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 [...]

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, [...]

Last Wednesday, Celent hosted its sixth annual Banking Innovation & Insight Day. We had a full house of energetic attendees, and a solid crew of dynamic panelists and presenters. For the first time, Celent combined the Banking and Insurance events with a welcome by Celent CEO, Craig Weber introducing creative disruption and recognizing winners of [...]

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 [...]

First of all, Happy New Year to all readers of our blog! On behalf of Celent’s banking team, I hope you enjoyed your holidays and wish you a healthy and prosperous year. To kick start the year and get everyone’s creative juices flowing again, Celent is challenging all to come up with the best definition of innovation in six words or less. [...]

People say that Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a six word story that would make people cry. He rose to the challenge with the following story: For sale: Baby shoes, never worn. Celent is presenting a similar challenge that is intended to bring tears to your eyes, but whether they are tears of joy [...]

The online Finalist-selection round of the 2012 Innotribe Startup Challenge is now open at http://innotribestartup.com. The Challenge introduces the world’s most promising FinTech and Financial Service startups to a global community of over 9000 financial institutions, investors and influencers actively investing in innovation. Over 400 of startups from around the world applied to participate in [...]

Technology can clearly be an input used to transform traditional industries. Banking has plenty of tradition, and has already experienced plenty of change. What can banks learn from other industries that have successfully gone through a transformation process? Cushing Academy, a Massachusetts boarding school, has successfully transformed its library (read about it here and here). [...]

Last Wednesday, Celent hosted its fifth annual Banking Innovation & Insight Day. We had a full house of energetic attendees, and a solid crew of dynamic panelists and presenters. After a brief welcome address we launched right into the agenda with a panel session on tablet banking. We did things a little differently this year, [...]