All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
South Korea’s BC Card targets US market
South Korean card issuer and payment services provider BC Card is considering the possibility of entering the US market with a view to becoming a global payment services provider.
HSBC, Nordea up the ante in Russia
Europes biggest bank, HSBC, will open five retail branches during June in Russia four in Moscow and one in St Petersburg as part of its $200 million Russian expansion programme
US credit card delinquencies up 11 percent year-on-year
US research outfit TransUnion.com has released the results of its analysis of trends in the US credit card lending industry for the first quarter of 2009 based upon approximately 27 million credit files. It says that the delinquency rate the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their bankcards increased to 1.32 percent in the first quarter of 2009, up 9.1 percent over the previous quarter
BofA rolls out Merrill advertising campaign
Bank of America (BofA) is to run a major print and online advertising campaign in the US promoting its Bank of America Merrill Lynch division, with an initial ad spend of $10 million, according to a report in The Financial Times.
Bradesco to double cards portfolio
A wave of mergers and acquisitions activity has taken place in Brazil in the past six months and now Bradesco has joined in, snapping up rival card issuer Banco ibi as it looks to grow its cards portfolio
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BNP Paribas extends Vietnamese push
Cardif, the insurance arm of BNP Paribas, has launched an insurance joint venture company that will market savings and protection products in Vietnam in conjunction with Vietcombank, Vietnams largest partly private lender by assets, and regional lender SeAbank.
Dealwatch: Tables
Barclays, the UKs third-largest bank, has agreed a $13 billion sale of its asset management business, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), to US-headquartered BlackRock
Woori Bank China launches debit service
The Chinese subsidiary of South Korea-based Woori Bank is to roll out Renminbi-denominated debit card services, becoming the first South Korean bank to do so.
Metroman seeks to repeat Commerce hit
Pennsylvania Commerce Bank rebranded as Metro Bank on 12 June, the latest stage in US banker Vernon Hills plan to repeat the business hit he enjoyed with Commerce Bank Metro Bank has hit the ground running with ambitious plans as it aims to build a new generation of fans, reports Douglas Blakey.Two years after the sale of Commerce Bank to Canadas Toronto-Dominion (TD) for $8.5 billion (see RBI 580), Commerce founder Vernon Hills latest US banking venture, Pennsylvania Commerce Bank, has opened the doors of its 33-strong branch network under the new Metro Bank banner.
Incentives help US online banking
According to the latest annual study of online banking trends in the US from research group comScore, the number of visitors to the top 10 online banking sites has increased 25 percent to more than 51 million visitors over the three-year period 2006 to 2008