All articles by Hugh Fasken
Hugh Fasken
Introducing the best bank in the US
One bank, New Jersey-based Hudson City Bancorp, saw its profits increase by 50 percent
Japan: the best story that never was
With confirmation that Japans economy shrank 3.3 percent in the last quarter of 2008, an annual fall of roughly 13 percent, the country continues to thoroughly disappoint. Japan has always been on verge of becoming a much more high profile banking player in world markets and, consequently, also on the verge of opening up its vast domestic market to foreign competition
New leaders emerge from the change
With the disappearance of Wachovia and Washington Mutual and the break-up of Citigroup, the US retail banking market has become dominated by the Big Three of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase
Looking forward not back
The plan is to rebrand around 1,800 WaMu branches by the end of the year and maintain a focus on branch-based distribution and customer service.Could JPMorgan Chases opportune purchase of the 2,200-branch-strong Washington Mutual (WaMu) franchise for $1.9 billion last September be when all the dust has settled the bank M&A deal of last year
The ethical spotlight grows hotter
A three-year initiative aiming to further corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards among Dutch banks has marked its launch with the release of the Honest Bank Guide a lengthy report assessing the ethical policies of banks in the Netherlands across a range of metrics. The report, the brainchild of four organisations Oxfam Novib, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth and trade union federation FNV analysed the CSR policies of 12 Dutch institutions: Rabobank, ING, ABN AMRO, Fortis, SNS, Robeco, Aegon, ASN Bank, DSB Bank, SNS Regio Bank, Friesland Bank and Triodos Bank
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Still early days in the China story
Two of the banks that have sold investments Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Bank of America (BofA) also happened to be two of the most deeply troubled financial groups currently out there, and both are desperate to raise cash (see Citi falls apart with $19bn annual loss and RBS limps towards full state control, UK launches new bail out).
A bad year
It has been a dreadful year for banking markets around the world, reflected in some truly dire stock market performances Year-to-date, Wells Fargo has been the best performer out of a selected bunch of international bank stocks and the US is far from the worst performing market overall
We are raising our game
Hugh Fasken talks to Dan Waters, director of retail policy and conduct risk at the UKs Financial Services Authority, about the seismic shift in regulation being demanded in the wake of the global financial crisis a crisis that has significantly affected the UK consumer banking industry.
Infosys supplement: Touching customers whenever, wherever, however
Hugh Fasken, editor of Retail Banker International, looks at the marked shift in the way retail banks distribute products and services Self-service channels such as ATMs and the Internet grow ever more fundamental.Distribution of financial products and services by retail banks across the world is continuing to shift away from the branch and onto direct channels such as ATMs and the Internet
Rabobank embraces Web 2.0
Speaking at RBIs Innovations banking conference in Singapore at the start of last month, Edwin Van Raalte, senior manager of business development, international direct banking for Rabobank, gave an emphatic appraisal of his banks use of the new breed of marketing tools There are a select number of major banking groups energetically embracing the new breed of interactive social media and web tools commonly referred to as Web 2.0 and putting clear daylight between themselves and the rest of the industry: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, ING, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, TD Financial, Royal Bank of Canada and Rabobank