Letters to the Editor – 20/01 – Bank competition, Heathrow noise, Best of Twitter January 19, 2014 Bank competition [Re: Banking competition is already fierce – but technology will intensify it further, Thursday] Competition is hardly “fierce” in British banking. America has 7,000 banks: we have five, controlling four-fifths of the market. Even supermarket banks use their systems. Splitting them, and the introduction of new technology, will help. But regulation remains a [...]
UK banks risk financial meltdown if the long-term IT crisis remains unresolved January 16, 2014 ON THE busiest online shopping day of 2013, Cyber Monday, RBS faced an embarrassing IT system outage that left more than 1m customers unable to access their accounts for three hours. This wasn’t the first time. In 2012, an IT meltdown at RBS and its subsidiaries locked 17m customers out of their accounts for days, [...]
The Long View: Our digital technologies prove that freedom is more than just a rallying cry January 16, 2014 FREEDOM isn’t just a rallying call, it is a practical way to transform the world for the better. Letting people make their own choices scorns the arrogance of narrow elites, preferring instead the riches found in every individual’s contribution. That seismic shift opens huge, untapped reserves of human potential. And since it starts by recognising [...]
Letters to the Editor – 17/01 – Readers respond to our criticism of France’s failed socialist experiment January 16, 2014 Although I now live in China, I worked in France for 26 years, and have a lot of affection for the country and its people. Like Allister Heath, I feel sad to see the country going down the drain because it cannot rid itself of socialist dogma. The problem is that France is paralysed by [...]
It’s time to embrace the free thinkers who recognise the EU isn’t the future January 15, 2014 GEORGE Orwell would have had the EU’s number. As he memorably noted, “Political language is designed …to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” That is just the strategy the EU’s cheerleaders have been using since the start of the euro crisis. Barely a month passes without some European potentate telling us that Brussels [...]
Banking competition is already fierce – but technology will intensify it further January 15, 2014 FOR ALL the talk of competition in banking, ask yourself: have you ever felt that there is not a product for you on the market? Or that your choices are constrained? I have a current account with the same bank my family has used for years. But when it comes to my savings, I shamelessly [...]
Why Poland’s recovery from communism has lessons for Britain now January 15, 2014 POLAND was the only EU country to avoid a recession during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Polish GDP is now 36 per cent higher than it was in 2005. To put this in context, the comparable figures for the UK and Germany are 5 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. By any standard, the [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/01 – Market share cap, France crumbling, Best of Twitter January 15, 2014 Market share cap [Re: Miliband mulls cap on market share of banks, yesterday] The idea of forcing banks to sell branches in order to promote competition is entirely misguided. If Labour is serious about this, it needs to provide far more detail on its definition of market share – will mortgages, branch size, and the [...]
US tech giants face trouble if Obama fails to shut down internet snooping January 14, 2014 THIS Friday, Barack Obama will decide what he intends to do about the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) covert surveillance activities on the phone and internet records of the American people. He will do so having received a coruscating report from his own review panel, recommending that he shut it down. A bunch of hard-headed [...]
France has ignored consumers and the digital economy is bearing the brunt January 14, 2014 PRESIDENT Francois Hollande would like us to think that France is about to bounce back. At a press conference yesterday, he detailed plans for a “responsibility pact” with business – a deal to reduce the burden of social levies on companies by €30bn (£24bn) by 2017, in return for businesses pledging to increase hiring and [...]