All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
Market leaders
Market leaders The annual ranking of the top 100 fintech players by consultancy Financial Insights and US publisher SourceMedia reveals that the leading technology vendors had a relatively strong year Major financial technology vendors Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Fiserv, NCR, Diebold and Sungard fill the top five places in the fourth annual FinTech 100 survey from consultancy Financial Insights and US publisher SourceMedia.
PNC powers ahead
Mid-Atlantic-based PNC Financial Services Group has made a virtue of maintaining a conservative risk management strategy and focused on expansion into affluent markets close to its Pittsburgh headquarters Almost alone among its rivals, PNC, the 11th-largest US bank by deposits, has enjoyed a good third quarter and is optimistic about its full year results
Santander triumphs as BMPS snaps up Antonveneta
In a coup that delighted its shareholders and wowed analysts, Spains Santander has agreed to sell on Banca Antonveneta for 9 billion ($13.2 billion) to Italys Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) before it has even taken control of it as part of the three-way break-up of former Dutch banking giant ABN AMRO (see RBI 580).
The trillion-dollar hole?
As loan write-offs continue in the US, the outlook remains far from rosy. Banks such as Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual have signalled that 2008 will be much tougher than predicted, leading to a squeeze on margins, while the rapid drop in sentiment towards ETrade has revealed widespread nervousness. While a core group of primarily US and European banks has so far written off around $40 billion in losses from the US subprime mess, the two pressing questions now are: how much further to go and which banks will suffer the most?
Taiwan to relax bank ownership rules
Industry consolidation in Taiwan, Asias fourth-largest retail banking market, continues as the government announced its intention to merge three publicly owned banks The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) in Taipei has proposed allowing foreign and local investors to fully own domestic banks in a measure to spur consolidation in the islands over-banked financial services industry
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Alive and kicking
A new report from VRL KnowledgeBank examines the provision of retail banking services through institutions owned by members, communities or municipalities The global mutual sector has been subject to considerable stress in recent years
Virgin rebrands in US, targets UK’s Rock
Virgin has rebranded its US-based P2P lending subsidiary under the Virgin Money banner and launched a nationwide ad campaign as it steps up its efforts to take business from traditional banks Virgin Money, the financial services arm of UK-based Virgin Group, has lost no time rebranding its recently acquired person-to-person (P2P) lending subsidiary CircleLending with the Virgin moniker
Staying ahead in Slovenia
Nova Ljubljanska Banka dominates its domestic retail banking market with the largest branch network, a diversified distribution strategy and a market share in excess of 30 percent Nova Ljublijanska Bank (NLB) dominates the banking scene in Slovenia, with retail banking market shares in excess of 30 percent in terms of assets, loans and deposits
BPI turns tables on BCP
Portugals Banco Portugus do Investimento (BPI) has proposed a friendly merger with the countrys largest private-sector banking group, Millennium BCP, in a reversal of BCPs 5.32 billion ($7.2 billion) hostile bid for BPI A statement from BCP in response to the proposal said: The executive board considers inadequate and unacceptable the terms of the offer presented as it does not create significant value for shareholders.BCP has, however, said that it is prepared to begin talks with BPI.There has been renewed market discussion regarding a BCP-BPI tie-up (see RBI 580)
Designs on the ATM ad market
Following a successful initial public offering, i-design, the Scotland-based specialist provider of ATM marketing software and media services, has announced that it expects the number of ATMs that feature its ad software to increase by at least 300 percent in the next year In September it signed a five-year deal with Alliance & Leicester (A&L), the UKs eighth-largest bank, to run third-party advertising and internal marketing campaigns across its ATM network. The vendors ATM:ad system, which it first launched in 2004, has been developed to enable banks to reach ATM users with targeted advertising, generate revenue from third-party advertisers and promote banks own products