I’m attending Finovate Spring in San Francisco (Finovate.com). We’ve seen a number of great demos, and others that haven’t gone so well.  If you think of a classic consultant’s 2×2, with one dimension being strength of the idea and the other the strength of the presenter, probably the most unfortunate quadrant is the one that [...]

I spoke recently during the mobile track at the annual NetFinance conference in Arizona.  My slot at the end of the first day meant that by the time my turn rolled around, I was faced with good news and bad news.  It was good that there was so much agreement among all the participants, and [...]

I’ve had several recent conversations about channels and mobility. The discussions often start from different points, but they all are trying to get at how to characterize and address the differences between online, smartphone and tablet. Like many knotty issues, it’s important to frame the question correctly. I’d like to frame this issue by asking, [...]

Banorte and IBM announced today in a press release a “10-year strategic agreement that will allow the Mexican finance institution to create a new customer-centric banking model.” For years we’ve been discussing best practices in bank transformation; but few have actually been implemented in more than piecemeal fashion.  Three aspects of this US$1 billion alliance [...]

I recently spent several days in New York speaking to a host of clients, both technology providers and banks, many of whom are focused on driving adoption of new technologies.  I was struck by the consistent increased focus on simplicity in the customer experience. Why is this important?  I contend that in human behavior generally, [...]

I recently stayed at a Sheraton in London. On arrival I was intrigued by a card that offered me 500 points for not having my room cleaned.  This was a different approach than the old, and not particularly effective, exhortation to hang my towel if I wanted to save water – in that scenario, there [...]

On January 14 Fiserv announced that it closed the acquisition of the equity of Open Solutions for $55 million.  At this size the deal was not subject to regulatory review.  The result: there are now only four major U.S. based Core Solutions providers: Fiserv, FIS, Jack Henry and Harland. Fiserv touted three key strategic benefits [...]

Sometimes one can be in the mood for a five-course meal and other times just a small snack. In the past Celent has served the only the large meals as food for thought in our in-depth reports. We haven’t given the banking industry the opportunity to graze rather than devour. This is now changing with [...]