the more successful retail product launches of the past year The French bank hopes to repeat the hit with its new Mozac M6 prepaid card, reports Douglas Blakey.In marked contrast to the majority of its international peers, Frances largest retail bank by assets, Crdit Agricole, posted a relatively strong domestic retail performance in the first half of the year
La Banque Postale records 30% rise in first-quarter income
Frances largest retail bank by branches, La Banque Postale, has posted first quarter 2009 net banking income of 2.49 billion ($3.68 billion), up 3.2 percent year-on-year The postal bank, which has 11,900 outlets and 5,191 ATMs, said that despite the deregulation of the French market which saw it lose its hold on the Livret A mass market savings account, its customer first business model has meant it has continued to attract customers
Driving loans growth in Russia
Despite forecasts that Russias two largest banks will report little or no profit in the current fiscal year, Sberbank and its smaller rival VTB are gearing up to tap into the pent up demand for car loans Douglas Blakey reports.Russias two largest retail lenders, Sberbank and VTB, are both aggressively targeting car loans
Fortis, BNP Paribas in non-life deal in Italy
Fortis and BNP Paribas Assurance have jointly acquired a 50 percent plus one share stake in Italys UBI Assicurazioni, a market leader in property and casualty bancassurance
Bank of America launches ‘basic’ card
The BankAmericard Basic Visa card offers one basic rate the US prime rate plus a margin of 14 percent for all transactions including balance transfers and cash advances which will not change over the accounts lifetime.