All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
Santanders performance signals good things for European banks
A modest two hearty cheers for Santanders full year results.
Sad but inevitable closure of the Airdrie
Let me take you to Bellshill. Yes, Bellshill. For the uninitiated, it is a rather splendid, proud, down to earth (all right-it can be pretty rough) town 10 miles to the east of Glasgow and 37 miles to the west of Edinburgh.
Bank Leumi readies Pepper: Israeli digital-only bank launch
Bank Leumi is gearing up to launch its stand-alone digital-only bank Pepper in the first quarter offering current and savings accounts, lending products and a P2P payments app, all targeted at Israels millennials.
Celebrating the best of the best: nominations open for 2017 RBI Global Awards sponsored by Fiserv
The Retail Banker International Global Awards, now in their 32nd year, celebrate the best in global retail banking, with winners to be announced at the Awards Dinner at The Waldorf Astoria, London on 11 May 2017.
Starlings flying PR coup
Well done to UK digital start-up Starling Bank for capturing some prize PR just prior to the Christmas break with news that it was investigating the possibility of delivering customers debit cards via drones.
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Scandinavia strong, Italian woes and Barclays one to watch for 2017
A mixed year for the sector but at the top of the pile, HSBC and Santander, the largest two European-headquartered banks have both enjoyed share price rises for the year to date of almost 25%.
What a year that was- heres to 2017
Making forecasts for the New Year is fraught with danger: 12 months ago for example one would not have predicted Brexit or the election of President Trump.
Future banking today at Emirates NBD
Emirates NBD has unveiled a stunning Future Lab within Dubais Emirates Towers, highlighting the banks ongoing drive towards digital innovation and multichannel transformation. Is this impressive branch a premonition of the shape of things to come? Douglas Blakey takes a closer look
Direct banks continue to lead in loyalty
Bains annual report on global retail banking customer loyalty is generally one of the most readable of reports of its type. This years report contains some surprising and controversial findings. Douglas Blakey reports
Italy: urgent need for banking consolidation
Well the market has responded fairly calmly to the Italian referendum result: in the end, for once this year in a major poll, the pollsters got one right and the government duly lost.