Blogs

Eurozone finance ministers have at last agreed a second bailout for Greece after protracted talks in Brussels ended today. Greece is to receive loans worth more than €130bn but in return it must cut its sovereign debt to 120.5% of its GDP by 2020 and controversially accept an “enhanced and permanent” presence of EU,... read more

A little bit of San Francisco’s Silicon Valley came to London last week for the Finovate Europe show. Addressing an audience of several hundred bankers, venture capitalists and other movers and shakers, including Lloyds Banking Group’s retail mobile banking supremo Ashley Machin, Zvi Naggan, CIO at Bank Hapolim and Sergi Bisquert, director of... read more

By Dean Dickinson, managing director of Advanced Business Solutions The financial services sector is often driven by regulation these days. Organizations in the sector can be forgiven for focusing their resources on ensuring compliance with Financial Services Authority initiatives such as Treat your Customers Fairly (TCF), Know your Customers... read more

By Alan Thomas, a technology & media executive at the specialist insurer Hiscox Travel anywhere on a plane or train these days and you’ll no doubt notice that you are surrounded by people using a smartphone. They are an extremely useful modern tool that is used by many companies and individuals alike to keep in touch and do work while on the... read more

By Wil Cunningham, head of WilPower IT Consulting. An ex-RBS senior IT manager and now a contractor with Lloyds Banking Group and other banks Wil Cunningham, an independent technology consultant who oversaw RBS’s Edinburgh Data Centre Optimisation program and has spent the last two years as a senior contractor working on the integration of... read more

At the Real-Time Technology Roundtable, held at BT’s headquarters in the City of London last week on 19 January, the focus on ‘big data’ this year continued. It is expected to be one of the top technology topics for 2012 in what is predicted to be a tough 12 months for IT spending.Organised by the Financial Information Services Division of... read more

By Haridas Nair, vice-president, mCommerce Solutions and Services, Sybase 365Will holiday shoppers bring mobile purchasing into the mainstream this year? They are ready, according to a recent joint survey done recently by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Sybase 365. (1) Almost two-thirds of US consumers - 62 per cent - say they would be... read more

By Matthew Talbot, Senior Vice President for mCommerce at Sybase 365 Google officially launched Google Wallet, “the app that makes your phone your wallet,” at the end of September (for customers of US telecom operator, Sprint, with a Nexus S 4G phone). Hot on its heels was the announcement from Isis, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon consortium, that... read more

Nikkie Beattie, managing director at the Market Structure Practice and chairman of TradeTech Liquidity, voiced what many delegates must have been thinking for much of 2011 during her opening address: “These are challenging times.” Her statement echoed sentiments expressed at many events in this year’s conference season. It is with good reason... read more