All articles by RBI editorial
RBI editorial
Shocking collapse in CEE sentiment
How bad can it get in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and what are the implications for Western banks which have a CEE exposure of an estimated 1.6 trillion ($2 trillion) in loans?
Absa smashes 1m m-banking barrier
It has become the first South African bank to sign up one million m-banking customers, following a surge in popularity of the channel in the past year with up to 5,000 clients registering for the service every day
ING Direct: more customers, less profit
Without the 1.89 billion in impairments, pre-tax income was up 37 percent to 766 million, with Canada (up 97 percent to 59 million) and the US (up 340 percent to 343 million) rising the most.
UniCredit plays ball in Europe to raise brand
Italys UniCredit, Europes seventh-largest bank by market cap, has become an official partner of Europes richest football club competition, the Uefa Champions League, across the 2009-2012 seasons
Barclays raises its game in home market
While rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds flirt with possible full nationalisation, Barclays, far from out of trouble itself having announced 5,000 job cuts in 2009, has nonetheless hit the depressed UK market with some innovative ideas and products all underscored by a new brand positioning.
UK’s Co-op Bank enjoys switching boom
Amid the ongoing financial crisis engulfing many of its bigger rivals, the banks current account manager, Darren Prescott, tells Douglas Blakey that his bank is emerging as one of the winners. Few banks have enjoyed a competitive advantage during the current economic crisis, but UK mutual The Co-operative Bank (Co-op) looks set to emerge comparatively stronger in its domestic market, boosted by a refreshed product line-up and growing customer dissatisfaction with a number of the countrys major retail players.
Nedbank and Ecobank join forces
South Africas fourth largest bank, Nedbank, has announced an alliance with Ecobank Transnational, the pan-African banking group based in the west African state of Togo, in the hope of extending the reach of both banks further across the continent.
Mutually inclusive
With retail deposits of £120 billion ($178.9 billion), £200 billion in group assets, 15 million customers and nearly 1,000 branches, Nationwide Building Society is firmly in the top six of UK domestic retail financial services players
Branches central to SBI business plans
State Bank of India (SBI), Indias largest financial services group, is planning to hire 25,000 staff and open 2,000 new branches during 2009 in an effort to recover market share lost to private sector rivals ICICI and HDFC Bank SBIs bold expansion plans, defying the expected economic slowdown in India, will bring its branch network up to around 12,000 branches, having already opened 576 new branches in the past year
Infosys supplement: The year of the mobile
For the majority of banks the primary business case for mobile banking is not channel substitution but channel extension and customer service, though there are clear savings to be made.This year, 2008, has been the year when m-banking cemented itself as a mainstream distribution and service banking channel